Meat products are very complex due to their variety of textures and flavours. Imitating it is a challenge. In ACS Food Science & Technology, researchers from China have published the first major step towards imitating pork fat using pomelo peel. 

Perfectly imitating a meat product remains a considerable challenge. This is because animal products are very complex. The structure and flavour of such a product change during preparation. Researchers from China have now examined pork fat and how to recreate it using pomelo peel. To achieve this, they used a combination of pomelo peel and pea protein. The first author, Qiaomei Zhu, explains via email: ‘We chose pomelo peel because of the large amount of waste that is associated with it.’