A professor at the University of Guelph is using a high-tech Saskatoon to make vegan meats taste like the real thing, CJWW radio reports.Dr. Alejandro Marangoni, a vegan, says plant-based meats typically use coconut oil for grease, because it is solid at room temperature. However, when heated, it tends to seep out of the vegan “meat” and collect in the bottom of the pan, making the product dry.Using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, Maragoni developed a solid plant-based fat by rearranging the molecules in liquid oils to turn them into solids.The facility is akin to a miniature version of CERN’s particle accelerator. A synchrotron light source produces extremely bright light by using powerful magnets and radio frequency waves to accelerate electrons to nearly the speed of light.The resulting infra-red, ultraviolet and X-ray light is shone down beamlines to experimental stations where scientists can select different parts of the spectrum to "see" the microscopic nature of matter down to the atomic level.Maragoni’s new process makes the fake meat more flavourful, textured, and juicy and eliminates the need to use coconut oil, as now any oil can be turned into a solid.“You can use maybe Canadian grown canola oil, or your locally grown oil, and now you’ve improved the nutrition. Less saturated fat, and you can use locally grown crops instead of something that comes from southeast Asia,” said Marangoni.Marangoni has partnered with a plant-based meat company to open a facility in British Columbia next year. His technology will help make a special burger product .The next project for the Canada Research chair of food, health and aging is to make a plant-based structure that mimics adipose tissue. This tissue found in meats allows fats to stay inside the meat while it is being cooked.“What we’re trying to do is create a structure that is similar to adipose tissue which would serve many purposes–give it some texture, the chew that the fat gives you, the gristle," Marangoni explained.If all goes well, vegetable tissues would be filled with the solidified oils and become trapped there just like in real meat. In this way, vegan meat would remain moist even after it’s cooked.The developments left Western Standard reader Gerald Heinrichs to wryly comment, “Maybe with more technology vegan stuff won’t taste awful.”Maragoni isn’t the only Guelph researcher making a mark. Food program alumni Cole Pearsall made the recent Forbes 30 Under 30 list for grossing $20 million in sales of fermented drinks in their Acid League line alongside fellow Guelph alumni Allan Mai.For the past nine years, U of G has claimed second spot among Canadian comprehensive universities in the Research Infosource ranking of Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities. The university ranked 18th overall in 2023 based on such measures as total sponsored research income and research impact. Guelph placed first in both graduate student research intensity and faculty research intensity in the comprehensive university category – averaging $52,100 per graduate student, and $194,200 per faculty member. A total sponsored research income of $163.5 million helped Guelph place second among comprehensive schools for all funds supporting research, including grants, contributions and contracts. Guelph also earned second spot in the amount of research income it attracts from the private sector, attracting more than $113.5 million from industry partners. Not-for-profit research income also grew by 460% between 2018 and 2022.
