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Plant-based alternatives: New approaches to price parity
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Tuesday, 24 December, 2024, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Hamburg, Germany
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More and more consumers expect plant-based alternatives to deliver high-quality eating enjoyment at fair prices. This expectation is clear from multiple market research studies. The Planteneers company of Ahrensburg, Germany shows how manufacturers can meet the demand, using plant-based sausage and cold cuts as examples.
The company developed its fiildMeat S 111404 system to make affordable plant-based foods accessible to as many people as possible, without compromising on quality, texture, or flavour. The system enables the manufacture of cold cut alternatives like lyoner, fleischwurst, and salami and is based on functional plant proteins combined with hydrocolloids. To provide a cost-optimised solution, the company first identified the price drivers. Rebecca Bohlmann, product manager, said, “We could most readily leave out the modified starch. Of course that meant we needed to substitute for the starch functionality. In plant-based sausage and cold cuts, starch prevents syneresis. We achieve the same effect through a clever combination of the other hydrocolloids.”
The good slice ability of the final cold cut products was also an important consideration in the choice and optimum dosing of the hydrocolloids, since the products need to slice cleanly and evenly on big high-speed slicers.
Alongside the right choice of hydrocolloids, the proteins are important. This system uses soy and pea proteins from Europe. Soy protein features good functionality, an attractive amino acid profile, and neutral taste. European provenance also means short transportation routes for the raw material, and as a concentrate soy protein is less heavily processed than an isolate. Pea protein has proven a good adjunct, as it gives the final product the necessary firmness and stability.
However, the use of soy protein concentrate also brings with it special challenges, it is somewhat darker colour compared to the isolate can be compensated with colouring foods. Bohlmann said, “Since these are typically not very heat-stable, the dosage form and amount need to be very precisely adapted to the end product in order to give plant-based cold cuts a fresh, natural colour.”
The processing technology is of central importance for an appealing texture. “It’s all about the right shear in the cutter and the ideal processing temperature. Our technologists and applications researchers at the Stern Technology Centre simulate and test the production process on pilot plants. This let us develop a cost-optimised recipe for plant-based cold cuts that also meets consumer expectations in terms of flavour, colour, and texture,” said Bohlmann.
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