The aim of this paper is to produce spherical encapsulates of wheat gluten in a food-grade biopolymer for preparing sheared meat analogs, to prevent instant fibrilization of the gluten during a pre-mixing step. The hydrogel should release the gluten inside the Couette Cell, as a result of the higher temperature and shear in the process. Both sodium alginate and κ-carrageenan were used as encapsulants. Spherical particles of hydrogel-gluten mixtures were produced by means of a dripping method using an encapsulator. While the particle properties of κ-carrageenan surpassed those of alginate in terms of controlled release of the core, the particle production using the encapsulator was more complicated. With κ-carrageenan, a layer of oil on top of the cross-linking bath fluid, as well as through the outer orifice of a concentric nozzle were required to obtain a good sphericity of the particles. For the alginate particles the use of oil was not necessary. Gluten loadings of 7% w/w were achieved with 1.5% w/w alginate and with 2% w/w κ-carrageenan. The water content of the particles can be easily controlled by a subsequent partial drying step. A mixture of Soy Protein Isolate and particles was sheared in the Couette Cell. Controlled release of the gluten from the alginate particles was not achieved properly by temperature or shear. The controlled release of the gluten was achieved at the processing conditions only with κ-carrageenan. Some fibrilization was observed in the sheared product, but the macrostructure was not yet well developed. However, an optimization of the shearing process for the use of the particles may lead to an improved structure for the meat analogs.

Salts of chiral molecules, which originally crystallize as racemic compounds, could form conglomerates. The utilization of such conglomerate salts, as intermediates for the deracemization of corresponding racemic compounds, expands the theoretical application range of Viedma Ripening by roughly 10-fold. In the present study, the use of temperature cycling on conglomerate forming salts as an alternative technique for Viedma Ripening was studied. The racemic compound Phenylalanine (Phe) was successfully deracemized via its conglomerate-forming salt with 2,5-xylenesulfonic acid (XSA) by continuous heating-cooling cycles applied to its suspension in glacial acetic acid, coupled with a solution racemization reaction. In addition, the dependence of the deracemization rate on the operational parameters was studied. Enhanced racemization reaction kinetics, either by a larger amount of free amino acid or by a higher concentration of catalyst, was shown to accelerate the deracemization process. It seems to indicate that a concentration difference between the two enantiomers, which could be diminished by a faster racemization rate, behaves as one of the major rate-limiting factors for the deracemization process. A larger mass fraction of solid dissolving and recrystallizing in the heating-cooling cycles, achieved by either a larger temperature swing or a smaller dry mass concentration, also leads to a faster deracemization. A change in cooling rate does not affect the deracemization rate significantly within the range tested, indicating a limited presence of secondary nucleation of the minor enantiomers. The results can be used as a preliminary foundation for process optimization as well as mechanisms investigation. The advantages and disadvantages of temperature cycling and Viedma Ripening, as deracemization methods in an industrial setting, are discussed.