Unlock Plant-Based Chocolate Potential for 2023 and Beyond
31 Jan 2023 | Cargill
Plant-based remains one of the most exciting food & beverage trends, with confectionery standing out as a particularly fast growing category within this exciting arena. This insightful webinar offers a brief market overview of the “Plant Popularity” trend, and provide practical tips and tricks on how to position your plant-based chocolate products in 2023 and beyond. It features presentations from Cargill chocolate engineers, who introduce a range of highly innovative plant-based power ingredients that have been developed for sensorially outstanding vegan chocolates. In short, we show that by unlocking its full potential, plant-based chocolate is not just for Veganuary!
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Hello everyone and welcome to this webinar entitled Unlock Plant-based Chocolate Potential for 2023 and Beyond.
Coming on the last day of January, which has become an increasingly popular time to forego foods containing animal-based products, I think the timing couldn't be any more perfect.
After all, our aim today is to show that by unlocking its full potential, plant-based chocolate is not just for for January, it's something great for all year round.
So with this in mind, in today's session, you're, you're first going to hear from Mara Linera, who is our commercial marketing manager for chocolates, coatings and fillings.
Mara's going to offer a brief market overview of the plant popularity trend.
She'll show that plant-based remains one of the most exciting food and beverage trends, with confectionery standing out as a particularly fast growing category within this exciting arena.
Then we'll hear from technical account manager chocolate and coatings of fillings, Clemence Mouillo, who is going to answer some of the key questions faced by both product developers and marketeers when it comes to positioning plant-based chocolate products.
She'll provide practical tips and tricks on how to score plant-based success in 2023 and beyond.
Last but certainly not least, we'll be joined by Vanessa Barre, who is a senior food technologist, and Vanessa's going to introduce you to a range of highly innovative plant-based power ingredients that have been developed for sensorially outstanding vegan chocolates.
We'll then have time for a Q&A where Mara, Vanessa, and Clemence are going to answer any questions you may have on the topic of plant-based chocolate development.
So if you have any questions for our speakers, please put them in the Q&A box during the discussion.
So in short, I think we can expect a very, very interesting session today with lots to think about.
But so for now and without further ado, Mara, the floor is yours.
All right.
Thanks, Robin, for that enthusiastic introduction.
Hello, everyone.
Before we begin, I do just want to share with you a little bit more about what you what you can expect in the session today.
So, we will begin with a brief overview of the market.
This will serve as a refresher, one that can, one that is clearly very important to all of us here today, and, and that will be taken by me.
Next, we will share a little bit more about some common inquiries we've received on how to best position your plant-based chocolate products.
And last, one of our chocolate engineers will share more about our Cargill plant-based solutions available for you today.
So let's kick off with some generally accepted definitions before we start the presentation.
First is plant-based.
So, plant-based are usually diets that are characterized by a high intake of plant-based food.
It is more of a proactive green eating movement as we've seen in the, in the industry today.
Next item is vegan.
So while there are no official definitions for this, we do follow ISO standard and rely on criteria communicated by independent certification bodies like VLEBOL.
So this means it is described more of an overall lifestyle that excludes ingredients of animal origin in foods and beverage, often for ethical reasons.
Third is vegetarian, so it is pretty much vegan, but they do still include dairy and eggs into their diets sometimes.
And last but not least is flexitarian.
This largely follows a more vegan diet, but also occasionally can eat meat or fish.
So with that out of the way, let's move on to some market insights.
So here we kick off with some initial insights around the market product launches.
So more plants, please.
Very strong trend happening in the market today.
We've seen that it's just evolved from merely consumers adhering to their convictions to now demanding more variety and quality.
We see this in the chart now, where the market continues to grow and expand in the number of innovations launched.
This chart shows that in EMEA, there's a large number of products within vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based claims.
While you see that plant-based has a much smaller base than the other two, we see a significant growth in recent years, becoming more mainstream and thus stretching beyond just vegan and vegetarian to a more flexitarian approach.
More so amongst EU consumers, we see an increase in intake.
In fact, 43% of consumers classify themselves as flexitarian, vegan, vegetarian, or even pescatarian, which by definition, they also eat food, sorry, they also eat fish but not red meat.
And connected to that, we see that 19% of EU consumers have an intention to include more plant-based food and drink into their diet.
So clearly there's a high demand in the space.
