Effects of food components and processing parameters on plant-based meat texture formation and evaluation methods

Meat is the main source of protein nutrition for humans. However, given the increasing population and environmental pressure, a shortage of meat is expected in the future. The preparation of plant-based (meat) products using existing processing methods represents a breakthrough to solve the shortage of traditional animal meat in the future, and texture is a key issue determining whether plant-based (meat) products can replace traditional animal meat. Therefore, this review highlights recent progress in the texture of plant-based (meat) products. First, the texture changes in plant-based (meat) products were reviewed based on components (proteins, starch, lipids, food additives) and processing methods (processing factors, instrumental factors). Then, the current methods used to analyze the texture of plant-based (meat) products were summarized based on sensory evaluation and instrumental analysis (mechanical analysis, spectral analysis, and image analysis). Finally, this review outlined methods to improve the texture quality of plant-based (meat) products and analytical evaluation methods and provided an outlook on future research priorities.