Most plant-based meat can make quite a convincing burger. But a convincing steak is much harder. Real beef and pork are built from thick, ropey muscle fibers that tear and chew in a very particular way. Most high-moisture plant proteins set into something closer to chicken: soft and uniform. Getting a plant to behave like a cut of pork is less a flavor question than a physics one, and that gap is exactly what this filing goes after.
Past the chicken-texture ceiling
NH Foods has developed a production method for high-moisture plant-based meat that carries the fibrous character of beef or pork while delivering a comparable amount of protein per serving (WO2026095030A1). The published application begins from a familiar base, a kneaded mix of vegetable protein and water, and reworks how that mix is shaped on its way out of the machine.
The core is a two-part exit. After a pressurized heating step, the dough passes through a breaker plate and into a tapered cooling die, a channel that narrows from inlet to outlet. That taper does the real work. As the material is squeezed and cooled through the narrowing, its proteins align into long, directional fibers, the kind that pull apart cleanly rather than crumbling. The application stays practical about the settings, with moisture between 40 and 75 percent, pressure up to 10 MPa before the plate, and room to add a fat-mimicking component for marbling.
A meat company hedging its bets
The small irony that’s worth noting is that NH Foods, known in Japan as Nippon Ham, is the country's largest meat producer, so a plant-protein filing might read as a surprise. It fits a longer arc. The company already sells soy-based products under its NatuMeat line and has framed its Vision2030 around getting more out of protein in every form, plant and animal alike. Tackling the harder textures, the steaks and pork cuts rather than the easy nuggets, is a sensible way for a meat company to widen its own definition of meat.
Congratulations and a warm thank you to the inventors: Junya Iida, Yasutaro Kato, Katsunori Miyamoto, Toshihiro Ishiguro, and Akio Wakita, for finding a more elegant path to a texture that has long stumped the field.
About the Author
I’m Kandice Vincent, a writer and editor covering cellular agriculture, food tech, and the future of how we produce and consume food. I work closely with founders, researchers, and mission-driven companies to turn complex science into something people can actually understand. I care deeply about where food is headed, how we get there, and who’s shaping that future. Based in Mexico, I’m usually writing with my rescue dog Taco nearby, who remains unimpressed by patents but highly invested in mealtimes.
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This article is based on publicly available information. Lab Grown Technologies is not affiliated with the inventors or organizations mentioned.
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