More on this, but more specifically around chocolate, we see that amongst the innovations across categories, confectionery is a very strong front runner, being the fastest growing in number of innovations in recent years.
While we know from the earlier slide that plant-based comes from a much smaller base, this is very telling about the fact that it is accelerating very quickly, even on a global scale in the last two years.
And related to this, we see that amongst consumers who find plant-based appealing, they actually buy chocolate already more than once a week, so the frequency is there, so huge potential in the space.
Now, the next section of our insights will be talking more about consumer motivation.
So as this trend has evolved over recent years, some things don't change.
Consumer motivation, at least the top 3, haven't moved from the last year's review.
So the top 2 reasons show that people consider plant-based alternatives more related to personal and plant health.
On the 3rd highest motivation, they do want to add variety in their diet.
This could be driven by more of the flexitarians increasing in number because they do want to add variety.
Sometimes maybe they go plant-based, maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
Next is the last two, quite interesting because first is the insight around tasting better has gone up from last year.
This could be attributed to the number of different innovations that have popped up in the industry.
That does allow consumers more choice and, and indeed better quality.
And the last and newest motivation that popped up is the price now becoming more appealing.
So it may not apply to all categories at the moment because we do know that a lot of the plant-based products are priced more premium, but indeed, categories, the bigger ones like meat, do have a little bit more of affordable options.
Thus, you see quite a nice shift amongst consumers now.
So within this, we delve deeper into the insights regarding healthier and being better.
Amongst these products, popular claims like high protein, no preservatives, high fiber are all more highly correlated to plant-based product positioning as compared to the rest of food and beverage you see on the chart here, significantly higher across, plant-based and vegan claims.
But we also found that when we look at consumers, a lot of them are actually willing to pay more if these plant-based products provide health benefits.
More significant, difference actually is something seen within millennials, where even if it cuts through.
Generations, millennials are actually the most willing to pay more for benefits that have health reasons or rather health claims attached to it.
So, quite interesting, some segmentation over there.
And we move on to, now, we asked about, we've talked about motivations, we've talked about, what's happening in the market, but what really are the top barriers we see, in terms of having plant-based, alternatives for food.
And we see that, Within food and beverage, some of their top barriers still include, first, taste and flavor.
That is still the primary reason why they don't purchase plant-based products, followed by price.
And then among the last three would be because they don't really care to, to change or, or try alternatives to dairy, and the last two are actually, they think that plant-based products are a little bit less or less natural and or could be even too processed.
But I think amongst these reasons, clearly taste is still a primary reason why they don't buy because we see that 1 in 3 consumers globally actually would not consider buying plant-based alternatives just because they do perceive it to be very poor in taste and texture.
Quite interesting.
So we did want to take this closer to chocolate again.
And thus, we see that there are some similarities amongst the consumer barriers.
First is, for this case price was actually the dominant barrier for, for purchase.
However, taste is also amongst the top 3.
And the last is actually variety.
So this just means that consumers could be hungry for different kinds of plant-based products, however, they don't necessarily see it available or they don't see a lot of choc chocolate plant-based options in the market today.
So with this, I think that it is a quite a nice telling or rather it does suggest a huge opportunity for us to further innovate in the space of chocolate specifically.
And with that, I'd like to transition us to the next section which our, our colleague Finan our colleague Clemans will take us through some of the answers to top questions asked by some of our customers.
Yes, thank you, Mara.
So one important question to ask ourselves when we are developing a plant-based chocolate is what are the key sensory attributes to focus on?
The first main attribute is the taste.
When we talk about food, the consumers don't want to compromise on taste and they are seeking for indulgent products.
So to formulate a plant-based chocolate, we have to remove all dairy ingredients and we need to find the best dairy replacer.
That will give a good taste to the chocolate with lots of flavors.
We also must find the ideal ingredient combination and composition to obtain a balanced chocolate.
And by using plant-based ingredients as dairy replacer, we can obtain a distinct sensory profile that stands out and to become also the preferred plant-based chocolate on the market.
Finally, removing dairy ingredients can lead to an increase of the sweet perception.
So being just right in terms of sweetness, which is a sensory term to describe the optimal sweet balance, remains a central challenge to focus on.
After the taste, the second attribute to pay attention to is the texture.
Food texture is important for the consumers, and the smoothness or snapiness are main attributes for having a pleasant chocolate, and we need to avoid a kuly or a greedy texture.
