Vegetable protein binder, chunk meat-like meat alternative, and method of producing chunk meat-like meat alternative

A vegetable protein binder for chunk meat alternative, comprising:

• a polysaccharide comprising a thermally irreversible gel-forming polysaccharide and a thermally reversible gel-forming polysaccharide that is an elastic solid at 25° C. and solated when heated,
• wherein the content of thermally irreversible gel-forming polysaccharide is from 10% to 90% by mass with respect to an entirety of vegetable protein binder, and
• wherein the content of thermally reversible gel-forming polysaccharide is from 10% to 90% by mass with respect to the entirety of vegetable protein binder;
• a gelation retardant, which is a chelating agent;
• and
• a divalent or higher-valent metal cation as a gelling agent,
• wherein the vegetable protein binder provides a fibrous fiber bundle-shaped textured protein having a livestock meat muscle-like texture in the chunk meat alternative,
• wherein a content of the gelation retardant is from 0.1% by mass to 20% by mass with respect to the entirety of the polysaccharide consisting of the thermally irreversible gel-forming polysaccharide and the thermally reversible gel-forming polysaccharide, and
• wherein;
• the chelating agent is at least one selected from the group consisting of aminocarboxylic acids, condensed phosphoric acids, and salts thereof.