23 Apr
Decoding plant-based complexity: TD-NMR supports next phase of food reformulation
As plant-based formulations become more complex, food R&D teams are turning to advanced analytical tools to better understand the structural behaviour shaping texture, stability and consumer acceptance.
The growing complexity of plant-based food formulation is driving increased use of advanced analytical techniques in food research, as manufacturers seek to better understand how alternative ingredients behave during processing. At the centre of this challenge is the need to characterise how water, fats and proteins interact within increasingly complex matrices. This is prompting renewed interest in time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) technology, long used in food science but now finding new relevance in plant-based applications.
“TD-NMR has been used in food research probably for the last 50 years,” explains Dr Kevin Nott, Senior Product Manager - TD-NMR at Oxford Instruments. “A lot of the initial work was related to more traditional foods or ingredients.”
Today, however, developers are working across a broader range of plant proteins, alternative fats and functional ingredients, significantly expanding the formulation landscape.
“If we go back more than a decade, when people started talking about trans fats, that was when people became more concerned about their food,” Nott says. “That in turn means that food companies need to reformulate their foods… and they start to look around for different methods to study their reformulations based on healthier or plant-based ingredients.”
One of the most critical factors in these systems is water behaviour. Water mobility, which describes how water is retained, released or redistributed during processing, plays a defining role in texture and cooking performance.
“Water mobility relates to the whole process really – how water is either lost or retained during cooking,” Nott explains. “The water holding capacity affects the juiciness, the texture and the processing behaviour, and ultimately the consumer acceptance.”
Using TD-NMR relaxometry, researchers can differentiate between water and fat populations within a product and observe how these change during processing. This is particularly valuable in plant-based meat analogues, where cooking triggers structural transformations including protein denaturation, fat melting and moisture redistribution.
“Plant-based meat analogues are quite a complex material and obviously undergo a lot of changes during cooking,” Nott notes. “TD-NMR measures the effects of protein denaturation, fats melting, phase separation, moisture-loss and -redistribution as the temperature rises.”
Systems such as the MQC-R TD-NMR research instrument are being used to analyse these effects in real time, enabling researchers to link formulation decisions directly to cooking behaviour and final product texture.
Beyond meat analogues, the technique is also being applied to emulsions and alternative fat systems, where droplet size distribution and phase behaviour influence both mouthfeel and stability. Unlike traditional methods, TD-NMR enables these properties to be measured within intact samples, reducing the need for extensive preparation.
As formulation challenges grow, speed and efficiency are becoming increasingly important for R&D teams.
“Time-domain NMR can speed up the process by giving R&D teams unique and direct measurements of water content distribution across different environments,” Nott adds. “It’s also possible to study processes such as heating or hydration non-invasively and non-destructively, which makes the acquisition of data more efficient.”
As plant-based innovation enters a more technically demanding phase, analytical tools capable of revealing structural behaviour at a molecular level are likely to play an increasingly important role in product development.