By selecting specific plant-based ingredients, we can play on the texture and have a creamy, smooth, or harder and snappy chocolate, depending on the consumer's preferences and the applications.
In addition, texture claims on the packaging like creamy, velvety, or smooth are a plus, especially to target consumers over 45 who are the most skeptical of taste and texture of plant-based alternatives.
But according to our studies, 49% of the consumers don't mind if the taste of a plant-based chocolate differs from a regular chocolate, and 48% don't mind if the texture differs.
Concerning the European market, we have seen a growth of 50% between 2020 and 2021 of the food and beverages launches with a plant-based and premium or indulgent claims.
So here you can see examples already on the.
Market with indulgent claims like a smooth orange vegan bar, a delicious plant-based chocolate drink, a vegan caramel sea salt bar with a creamy filling, or even plant-based choco truffles with a smooth caramel and speculous filling.
So our tip is to offer to consumers premium and indulgent plant-based chocolates and to communicate on descriptors of taste and texture to make the product more appealing to consumers that might think a plant-based alternative is less tasty than a regular product.
The second important question is which ingredients should I consider to replace dairy?
The challenge to replace dairy ingredients is to select ingredients that confer a great taste and texture while resonating positively with the consumers.
Something crucial is the familiarity of ingredients.
Consumers give preference to familiar ingredients they might have in their kitchen, and they reject artificial or ultra-processed ingredients.
They are looking for purity, clean label, and familiar ingredients are perceived as more healthy and more natural, and the perception of the consumers will also influence their purchase intent.
Now when we are looking at plant-based vegan chocolates on the market, rice, oat, and coconut ingredients are the main dairy substitutes.
We can see that rice ingredients like powder or flour are the most present, but keep in mind that not all of these ingredients and products on the market are compliant with the regulatory requirements of chocolate.
Consumers, especially young consumers, seek plants.
80% of the consumers are trying to increase their plant consumption, while only 50% are trying to reduce their consumption of animal-based products.
So you should highlight the plants you put in and not the dairy you leave out.
The idea with plant-based products is not to copy animal products with a plant-based alternative, but to propose a new, healthy, and indulgent sensorial experience.
So don't hesitate to use logos, pictograms, or visuals to illustrate the plant-based composition.
For example, here you can see chocolate bar, where oat milk is highlighted, a plant-based brownie with chickpeas, and a plant-based ice cream and milkshake containing pineapple and pea proteins.
So now I will give the floor to Mara who will answer the 3rd important question.
Yes, and question number 3 asks, shall I go for a plant-based or a vegan claim?
So it sounds very tricky, so we asked some consumers how they feel about these two.
When we ask consumers.
Who follow a specific diet such as flexitarian, vegan, plant-based, among others.
You see this number on the bottom of the page.
Vegan and plant-based claims are more parity and equally strong.
But when you compare to the numbers above that, we ask that the wider range of consumers, we see that plant-based claims have almost double the appeal of a vegan claim.
This suggests that a plant-based claim can actually appeal to a more broad audience than just vegan alone.
Next, we also checked with consumers how they perceive plant-based against regular chocolate.
We see the higher association for plant-based claims with benefits like better for the environment, sustainable, and health clearly override any kind of perception from regular chocolate only.
So, when we look at some common products in the market, we see here examples where these brands have found ways to include both plant-based and vegan claims together.
The example you see here on the leftmost with Magnum clearly communicating primarily a vegan range or a vegan product, they've also found a creative way to call out plant-based indulgence as part of their front of packaging claims.
Clearly addressing some of the consumer barriers that we saw earlier in the webinar.
So this could be actually because 71% of consumers look for a vegan claim in front of PAC as an identifier, even as an identifier, even for plant-based claims or plant-based products.
So actually, our Cargill tip, or our Car Gild tip is to combine a plant-based claim with a vegan claim or label.
It secures the credibility of the product among the strictest vegan consumers as as helping consumers identify the product as vegan.
Now, our last main question or FAQ that we often encounter is which other claims strengthen the appeal of plant-based chocolate?
So, here we consolidated all plant-based innovations in recent years and tracked-related claims across food and beverage.
We saw 3 themes come to light, of which the first is health-related.
This includes claims like gluten-free, high fiber, and reduced fat, as you can see here on the chart, across all types of health claims, both plant-based and vegans are more closely related to these claims than normal F&B alone, or rather the average FNB invasions.
Next theme or a different set of claims would be more label-friendly or sometimes often referred to as clean label claims.
