Spatially Confined Protein Condensates Enable Sustainable Food Manufacturing

Abstract

Escalating climate pressures paired with rapid global population expansion threaten long-term animal protein security. The global plant-based protein market, presently valued at US$20–22.5 billion, is forecast to expand to US$38–43 billion by the early 2030s, signaling a robust translational demand for scalable, sustainable manufacturing of alternative proteins. However, most alternative proteins are featured by intrinsic colloidal instability, limiting their deployment in tailor-made viscoelastic food materials. This work establishes spatially confined liquid–liquid phase separation (SCLLPS) as a versatile approach towards viscoelastic protein manufacturing. Kinetically, driven by synergistic surface patch interactions and volume exclusion effects, proteins at a high loading (15.0 wt %) undergo selective phase partitioning and become spatially entrapped within anionic domains of polysaccharide matrices. Thermodynamically, the release of cavity-wrap water and retention of bound water jointly provide the energetic driving force forming protein-enriched liquid condensates with long-term colloidal stability. Mechanically, such spatially ordered condensates afford exceptional control over bulk viscoelasticity to tailor fluid mechanics, addressing a long-standing challenge to date. The broad generality of SCLLPS is verified across diverse plant and fungal proteins coupled with distinct anionic polysaccharides, delivering a universal condensate-tuning platform for low-impact food manufacturing with drastically reduced carbon, water, and land footprints.