Encapsulation of roast beef flavor by soy protein isolate/chitosan complex Pickering emulsions to improve its releasing properties during the processing of plant-based meat analogues.

During the production of plant-based meat analogues (PBMA), a significant loss of flavor characteristic compounds in meat-flavor essences could be observed. Pickering emulsion-based encapsulation is an effective method to improve their stability. Therefore, a soy protein isolate (SPI)/chitosan (CS) complex Pickering emulsion was fabricated to encapsulate roast beef flavor (RBF) and further applied in the processing of PBMA. Our results indicated that the network structure of emulsions was dominated by elasticity, while hydrogen and covalent bonding interactions played important roles in the encapsulation process. The release rate of flavor compounds gradually increased with the increase of pH value, glutamine transaminase, NaCl content, heating temperature or heating time, while encapsulation significantly reduced the loss of characteristic aroma compounds. In addition, the releasing characteristics of aroma compounds and textural properties of PBMA were greatly improved by treating with RBF-loaded emulsions. Consequently, the emulsions were promising to improve the flavor quality of PBMA.