So these include no add.
Additive or even GMO-free.
Similar to health, we see plant-based and vegan claims are more highly correlated.
And last but not least are also themes around sustainability.
So while here, very nicely, we see that the ethical packaging is very popular across all of F&B and of course within choc within plant-based and vegan products as.
But when we go into more ethical-related themes or claims within environment, humans, and even animals, we see that plant-based and vegan are more highly correlated than the average F&B.
So with this, we showcase a little bit of what we've seen in the market.
These are two brands that you see examples of how they really shared much more claims than just vegan and plant-based.
They do deliver different, examples across the different themes we saw like health, showcasing high fiber, high protein, and gluten-free.
Next is we see examples of friendly, label-friendly claims like nothing artificial, and of course, sustainability claims are also evident wherein, yes, Tasty by Nature showcases sourcing and recycling related claims.
Now, our final tip for this section is that depending on your brand strategy, we do advise to identify the optimal combination of these claims.
It will help you increase consumer purchase intent and when possible, use sustainable packaging and avoid plastic, which does appeal a lot regardless of which industry we talk about in the food beverage industry.
So Without further ado, I'd like to take you through and share more of our Cargill plant-based solutions with the help of Vanessa.
Yes.
Thank you, Mara.
Thank you.
Indeed.
You see that there is a strong appeal on the market for plant-based and healthy vegan products also in the chocolate world.
That's why at Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate we have developed a range of plant-based para ingredients for sensorially outstanding vegan chocolates.
This is extravaganza.
It took a lot of hard work, but we think that the end results makes it worthwhile.
The three plant-based power ingredients that we have decided to showcase and go for for a new plant-based chocolate experience are the sunflower, the rice, and an organic rice, which can be coupled with our organic cocoa liquor for an organic vegan chocolate.
Each of these vegan options brings its unique taste and texture, and our technical experts will advise which one best suits your needs.
So how did we come to that point?
For several months we have identified and tested in our pilot lab a long list of natural and plant-based ingredients among many different categories fruit powders, cereal, pears, and oilseed plants in a couverture chocolate recipe.
We have considered each ingredient in an extensive selection process.
And we were exclusively looking for ingredients which are suitable for vegans according to our strict definition and with a clean label perception.
We have also stick to allergen-free solutions, no nuts, no gluten to satisfy the taste of all consumers and to avoid introducing new allergens in place of milk.
Our strict quality standards should also be met without any compromise.
Innovation, yes, but not at the expense of quality and food safety.
We have been very strict on that in the ingredient validation validation process.
Our regulatory team was also heavily involved from the start because the ingredients had to comply with the very strict regulations that exist for chocolate.
So also for innovation we stay dedicated to our values which are high quality standards and legal conformity.
That being confirmed, our key selection criteria was, of course, a great taste and texture.
We have searched for ingredients which are neutral in taste with good performances in chocolate.
Some other ingredients in the toolbox were rather selected, selected to bring an exclusive signature taste, a new sensory profile for a new chocolate experience.
We were particularly looking for fatty ingredients able to mimic the smoothness of milk fat and to stand out from the dark chocolate space.
For each ingredient we had to fine tune a bit the recipe to identify which cocoa origin fits the best with the ingredient at which dosage, and we ended up with 3 chocolate recipes to showcase the potential of each ingredient, but they allow endless possibilities.
So now how to describe our three plant-based solutions from a sensorial point of view.
First, the sunflower.
And the sunflower powder is a sensorial winner.
It ticks all the boxes taste, texture, familiarity, health perception.
It brings a delightful creaminess and smooth melting profile, something that is hard to achieve with the ingredients commonly used so far in vegan chocolate.
From a taste point of view, vegan chocolates made with sunflower powder have mild notes of cereal and nuttiness.
For me it is a bit peanut butter and a low sweetness.
Within a consumer survey about the perception of ingredients called Cargill ingredient Tracker, we have proven that sunflower is an ingredient that resonates very positively with consumers and is perceived as very healthy.
And now the rice.
Our rice blend creates a chocolate with a pleasant sweetness with notes of honey and cocoa and a bit of caramel.
The texture has a sharp snap.
Rice has the most neutral and familiar sensorial profile for experienced vegan consumers.
The rice is also available as standard in organic combined with our organic cocoa liquor blend into a fine flavor organic chocolate with exotic notes of honey and molasses.
