Dawn Foods: Baking opportunities with plant-based ingredients

The plant-based life

The plant-based trend is growing from a flavor-of-the-moment favorite into a sustainable, long-term trend, with a market growth of over 50% for the past five years and no signs of stopping even when faced with disruptions including COVID-19. Opportunities in baking are ripe for the picking, as long as technical formulation challenges are weeded out.

+The plant-baked market is flourishing, and it’s not just people who opt for meat-free diets who are driving it: 90% of plant-based consumers are not vegetarian or vegan, NPD highlights in its report, “The Future of Plant-Based Snapshot.” Vegetarians, vegans, and flexitarians together are welcoming foodstuffs free of animal-origin ingredients – for reasons not just health-related, but also factoring in their care for the climate and sustainability concerns, aside from general wellbeing. Research shows that 15% of millennials are already meat-free1 and the industry is changing its menu to provide: new product launches with a plant-based claim increased by a CAGR of 57% globally between 2015-20192 . Europe alone accounts for 43.1% of the global launches in this category3 .

This trend only accelerated as the pandemic took hold, with a report by Nielsen showing that alternative meat sales increased 454% in the third week of March 2020 compared to the same week in 2019. The plant-based food market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% from 2020 to 2027 to reach USD74.2 billion by 20274 .

What does this mean for the bakery industry? An interesting launch is Mmmly, for example, a plant-based reimagined cookie that was relaunched by its manufacturer in March this year. The company introduced these cookies as featuring clean and innovative ingredients such as root vegetables, prebiotic fiber, fruits, and healthy fats that fuel the brain, support gut health, and overall well-being.

Plant-based baking

For the ingredient list, it means replacing all animal-based ingredients, from meat, dairy, to egg, honey, to gelatin, or butter. These reformulations from animal-based ingredients to plant-based alternatives are not without challenges, as ingredients with different process requirements join the mix instead. Additionally, “Achieving the same taste as traditional baked goods presents an exciting challenge for bakers and there are several substitutions available to help them overcome these challenges,” explains Sarah Hite, food scientist at Dawn Foods North America.

1 UK Diet Trends 2020, Finder (quoted by ‘Planting Possibilities: Insights’, a report by Ingredion) 2 Innova Database, 2019 3 Ingredion 2019 Global Consumer Insights Program: Atlas, 2019 4 Plant Based Food Market by Product Type (Dairy Alternatives,

Meat Substitute, Plant-Based Eggs, Confectionery), Source (Soy Protein,

Wheat Protein), and Distribution Channel (Business to Business and Business to Customers) – Global Forecast to 2027, by Meticulous Research

In bakery, animal-origin ingredients make a long to-do list when searching viable (functional and without compromising taste and texture) plant-based counterparts, including the ‘obvious’ ones such as dairy, eggs, honey, or gelatin. There are also less obvious entries: in this category, Richard Mundy, R&D manager at Dawn Foods Europe lists Carmine (Cochineal) and Shellac – which is typically used to give baked goods a ‘shiny’ look, for example. Various plant-based ingredients and combinations will help mimic the functionalities of the animal-based materials. Here are some examples shared by Dawn’s specialists, for the materials most commonly swapped out: + Dairy is one of the most difficult ingredients to substitute because non-dairy milk – such as soy and coconut – often brings unwanted flavors into the products. Dairy helps to provide flavor, texture, and hydration to baked goods. Starches and natural flavors can help substitute for a creamy texture. Flavorings, starches, and hydrocolloids all help replace milk as a protein source in baked goods. + Eggs are the ultimate emulsifier, so to remove these, bakers would need to rely on other emulsifiers and starches to achieve a similar result. The functionality can be built back through several plant-based ingredients, such as flax meal mixed with water. + Honey serves as a natural sweetener in baked goods and is particularly important in products that contain no artificial ingredients, for clean label claims. It’s not suitable for vegans, however, so maple syrup would be a good alternative. + Gelatin helps to set baked goods, especially those that contain jam or jelly. A popular plant-based substitution is AgarAgar, which is derived from seaweed and is often used in vegan jams. Pectin would © Mmmly be another alternative, but bakers need to ensure the correct dosage is used.

