Dr Ben Kew and Dr. Simha Sridharan publishes a new review on mouthfeel of alternative proteins

Dr. Ben Kew (Research and Innovation Fellow, National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC)) and Dr. Simha Sridharan (Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund) publishes a review titled "Mouthfeel assessment of alternative proteins: what we know so far?" in Current Opinion in Food Science. This review explores our current understanding of mouthfeel of alternative proteins using in vitro and sensory testing. Analysing recent data in the literature using a mouthfeel assessment score, this review  identifies a fragmented issue in mouthfeel terminology across alternative protein, where astringency is sparsely recorded, particularly in solid foods. This review identifies that the mouthfeel assessment landscape in alternative proteins is largely dominated by a selected few, commercially-extracted legume protein isolates and concentrates tested at low protein concentrations. Particularly, the mouthfeel of microbe-derived proteins generated using precision fermentation remain principally unexplored. This concise review underscores the need for mouthfeel lexicon for alternative proteins, vitally including astringency. We foresee the prospects of integrating transformative data science approaches predicting mouthfeel and using standardized lexicon to fast-track the development of alternative protein-based products.