And just like sunflower, rice is another ingredient that is perceived as healthy and can give a positive boost to purchase impact.
All along the formulation work we asked consumers for their opinion.
And our main objective was to develop indulgent plant-based chocolates, which makes consumers happy.
They should, of course, excite the most adventurous plant-based eaters, but they should above all remain a treat for chocolate lovers.
That's the reason why we stayed close to the consumers to get feedback.
So at each important time point in the project to validate our choices, we have submitted our most promising prototypes to the customer, to our, to our consumer community in France, UK, and Germany.
Our extravaganza chocolates have been evaluated against market preferences by the consumer community and also by an external expert panel.
This way we could easily get real-time feedback about our prototypes, understand what consumers like, what they don't like, and adjust the recipes accordingly.
In total we have organized 3 vegan evaluation sessions with the consumer community.
And in all tests, the extravaganza scored the same or better than the leading market reference.
During this quest, Sunflower turned out to be a breakthrough.
As you can see on this chart, it is preferred by 45% of the consumers in our community.
In our ingredient tracker consumer survey on the right, yeah, we see that rice and sunflower are in the top 5 of the most healthy perceived plant proteins.
There is no question that rice is a winner, but sunflower has untapped potential.
Now when it comes to the manufacturing of these great plant-based chocolates, we want to be very transparent in the production standards that we are providing to our customers with regard to dairy traces.
We have identified 3 standards for vegan chocolates to help you select the most suitable option that works for you.
Level 1 means no limit on dairy traces.
For this standard, the vegan chocolate will be produced on one of our general chocolate lines.
The recipe will be guaranteed free from any animal ingredients for sure, but the final product may contain traces of dairy without a maximum limitation.
And we often refer to this standard as suitable for the vegan diet.
A level 2 is set at a below 1000 ppm of dairy traces.
For this standard, the vegan chocolate will be produced on dedicated dark lines in Belgium and in Germany.
This allows us to guarantee a maximum level of dairy traces in the final product below 1000 ppm.
This is the level to select when you look for a vegan certification such as the label to add an official vegan logo to your packaging.
Level 2 is available with a Belgian claim.
The most challenging standard is Level 3 at just below 50 parts per billion of milk protein, PPB.
This level means no detectable traces of dairy.
For this standard, the vegan chocolate is produced in Belgium on a land that exclusively processes chocolates without dairy.
And extra measures are taken to prevent cross contact with dairy ingredients so that milk proteins are so low that they are not even detectable.
And whatever the level you go for, the product will have a may contain milk warning.
Do not hesitate to couple your plant-based recipe with a sustainable cocoa for a delicious and extravagant sustainable vegan chocolate.
Clement and I, together with the technical team in House of Chocolate, we are very excited to develop your perfect indulgent plant-based chocolate made with rice, rice, and flour.
Thank you.
Now Robin, I think there is a time for questions.
Thanks very much, Vanessa.
Now we have, time, some time for a Q&A.
So if you have any questions for Mara, Clemence, or Vanessa, please, put them in the Q&A box.
Mara, I'm going to go to you first.
You, we speak a lot about this plant-based trend.
Do we expect this to go mainstream, or is this always going to remain a, a kind of a mere niche?
What are your expectations for trend?
Yeah, that's a great question, and it's always difficult to answer when it could go many ways.
My view on this is that it will continue to grow and expand as it has in recent years, and soon become even more mainstream.
But when we look at data, and see how the trend has evolved over the recent years, I think that we see that the the the shifts in consumer demand have actually continued to fuel the growth of this trend.
So, we will continue to see innovations that aim to address these barriers that consumers are looking for in the space, and for sure, it only shows growth.
I think if we look more closely into chocolates and confectionery, it, it currently is quite a small category compared to meat and dairy.
But similar to Total FNB, consumers are becoming more and more demanding.
So I think it will push more of the consumers, sorry, it will push more of the suppliers, companies and different brands to explore how we make sure we appeal.
To this fast-growing, consumer base interested in the space.
And then I think not directly, we didn't speak about it directly earlier, but we also know the sustainability is, a new, is a rising and definitely a big demand amongst consumer when it comes to purchase decisions.
So I think the fact that plant-based is significantly correlated with, sustainability, it does mean that the category will continue to explode.
So yeah, let's wait and see.
Very good, thank you, thank you very much, Mara, and maybe there was one point that you were, you were raised about specific demographics you highlighted that millennials was particularly very, had a lot of potential.
