FiE 2024: Beneo exhibits plant-based protein solutions range for elevating flavor and nutrition
11 Dec 2024 | Beneo
At Food ingredients Europe (FiE) 2024, we caught up with Beneo’s Functional Proteins department leads, Els Van Herck, head of product management, and Fréderic Fernandes, product manager. We took a look at adaptable plant-based ingredient innovations enhancing the nutritional profile and flavor of meat-free and hybrid food products, including feta cheese balls and textured flakes from rice, fava and quinoa.
Hello everybody.
This is William Bradford Nichols, and I am live at Food Ingredients in Frankfurt, Germany.
And today we are speaking with Elsven Heddick, the product manager or the head of product for, functional proteins, and Frederick Fernandez, the product manager of functional proteins.
Hello, Frederick.
Else, how are you guys today?
Very.
It has been already a very busy day, so happy to sit down and respond to some of your questions.
We're excited to have you guys sit down and talk to us about some of your innovations you've got here this year.
Can you tell me, with consumer interest in nutrient dense foods growing, How do you ensure that plant-based ingredients like rafte inulin and your protein concentrates not only enhance the texture and taste of products, but also boost the overall nutritional value of products?
I think it's a great question because indeed we have quite an arsenal of different ingredients, plant-based ingredients that all have their own possibility to enhance the nutritional profile of different end products, I think.
At this trade fair today we have actually a great example sitting in front of us the feta cheese balls.
It's a development that made combining rice protein, sour bean protein, rice starch, and inin to actually achieve a complete vegan cheese alternative.
And if you look at the cheese alternative market today, what you see is that is quite a struggle.
A lot of the plant-based cheeses.
Have a very bad nutri score, score of D, and what we are actually able to achieve by adding this insulin to the recipe of the vegan cheese, you can actually achieve a nutri score of C.
So there's already quite an improvement, that's something that we actually also try to do for all the others.
I think this feta cheese is a great example.
That's insane.
So it's feta cheese, cheese ball with fiber in it, inulin, actual fiber.
Exactly, exactly, and I want to add to that to what Fred is saying.
If you look at the meatless portfolio, the meatless portfolio in fact is about texture rates, so textured rice flakes, textured fava flakes, textured quinoa flakes, all kinds of different flakes, and they are great for meat alternatives or for example, for hybrid products because they really keep the juiciness and the texture.
And let's not be stupid about it.
That's what the consumer wants.
So you can do whatever on innovation, whatever new product launches on the shelf in a short time, whether it's vegetarian, whether it's vegan, whether it's hybrid.
What we notice is that often it doesn't work because the taste and texture is just not good.
Now coming back to your question, breads, so indeed what we notice is that from a nutrition point of view.
Of course we all know like the texture of rice flavor, it's very nice in having these sensortic properties and adding these sensoric properties, but we know that the protein level is at the low side.
That's why, for example, you can see that in the taco, the minced meat is.
Plant based means meat, and it's made with a specific flake of meat we call it a textured tuna flake, and the flake is a combination effect of different sources.
So we have a source of rice, we have a source of fava, we have a source of quinoa that's inside which by doing it in this way.
We push up the protein level, so you end up finally with a protein level around 18%, which means that if you go to really a meat alternative or even in the hybrid that you can really contain a good protein and that's the way for the moment that we are also developing the.
Considering, as you were kind of just speaking about, the diverse dietary needs and preferences of global consumers, how adaptable are these plant-based solutions in catering to like gluten-free and allergen-free and vegan diets?
I can speak from, from the flour bean side.
So Veneo is recently investing actually in their own flour bean factory, and one of the big trends that we, of course, plant protein gluten-free plant, and that's something that we are actually ensuring when we have our own factory.
We have a very close control over the supply chain.
We have very good contact with the farmers, contacting with the farmers and in that regard, gluten-free is one of our aims.
We really see a need for this gluten-free market to have some plant proteins available that can be stated gluten-free.
On the other hand, of course, er also important, mainly looking at soy.
I think so.
One of the biggest competitions that we are facing with bean ingredients.
It's also one of the more commonly used plant proteins and not only as an allergen it is being avoided.
And what we also see from sustainability reasons that clients try to steer away from it.
That is exactly the niche that we try to cater to with the flour bean ingredients and being gluten-free and allergen free in that regard.
Exactly.
And then again I'm going to take over from the side of the story.
See, unfortunately we still have customers who are really looking for wheat flakes, specifically textured wheat flakes, because they add a specific bite and a specific crunch to their meat alternatives.
But products like rice and like rabad, they are gluten-free.
But since we are producing in the same company, in the same, sorry, in the same production site, also the wheat flakes, we cannot call it gluten-free.
So that's also.
Something that we will look into further, but it's, it's a trade-off, and we know that, but it's driven like that by the market.
Also they are like what is saying, allergen free.
I think it's a no brainer again.
There's a lot of soy on the market in the applications that we are looking at, and it will become, there will be a big push, I think, or a big restriction on the use of soya just because of the the allergen.
So how does your, how does Beno align its product development, and you kind of just mentioned this as.
