Fi Europe 2024: Beneo helps faster, more cost-effective plant-based production
Asian style plant-based chicken skewers.
Beneo used Fi Europe 2024 to demonstrate how producers can streamline their hybrid and fully plant-based development processes to accelerate market launches.
Using texturates from Meatless and faba bean protein concentrate, Beneo created a selection of product samples that showcase the company’s solutions. These included technical samples highlighting ingredient and recipe development, primary processing components, as well as semi-finished and final products.
In an evolving market where almost 3 out of 5 consumers across the globe are interested in plant-based nutrition and around one in three identify as flexitarian, Beneo believes hybrid and plant-based recipe development is more relevant than ever. According to the company, taste, texture, cleaner labels and price remain primary factors influencing consumer adoption of plant-based diets – source: Global Plant-Based & Meat Hybrids Survey 2023 – Dynata conducted an online quantitative survey in January 2023 in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Poland, USA, Brazil and Thailand (total sample = 6167).
Samples at the exhibition
Ingredients and recipe development
- Plant-based feta cheese balls – these snacks deliver an improved Nutri-Score in comparison to current plant-based feta. The combination of high quality ingredients, including Beneo’s protein concentrate, starch-rich flour from faba bean, rice starch, rice flour and Orafti Inulin chicory root fibre, results in a product with creamy texture, high fibre and pleasant taste, offering greater application versatility.
- Plant-based chocolate – using Beneo’s faba bean ingredient, this plant-based chocolate offers a more sustainable alternative to dairy chocolate that can be easily applied to existing production processes.
Primary processing for easy production
- Egg-free meringue – this egg-free meringue has been developed using Beneo’s faba bean protein concentrate to deliver a stable foam and well aerated texture after baking.
- Plant-based white fish fillet – formed with Meatless textured flakes including rice and mycoproteins, this fillet has a tender texture that creates excellent bite and mouthfeel. The combination of ingredients also provides an appealing white-fish colour.
Semi-finished products
- Asian style plant-based chicken skewers – this semi-finished vegan product has an authentic fibrous and juicy chicken-like structure and bite. Containing Meatless chicken chunks with myco- and pea protein combined with flavouring, it can be easily used in a wide range of applications with only minor adaptation needed.
Final consumer products
Ready meals – in collaboration with industry partners, the creation of hybrid consumer products within the convenience category is also possible (eg pies, rolls and tacos). These ready meals benefit from an improved Nutri-Score thanks to Meatless Textured Flakes that can be used to partially or fully replace meat in the toppings and fillings. The flakes include, amongst other ingredients, rice and faba bean to offer a good mouthfeel, texture and juiciness profile, and help deliver an authentic taste while reducing fat and salt.
Niels E. Hower, member of the executive board at Beneo noted how its plant-based protein strategy aims to cover more parts of the value chain.
“Next to our ingredients, this includes offerings for hybrid and vegetarian applications such as ingredient texturates that are ready to be processed, as well as semi-finished products,” Hower said of the launches’ potential. “As a result, we speed up the development process for our customers and increase their control of cost and quality at the same time. It is an exciting time in plant-based and hybrid product development, and we want to show producers that it is possible to combine taste, texture and cost-efficiency in a wide range of solutions.”
