Fermentation in the Production of Plant-Based Meat and Dairy Analogues: Potential and Challenges

Fermentation is a promising approach to address the sensory, safety and nutritional challenges associated with plant-based meat and dairy alternatives / analogues. For instance, there are starter cultures available that play a crucial role in the structuring of food matrices and thus contribute to the texture of the end products, while others have a major impact on flavour formation. The utilization of starter cultures and controlled fermentation in food manufacturing has a long tradition. Understanding how this existing knowledge can be transferred to improve the quality characteristics of plant-based meat and dairy analogues is of great importance. However, the altered food matrices present various challenges that need to be mastered.