How do you align your product development, with sustainable nutrition practices, particularly in terms of sourcing, as you just said, plant-based ingredients, like, so we've got, we already know plant-based is good for you, but you've also got the good for the earth, sort of trend that goes along with that.
So can you tell us a little, a little bit about how Benio approaches that as?
That's why today I'm very proud to be here with a hybrid concept on the stand, because bread, to be honest, that really fits into this idea and it's really like in our culture I would say the sustainability more and more important.
So if you look at hybrids, I looked into the sustainability studies for meats, and then if you compare it, for example, To the texture of meatless flakes, it's incredible what an impact they can have in terms of carbon footprints.
So we're talking really about like 80 times less.
So it's really making a big difference.
That's also today we are here on the fair with this hybrid concept, very open.
I had a lot of positive reactions on it.
Also people saying it's great that you do it so explicitly because it's Going around in the markets, but everybody is a bit scared apparently to really openly talk about it and to talk about the solutions that we can offer.
So in principle, what I believe is that the meatless portfolio as such, whether you look at meat alternatives, whether you look at hybrids, there is a very big impact in terms of sustainability, certainly at the level of carbon footprint.
And then if you look also.
At the sourcing the sourcing part like, I think the biggest part, the share is coming from Germany.
So we are building our own factory and all the farmers are actually close to the factory to keep a very short supply chain and I think also on the production side again the reason why Vo went for fava bean over the more common plant proteins being bean and soy.
Fiber actually suits very , making a concentrate out of it.
We are actually choosing for a process called live vaccination, so we don't use any water, we don't use any heating step in our vaccination to separate the protein from the starch fraction.
We can actually achieve a product with very high sustainability, so a very low value, and this protein concentrate has still some very nice functionalities.
It can actually stand.
The pea isolates, soy isolates you find on the market with very good emulsification, very good solubility forming properties, and looking at these functionalities, they are very suited to replace, for example, animal proteins, egg replacement, dairy replacement, which again in itself is a sustainability story to bring.
So I would say it's a complete circuit that we do at Beneo from farm to forest being sustainable.
Continuing sort of with our sustainability and nutrition theme, you also have a tech technological advancement that help you mimic traditional textures and flavors, such as with the whitefish filet in the chicken.
Can you tell me how you do that without compromising nutritional integrity and taste?
If you look at the fish filet example given, so everybody can see, here, it's a purely blend.
Fish filet and what I explained before, we have our textured rice flakes, which really gives the nice texture, the nice juiciness.
Certainly for fish filet, it's really a success.
It also has a very nice white color, and I explicitly say that because for fish filet, what we are doing is, and I don't have the product here on the table, but we are using a new developed flavor which combines rice.
And microprotein.
So if you combine these ingredients, you push up your protein content and makes it much more interesting for plant-based fish, for example.
The same product can also play a role in totally plant-based chicken.
So that is the way that we solve this issue.
We look at what do we have.
We take the best functional properties, the textured.
Rice flake.
Then we see are there other ingredients that we can add in the process.
So as a raw material that can be microprotein, but we are also doing testing with our fiber that we have in the portfolio and like that we will be able to respond to the nutrition.
That is very interesting stuff.
Can you tell me what we can expect from Beo?
2025 is just around the corner.
What can we expect in 2020?
I think one of the more exciting things from my side and of course from your side is the opening of the factory.
We have a big fiber bean factory that goes operational in 2025, so a lot is going on on that side.
About 3 months from now we are looking to be operational and having the first commercial product in Q2 of 2025, and the operation starts in Q1 of 2025.
But further than that, of course we will further enhance our portfolio.
We will find.
Ways to enhance our products or ingredients.
Of course it is a constant development that is happening at Beneo.
Certainly with the Benneo Technology Center, there are a lot of recipes coming out with the different combinations of ingredients that we have in our portfolio, so I would say certainly look forward to that.
And of course next time at our ingredient portfolio will be even bigger.
I would say for like Fritz was saying, so their own factory will be open.
That's big optimization of the portfolio.
But also looking further and deeper into different applications for the with our colleagues from the technical center because there is still quite a huge world to explore because we believe there are plenty more possibilities with the concentrate than what we know today and that we can support our customers with.
And then for the meatless part, I would say everything here is on the table, so we have the hybrid concept, we for sure, and again it is.
Confirmed for me today on this fair, you know, with all the positive feedback that we had with the interest of people by thanking us for being so explicitly there with a hybrid solution.
So we're certainly going to focus further on hybrids.
What can we do more?
What can we do better?
Is there anything else that we can do?
And as we discussed before, so the fish filet was an example.
Was there another one?
Yes, this one.
The taco, vitamins meat was an example.
You mentioned it red, so we know that from a nutritional point of view that we will have some challenges there to really meet the expectation.
It's not only about taste and texture, although being number one, but it will also be about the protein content and balance that with also the visual properties because high protein content means that you will have an effect on the color.
And if you have an effect on the color, you will not keep a plant-based consumer happy with this type of fish filet, which is totally brown.
So it's always finding that balance.
So for me, these are really the pinpoints for the further development for meat.
All right, Frederick Els, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today, and I hope you have a great rest of the show.
