Paige Benson

Consumers are shifting their focus to plant-based foods, especially in terms of plant proteins. Such plant-based diets have been correlated with decreased hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.1 ​Additionally, consumers are becoming more aware of the extensive amount of resources needed to produce animal proteins and high levels of greenhouse gases emitted during animal husbandry. Over the past decade, new research and technologies from the food industry have gone towards creating plant-based meat alternatives. Grilling is one of the most common ways of cooking meat, so understanding the mechanism underlying this cooking method is crucial for creating better tasting meat analogues. This project aims to analyze color and flavor creation during the grilling process of meat analogues under controlled conditions. Color formation was measured using a colorimeter, while flavor analysis was done with gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. The scale values of color formation were based on L* (+100-0 = light and -0- -100= dark), a* (+100-0= red and -0- -100=green), and b* (100-0= yellow and -0- -100= blue).The patties that were grilled for a longer time and at a higher temperature had a decreasing value on the L scale, which denotes a darker color created, due to the Maillard reaction. Changes in a and b scales were not specifically correlated. Fraser G.E. Vegetarian diets: What do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases? Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2009;89:1607S–1612S. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736K.