Reduce up to 25% of the fat in your pork or beef meat product

There are plenty of ingredients to replace meat in a beef or pork product, particularly if you’re trying to make it healthier. That said, when you lower fat content for a leaner beef or pork product, it’s common for your meat to become less juicy, denser, and lose a lot of flavor (remember fat equals flavor).

If a leaner beef or pork product is your goal, Sonac’s new product called QExtend, can be a good solution. QExtend comes in both beef and pork: QExtend Beef PF12 or QExtend Pork PF12. Made using a patented process, QExtend is the best fat replacement product to use as it allows you to substitute 20 to 25% of the fat in your beef or pork product, without affecting the quality of the final product.

Why you should substitute fat with a protein fiber

Replacing raw meat ingredients with QExtend allows you to replace up to 25% of the fat content of the final product. Unlike when other fat substitutes are used, you won’t end up with a dry product when QExtend is used. Our tests have shown that QExtend has properties that bring juiciness. It also imparts a smooth mouthfeel in the product that is typically lost when fat is substituted. As a result, the mouthfeel of a pork salami or beef hamburger with QExtend is comparable to that of the same product with no fat removed.

What is a protein fiber?

If you cut into a piece of meat, you will see what’s called “the grain.” Those are muscle fibers. Both QExtend products mimic some functionalities of muscle protein fibers and are digested by the body the way a protein is digested.

We start with natural food grade animal proteins. To make QExtend, we use a patented process that transforms those proteins into a stable, fixed structure that becomes insoluble. The product is then ready to replace beef or pork meat (ground or emulsified) and imparts muscle fiber-like qualities to the end product. It also decreases the fat content of the end product, while maintaining a juicy mouthfeel and overall product quality.

How to use QExtend

QExtend Pork PF12 and QExtend Beef PF12 arrive in the same form (frozen) as raw beef and pork. It has a 1:1 replacement ratio, meaning you incorporate it into your recipe formulation the same way you would with beef or pork fat.

Try QExtend yourself or download our whitepaper

To convince yourself that the quality of your end product will be maintained, try this natural fat replacer in your beef or pork product. Simply fill out a sample request here and a product specialist from Sonac will arrange for a sample to be sent. Or you can test QExtend in our new application center SPARC*.

Learn more about QExtend Beef PF12 and QExtend Pork PF12 here.