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What to bake and how to bake it?

For sweet bakery items, consumers most often request plantbased substitutes for muffins, cookies, donuts and brownies, Mundy observes. “For muffins, eggs provide emulsification, strength and structure, so bakers need to add wheat gluten to boost the strength of the batter. For cookies, egg and dairy are less important functionally, but they still need alternative ingredients to improve mouthfeel and richness,” he points out.

When switching to plant-based ingredients, taste is often the last on the product developer’s agenda, as they need to first match the functionality. Some plant-based replacements can deliver an off-taste or bitter note in the finished bakery product, but this can easily be masked with flavors that are now readily available.

Flavor is also particularly impacted in baked goods that are formulated with high levels of soy or pea-based ingredients. “To preserve taste, bakers can include additional flavors – such as chocolate to mask for the higher levels of plant-based protein,” Hite adds.

Baking vegan

Vegans are a relatively small (yet visible on the shelf) segment in the plant-based world. Launches with vegan claims rose by 22% and vegetarian by 8% between 2015 and 20195. Vegan baked goods will not automatically taste, appear and feel identical to conventional baked goods. “When baking vegan, it helps to keep the baked goods in the oven for a few extra minutes to reduce the risk of them collapsing when cooling,” Hite recommends. They also come with their own set of considerations for perfecting recipes. “Removing eggs and dairy is less challenging for cookies than it is for other products,” explains Hite. Moreover, adding vegan butter as well as dark chocolate will significantly improve the finished cookie flavor, as milk and white chocolate cannot be used. Another difficulty she highlights is avoiding any crosscontamination. Cleaning the line to manufacture plant-based goods is very time-consuming and costly, so investing in a dedicated vegan line or ideally, a dedicated factory unit, will deliver big cost savings against a baker’s competitors, Mundy observes.

Dawn’s vegan portfolio includes a variety of products that work well for all bakers – including donut mixes, crème cake mixes, brownie mixes, cookie mixes and fillings, icings and glazes. Some of Dawn’s fillings have always been suitable for a vegan diet, such as fruit fillings. Each of these products is available on both an artisanal and industrial level. Several of the ingredients in Dawn Europe’s portfolio were already vegan before the diet became popular, including fruit fillings, glazes, frostings, icings, fondants and compounds. “At the same time, we developed and launched a range of vegan-certified bakery mixes, such as cakes,” adds Mundy.

Claiming the label & going with it

To achieve plant-based label claims, extensive testing and monitoring are required. “For example, at Dawn, we underwent several tests to give us and our customers the confidence that our vegan portfolio is completely free of animal-based products – especially eggs and dairy. We take great care in processing to avoid any cross-contamination between vegan and non-vegan manufacturing lines,” Mundy details. Before formulating each product, Dawn certifies with its suppliers as well that the ingredients they use are also vegan.

Additionally, there is now a greater emphasis and desire to know where food comes from and reduce its environmental impact. Hite anticipates growing environmental concern will cause the plant-based trend to continue gaining momentum in the bakery space in 2021 and beyond.

Despite product shortages and temporary trade restrictions that altered the entire supply chain in 2020, Dawn continues to see growing interest in plant-based ingredients and formulations. “We can also expect the formulations to improve in flavor and functionality as suppliers continue to develop, improve and expand on plant-based offerings,” says Hite.

She highlights that there have already been significant strides in creating plant-based baked goods, such as Dawn’s new line of vegan donuts that have a very similar flavor profile as standard donuts – formulated by Dawn North America in 2020. And there will be even more opportunities to better improve ingredient formulation without sacrificing taste in the years to come; R&D is on the way. +++