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Meat alternatives are not always primarily intended to have similar nutritional value, sometimes the substitute is designed more to replicate the appearance. But if the texture is often successful, the taste of these plant-based meats can sometimes leave one doubtful, and could be one of the main criteria which slows down the large-scale adoption of these substitutes. 

Another obstacle is that the food industry mainly uses synthetic flavorings in these plant-based products in order to approximate the taste of meat. They certainly have the advantage of sparing all animals, but they also repel certain consumers because they are not “natural”. Could we only reproduce the taste of meat with natural plant ingredients? This is what the authors of a study recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry of the American Chemical Society suggest. 

Scientists have investigated how to develop meat flavors through the action of mushrooms in contact with various vegetables. Ultimately, it was the onion and other members of the Allium genus that showed the best results! The mushroom produced, after around 18 hours of fermentation, compounds with intense aromas similar to liver pâté, according to the researchers. 

The aromatic compounds obtained after this fermentation are particularly important in giving a meaty flavor to foods. The study authors believe that it is the high concentration of sulfur typical of vegetables from the onion family that explains their ability to produce these meat-like compounds. 

Futura-Sciences