A Clustering Approach To Unravel The Mysteries Of The Food Product “Burger”. Comparison And Classification Of Belgian Market Products Following Three Cooking Methods

Meat analogues are designed to reproduce the sensory and nutritional attributes of meat. Among these products, those labelled as “burgers” constitute a strategic category as they are widely represented on supermarket shelves in Western Europe. However, it remains unclear whether items marketed under this designation share consistent characteristics or effectively emulate meat like properties. In this study, eighty-seven burger products from Belgian supermarkets were catalogued and classified into five groups using multivariate analysis based on their nutritional declaration. Twenty-one products were then randomly selected, cooked using three cooking methods (pan-cooking, oven-baking and sous-vide thermostatic-batch cooking) and subjected to comprehensive physicochemical analyses.
The findings reveal that burgers exhibit consistent physical characteristics, primarily a round or oval shape, a diameter of approximately 9 cm, and a thickness close to 1.8 cm, indicating that their common identity is defined by format and culinary function, rather than by nutritional or textural uniformity. In contrast, lean beef burger remains distinct in both appearance and nutrient composition. Among plant-based products, two categories emerged: (i) burgers with high carbohydrate and low protein contents exhibiting textural properties markedly different from meat products and (ii) formulations, often incorporating extruded proteins, that more closely approximate meat burgers in both texture and nutritional profile. Only products in this second group, representing 50% of the plant-based burgers sampled, fulfil the criteria to be considered true meat analogues. Across cooking methods, neither texture nor cooking properties were substantially altered, suggesting that cooking techniques does not significantly modify the intrinsic properties of these products.