SIAL 2024 live: Scelta leverages mushrooms to boost Nutri-Score in plant-based and hybrid products

Netherlands-based Scelta Mushrooms is harnessing the power of white button mushrooms in a new ingredient to lower fat while improving juiciness and taste in plant and animal-based products. The ingredient branded Fungible can reduce formulations’ saturated fat content by 40%, improving its Nutri-Score grade by one letter. The fiber-rich ingredient contains 85% less fat than other vegetable fats, helping reduce calories too.

Food Ingredients First speaks to Erik Bongers, trade and channel marketing manager, live from the show floor of SIAL in Paris — taking place October 19–23 — where the ingredient was officially launched and won the Innovation Award for Intermediate Food Products. 

“We are very proud to have won the category with Fungible. Seeing how many people are engaged with this topic has been amazing. They are asking: ‘Wow, is it really possible?’ Companies developing products with texturized vegetable proteins (TVP) will now be able to add more juiciness and flavor to their products with a clean label, kitchen cupboard ingredient.”

Scelta is also exploring Fungible for use in blended foods, combining meat with plant-based ingredients to improve these products’ health and sustainability credentials.

The award-winning ingredient comes to the market as consumers, governments and environmental advocates push for healthier and more sustainable food options. Fungible addresses these shifts by providing a versatile, plant-based solution that improves the texture, taste and nutritional value of various food products.

Scelta featured plant-based and hybrid products at SIAL improved with its new Fungible ingredient.Next step for Nutri-Score reductions

Fungible was a natural next step for Scelta Mushrooms, which has focused extensively on mushroom ingredients to reduce salt in the Nutri-Score.

“Sodium reduction has been a key area for us because mushrooms are full of umami. They naturally have glutamate, inosinate and guanylate in them and together this synergy creates an enhanced taste experience,” says Bongers.

But fat is also a critical component of achieving a great eating experience and one of the criteria for the Nutri-Score. Because Fungible contains only 15% fat, which is mostly unsaturated, it provides an opportunity to significantly improve the Nutri-Score.

Locking in juiciness

Fungible’s USP lies in the fibrous nature of mushrooms that interacts with the binding system. This helps to bind and retain water within the mixture, creating a more substantial and satisfying firm texture that mimics the mouthfeel of fat. The natural moisture-retaining properties of mushrooms ensure that products remain juicy and delicious.

Even after being processed, mushrooms retain the ability to absorb flavors and moisture, locking them in and enhancing the overall taste of the product, resulting in juiciness and succulence.

Bongers notes that “adding Fungible to a plant-based food like a vegan burger patty, which tends to be a little dry, yields a more juicy and flavorful product.”

A beef patty can be formulated with 30% fungible without losing sensory qualities and improving juiciness, states Bongers.Boosting sustainability

This mechanism also works for meat-based products, he underscores. “By adding mushrooms to meat products, you get a flavorful product. We did a lot of testing and found that we can easily add 30% of mushrooms to a beef patty, for example, and consumers will not taste the difference. It even improves the juiciness of a standard patty while reducing its environmental impact.”

“All of our mushrooms are sourced near our factories in the Netherlands. We harvest and directly process them, so it’s a very short supply chain. And if you compare the environmental impact of mushrooms with beef, there is a huge difference. Mushrooms need one-third of the water or less compared to cattle.”

A hybrid future?

But perhaps the biggest challenge for Scelta, is discovering which category will be the most relevant for the innovation.

“People are still searching for the most relevant applications. You have plant-based, you have meat. What’s in between there? Will hybrid foods be a category on its own or part of the meat industry? What is the consumer searching for?” asks Bongers.

Scelta developed three different recipes featuring blended ingredients, combining meat and plant-based products. At SIAL 2024, it featured blended chicken nuggets containing 60% chicken, 20% TVP and 20% Fungible, presenting a more juicy and sustainable product.

“People are open to blending with other ingredients, but they are especially looking for ingredients they can recognize instead of over-processed special ingredients, which may also solve some of these texture or taste problems.”

He adds, “We’re sticking to the basics with the mushroom, and people recognize that they have it in their refrigerator, so it’s a fine ingredient to blend with. It will be interesting to see what kind of combinations come together in the years to come with all these different elements to work with: plant-based, meat, TVP and vegetables like mushrooms.”

With live reporting from Elizabeth Green at SIAL 2024 in Paris, France