Decellularized plant scaffolds in food engineering: a comprehensive review of techniques, characterization, and potential in alternative meat applications

Plant decellularized scaffolds are plant-derived biomaterials whose application in food engineering has emerged, these scaffolds provide sustainable and edible platforms for cell growth in alternative meat applications. This approach is similar in principle to how they are used in tissue engineering. Decellularization aims to eliminate intracellular material while leaving structural components, yielding biocompatible structures, or scaffolds, that facilitate the attachment of non-plant cellular material and subsequent growth, and differentiation. Properties of these scaffolds such as surface morphology, pore size, and mechanical stiffness have been determined using various characterization techniques. This approach ensures that these scaffolds fulfil the essential requirements in terms of supporting cellular proliferation and functional tissue-like structure formation. The application of decellularized plant scaffolds in food production is not only in agreement with sustainability objectives, but it also responds to issues about animal-derived materials. This comprehensive review discusses the preparation methods, characterization techniques, and prospective application of plant-derived decellularized scaffolds in the development of alternative meat products.