Chemical engineers at UNSW Sydney have created a plant-based cheese that melts, stretches and browns under the grill like the real thing, paving the way for more realistic dairy and meat alternatives that blend plant proteins with complex carbohydrates.
"Colours and flavours are the easy part," says Professor Cordelia Selomulya, who has been working on plant-based food textures at UNSW since 2019. "But replicating the structure — that pull of melted cheese, or the juicy mouthfeel of meat — is the real challenge."
While plant-based alternatives have been on the market for many years, some of today's products still fall short as they behave strangely under heat, fail to effectively deliver the nutrition promised on the label – including sufficient protein – and simply lack the sensory properties of dairy-based products.
Prof. Selomulya and her team at the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering are actively working to change that, by working on layering plant-based proteins with naturally occurring polysaccharides – complex sugars and dietary fibres – to mimic the 'feel' of animal products.
This also helps ensure the foods hold up under cooking and the freeze-thaw cycles of long-term storage, while also releasing nutrients during digestion.
Stretchy and melty
The team's most recent breakthrough is a plant-based cheese that pairs pea protein with polysaccharides for a more 'life-like' texture.
"By focusing on polysaccharide blends, we're now able to achieve the kind of elasticity and structure you'd normally associate with dairy cheese," says Dr Yong Wang, a lead investigator on the project.
"We've also made progress in preserving key nutrients, which is something most commercial products don't do well."
The blend of proteins and polysaccharides interacts to create stable, flexible networks so the food product holds its shape during freezing or heating.
This process also allows the team to 'microencapsulate' fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamin D and stabilise water-soluble nutrients like calcium and vitamins to survive the heating that comes with cooking.
"The next step is to find commercial partners," Prof. Selomulya says.
"We now have a process that is easily scalable, we don't need special equipment, and we have a provisional patent that we can license."
A merging of cultures
Australia's plant-based market is expected to hit $13 billion by 2030. This is despite most current products relying on soy or gluten for plant proteins – which are common allergens.
The UNSW team is developing alternatives using crops that are widely grown here, but underused.
Their work can also help people with specific needs, including older consumers, who may have trouble digesting certain plant proteins in more traditional plant-based products.
"We want to create products that are delicious and nutritious but that are also accessible and safe for even more people," says Dr Wang. "That means exploring protein sources beyond soy or wheat."
With much of the team drawing on insights from their own cultures and food traditions, they bring together centuries of knowledge about using plant proteins creatively.
"We're inspired by global food systems," Prof. Selomulya says. "There's a huge diversity of plant proteins out there and we're just beginning to explore their potential."
Food for tomorrow
Getting textures just right is a core part of the team's process.
"It's easier to make something that 'looks' like the real thing," says research assistant and PhD candidate Canice Yiu, who has helped develop the cheese prototypes. "But getting the chew, the richness, the structure — that's where it gets difficult.
"The real challenge is combining all of these elements into a product that consistently mirrors the full cheese experience."
Cheese is only the beginning of blending diverse plant proteins, each with distinct nutritional profiles, into a structure that mimics their real-life counterparts.
The team's controlled gelation process – which helps to form stable, elastic networks that resemble those found in dairy products – is leading to similar advancements in other plant-based foods.
The same techniques can help replicate the texture of animal fat and muscle – two of the main challenges of meat alternatives.
"This is a particularly exciting avenue for us," says Prof. Selomulya.
"We are inspired by the principles of tissue engineering to create more complex structures that replicate the texture of meat and their intramuscular fat – like in marbled steak," she says.
Tissue engineering is the science used in medical research to grow structures that imitate real tissue.
"Instead of growing cells we use controlled gelling to mimic the tissue-like structure and mechanical response of that animal, with protein particles and oil droplets as cells, and polysaccharide as the gel network."
Prof. Selomulya is applying this concept to create complex, layered textures.
A sustainable mouthful
While Prof. Selomulya says she's not aiming to replace dairy or meat entirely, the aim of her projects is to use plant-based innovations to reduce pressure on the environment, while expanding food choices.
"We're not here to replace meat and dairy," Prof. Selomulya says.
"There's room for both.
"Our technology just allows us to create valuable, sustainable food products using crops that are already abundant in Australia."
As the team continues to innovate, they're laying the groundwork for a future where plant-based foods are not just an alternative but a mainstay of the global food industry.
"We could help reduce waste, provide
Key Facts:
UNSW researchers are using plant proteins and food engineering to recreate the texture, melt and nutrition of traditional cheeses — without the cow.
Short video explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEAmSZZp9cs
