改善素肉口感！ 台灣科學家找到秘訣　Taiwanese scientists discover the secrets to improving the taste of vegetarian meat

Vegetarian diets are becoming increasingly popular. McDonald’s is also getting ready to step into the plant-based meat world. However, vegetarian meat just doesn’t taste as good as real meat, and this is a major flaw for it to fully replace real meat.

Why is this? Two Taiwanese scientists have discovered that “fat” is the essence of taste, and the secret sauce of alternative fat is “water.”

Due to its low melting point, plant-based oil tends to melt in a greasy piece of vegan meat that smells like plants. They use the encapsulation technique to produce “alternative fat” so that the liquid vegan oils can withstand the heat of up to 165 degrees Celsius, ultimately allowing the plant-based meat to taste like real meat.

友善讓你懂｜解說：

　
吃素愈來愈流行，就連麥當勞也準備跨入「素肉」領域。然而，素肉的味道就是比不上真肉，也成為它難以取代真肉的一個缺陷。

這究竟是為什麼？兩位台灣科學家發現，「脂肪」是味道的本質，而能替代脂肪的秘密則是「水」。

由於植物油熔點低，往往會直接融化在一塊聞起來味道就像植物的素肉裡。因此，他們採用封裝技術來生產替代脂肪，這樣就能讓液態植物油足以承受高達攝氏165度的高溫，並讓素肉味道與真肉一樣。

輕鬆帶著走｜學習：

　
flaw指的是「缺陷」，相較於類似意思的mistake（錯誤）或weakness（弱點），該詞彙的負面意涵更強烈。

　
例句：
​​There is a major flaw in your hypothesis. 你的假說有重大缺陷。

本篇其他相關單字，介紹如下：

• vegetarian (n.) 素食主義者
• plant-based meat (n.) 植物肉，也就是台灣人常說的素肉
• fat (n.) 脂肪
• essence (n.) 本質
• secret sauce​​ (n.) 原本指產品的祕方或秘密成分，這裡指「秘訣」
• melting point (n.) 熔點
• greasy (adj.) 含脂肪的
• encapsulation (n.) 封裝