Are, are there specific demographics that you're targeting then?
Yeah, at Cargill, we do speak to a lot of our customers that appeal to a bro, a really a broad range of consumer base.
I would say the fact that we see a larger willingness, or rather a, a, a, a higher percentage of millennials willing to spend more.
Within the plant-based alternative options, then I would pursue this or recommend this as a, a primary bull's-eye target.
However, as we've seen also, plant-based and vegan chocolates are relevant to all ages.
So it really varies depending on the brand that is most relevant to, to, what you're, you're craving for.
Yes, so indeed it, it is, across all ages, but, I think millennials have a higher, higher capacity to appeal, or rather to like obviously you were pointing out quite a few tips about how to address certain, certain groups.
Are there, are there specific ways then as another tip to, to target the, the millennial consumer?
Mm, yeah, I think, other than targeting millennials, I think one of the, one of the things Clemence mentioned earlier is even amongst older audiences, they are particularly concerned about texture, so perhaps for them, you would appeal more towards describing your product in sensorial ways.
When it comes to millennials, I think a lot of the products that they purchase are driven by, I guess novelty, something that's new and exciting.
I think depending on what your brand positioning is, if you can be a lot more novelty and playful and exciting, it will entice, younger consumers.
But of course, if your brand is a little bit more reserved or conservative, there should be ways, to, to which you can position your product and it could be a wealth of different opportunities in the space.
Thank you very much, Mara.
I'll, Vanessa, I'll go to you now, and I think this is quite a, quite an interesting question.
After all, aren't all dark chocolates inherently plant-based or vegan in the first place?
What's, what's different here?
Yeah, indeed, I will take this one.
Yeah, sure, dark chocolates are by definition plant-based.
Also, there is no definition, no formal definition for plant-based yet.
So dark chocolates are plant-based since cocoa, sugar, vanilla, they derived from plants.
Most of dark chocolates are also suitable for vegan because they do not contain any animal ingredients.
But still they can, they have traces of Jerry, but also dark chocolates can be considered as plant-based already.
We wanted to to go one step further and offer a new chocolate experience to these plant-based consumers who are looking for more variety.
We wanted to propose a new taste, a new texture, but outside of the dark chocolate space.
That's why we have developed this extravaganza, extravaganza plant-based range.
Milk chocolates are not plant-based and obviously not vegan because milk is of animal origin.
Moreover, plant-based eaters, they are looking for food products which are good for the planet, so they are conscious of the negative climate impact of dairy products.
So milk, milk chocolates would not be really an option for them.
And finally, all chocolates, so milk and dark, are suitable for vegetarians.
So vegetarians include dairy products in their diet.
Thank you very much, Vanessa and Clemence, I'll go to you.
A question here, what, what's, what is the sunflower kernel powder, and is the new chocolate product that you have based on sunflower suitable for other applications beyond confectionery?
And if so, how does it perform?
Yeah, so the sunflower powder is produced from high olic sunflower kernels that has been partially defatted and finely milled.
Yeah, these ingredients perform very in plant-based chocolates because it contains a high amount of fibers and proteins, and also it's low in sugar.
That makes it very interesting to balance the sweetness in the chocolate.
It also contains a bit of sunflower oil, which brings a smoothness and creaminess to the chocolate.
And as explained by Vanessa, it confers a mild, mild cereal and nutty nuts and a very sensory profile to the chocolate.
And another advantages of this ingredient is that it's allergen free and also according to the European chocolate regulation, we are allowed to use it in in chocolate.
And regarding your question on application, we don't have only one chocolate based on on sunflower powder.
We can develop a suitable, yeah, a chocolate with a suitable rheology for many different kinds of applications, like for bakery or ice cream applications.
Thank you very much, is it, is it patented, this, this product?
Yeah, good, good question, and the answer is yes.
So we have co-developed the sunflower powder together with a supplier to meet our strict quality standards.
So it's a very unique ingredient and we are very proud and excited to work with because it has also been identified as a sensorial winner.
So that's also why we have decided to fill a patent application on on its use in chocolate products.
Thank you so much.
Vanessa, I'll go back to you.
Interesting question here.
What, what are the requirements in order to be able to use an official, vegan logo?
Yes, good question indeed.
You can create your own vegan logo if you like, and there is no obligation to go for an official one, but if you prefer, there are 17 international vegan labels, if you want to certify your product in a more official way.
