3 minute read
Industry focus points
Spotlight on plant-meat blends: A mixed success?
With consumer surveys showing that plant-based sales are being driven primarily by flexitarian eaters, product marketers have identified hybrid meat and plant blends as potential successes. These products have the advantage of living up to meat-reducers’ sensory expectations while answering their health and environmental concerns
US meat processor Perdue Farms makes Chicken Plus – chicken nuggets with added cauliflower and plant protein – and markets the product as an easy way to get children to eat vegetables Hormel introduced a blended burger under its Applegate brand while meat giant Tyson launched The Blend, a burger made with Angus beef and pea protein isolate
However, Tyson recently announced plans to discontinue The Blend and remove egg white from the entire Raised & Rooted range to make it vegan, suggesting hybrids may not be as lucrative as thought 51 Product developers should conduct extensive market research on their target consumer before launching meatplant bends
How fermentation will change the plant-based category
There are three types of fermentation processes, all of which are of great interest to plant-based players: traditional, biomass, and precision 52
Traditional fermentation
This involves using live microorganisms to process ingredients, resulting in a final product with a different flavour, texture, and nutritional profile. A classic example of traditional fermentation is using lactic acid bacteria to ferment milk to make cheese and yoghurt
Traditional fermentation can also be used to make plant-based proteins Tempeh is an Indonesian food made by fermenting soy with the Rhizopus fungus UK company Better Nature makes several tempeh varieties including with fermented lupin while Brazilian start-up Mun makes chickpea, black-eyed peas, and red quinoa tempeh Another company harnessing traditional fermentation techniques for meat alternatives is US company Prime Roots, which uses Aspergillus oryzae, also known as Japanese koji
Biomass fermentation
Many fungal, bacterial, and algal species have a high protein content of over 50% by dry weight and can be produced using inexpensive and prolific feedstocks.53 In biomass fermentation, the biomass itself is the ingredient These cells can be kept intact or minimally processed In some cases, breaking down the cells to create a flour may improve digestibility. Examples include Quorn, Atlast Foods, Meati, and Nature’s Fynd, which cultivates high-protein ‘extremophile’ organisms from Yellowstone National Park using a liquid-air fermentation interface 54
Precision fermentation
Precision fermentation uses engineered microorganisms as ‘cell factories’ by inserting DNA that instructs the host to begin producing a specific molecule of interest.
Examples include Perfect Day and Remilk, which produce dairy proteins without cows; Clara Foods that makes egg proteins without chickens; and Geltor, which makes animal-free gelatine Precision fermentation is also being used to make other functional food ingredients that have supply chain or purity issues, such as stevia and natural colours
While biomass and precision fermentation may seem to offer the most disruptive innovations for today’s food industry, traditional fermentation can also be leveraged for interesting product development The US subsidiary of Brazilian meat giant JBS recently launched a plant-based burger under its Planterra Foods brand made from rice and pea protein fermented with shiitake mycelium According to MycoTechnology, which supplies the shiitake mycelium, fermentation reduces the off-taste of pea and rice, improves solubility for better texture, reduces chalkiness, and increases the oil- and water-holding capacity for juicier products 55
Although plant-based has been a hot topic for the food industry for years, plant-based meat and dairy analogues are still unchartered territory for many consumers around the world Using ingredients, formats and manufacturing processes that resonate as being local, traditional, and authentic can build familiarity and reassurance, helping brands reach a broader consumer base 56
German brand Amidori tells consumers that 95% of the peas in its veggie burger are grown by farmers in the east and south of Germany while French ‘fauxmage’ start-up TommPousse ages its cashew-based camembert in the same way as the traditional version and the final product is covered in a white layer of Penicillium camemberti like the original
This strategy is relevant globally In India, there has been a recent uptick in demand for local ingredients such as millet and jaggery in packaged foods Mintel suggests brands could use sattu, a high-protein roasted chickpea flour that comes from East India but is relatively unknown in the rest of the country, to leverage demand for local, plant-based foods 57