The main, the main vegan labels are without a doubt V Label and Vegan Society in the UK.
They all apply to finished products on the shelves, so each label will certainly provide you a specific list of ingredients, not of criteria, sorry, to be met.
For example, to qualify for a V label certification.
The product should contain less than 1 g per kilogram of non-vegan substances, which is for the, for the specific case of chocolate, dairy, of course.
So the label, to my knowledge, is the only label with such a threshold for non-vegan substances.
So Cargill, once again, Cargill can help you with your vegan certification.
Sorry to interrupt, Robin, so we can help you with this vegan certification, notably by supplying a vegan chocolate, which is, yeah, compliant with, with low dairy traces far below this thresholds and because it is produced on a dedicated dark line.
Thank you very much Vanessa, and we have time for a couple of questions.
Clemence, I'll go, I'll go back to you, when it comes to, what, what are, what are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to formulating with plant-based ingredients in chocolate, and does this plant-based chocolate behave in the same way as standard chocolate when it comes to issues like tempering and bake stability, etc.
Yeah, so as explained, the main challenges when we are formulating vegan chocolate are first to find the best plant-based ingredients that will confer a pleasant taste to the to the chocolate, and we also have to make sure that it complies with the chocolate regulation.
And then it's to avoid an excessive sweetness.
So when you remove the milk, of the chocolate, you should also remove a part of the sugar.
Otherwise the taste, will be too sweet and, completely unbalanced.
So, yeah, we really have to find also the best ingredient composition to have a balanced taste.
And finally, the last challenge is to keep the good creamy and smooth texture that we like in chocolate.
And to do so, our chocolate engineers that are who are.
Working in our application centers or in the House of Chocolate, which is our chocolate R&D center, can do trials and help you define a winning tailor-made plant-based recipe.
And then concerning the last question on the behavior of the, of the chocolate, so during the development process of the extravaganza range, we have tested the functionality and the stability of the, of the chocolate, with the support of our application center in in Vilvard.
And for the tampering, we have seen that our plant-based chocolates crystallize more and faster than milk chocolates, so the tampering settings are between the milk and the dark chocolate.
And we have, we have also done bake stability tests on cookie application and we have concluded that our plant-based chocolates have a good bake stability.
So we can say that our plant-based chocolates behave like standard chocolates and the presence of plant-based ingredients have a very minimal impact on the technical functionality and on the stability of the chocolate.
Thanks very much for clarifying that, Clemence.
Thank you so much.
I have time for one last question.
I think it's a perfect one here from Mara because I know that there was also you probably wanted to present here a little bit today, and that's a bit of an exclusive.
So, beyond this range of chocolates that you presented today, is there anything else that you're offering within the plant-based space?
Yeah, no, that's a great segue indeed because, I did want to, request a little bit more time to showcase.
Something new that we're cooking.
So as you saw earlier, plant-based is a category is a trend that continues to expand and at Cargill Beyond Chocolate, we actually started looking at a new category, particularly beverage.
And with that, I'd like to share with you a little snippet of something coming soon.
And this is indeed one of our special products.
It is from our G Gherkins brand, a special range of cocoa powders, especially made for plant-based beverage.
So what does this mean?
In line with the trends that we've seen in the market, we have focused on the two leading dairy dairy replacers, as you saw earlier, which is oat and almond.
So our engineers have found the best range of cocoa powders to pair with these dairy replacers to deliver more indulgent plant-based cocoa beverage experience to our consumers.
So this is just a very brief, teaser.
I'm very excited that I, I was able to capture this today and share with you all, but please watch out more to come in coming months.
And indeed, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
So, yeah, that's, that's my quick teer, Robin, we'll go back to you.
Thanks very much, Mara, that's a real, exciting news, something to look out for in the coming months, but yeah, that's about all we have time for today, so, yeah, unfortunately we didn't get round to answering all of your questions, but, our technical colleagues will be in touch with you to get around to anything that was not answered in this session.
Just to let you know that this webinar is going to be shared on demand with you soon, but of course if you need any further information on this topic, you can reach out to our technical experts, Clemence and Vanessa.
You'll just see their email addresses on the screen right now.
So thanks, with that, my, my thanks to Mara, to Clemence, to Vanessa for their insights, and of course many thanks to you for, for joining us today for this session and with that, have a wonderful day.
Thank you.
