KaTech targets fast-growing vegan trends

30 Aug 2017 --- KaTech has developed a wide range of vegan products to help food manufacturers launch high-quality products for the growing vegan trend. The vegan market has seen incredible growth in Europe during recent years and the veganism way of living has been receiving a lot of attention of late.

The growing popularity of new product development on a vegan platform is substantiated by new product launch data from Innova Market Insights, with a +58 percent increase reported in product launches with a vegan claim in 2015 from 2014, with a further +35 percent increase in 2016 from 2015.

Consumers are not only following the trend due to animal welfare but as well for health or environmental reasons. Similar to the vegetarian trend consumers choose to become pure vegan, flexible vegan or just exchange certain products for the healthier versions. This is giving the food manufacturers plenty of good opportunities for new product launches.

As a company highly responsive to emerging trends, KaTech has developed a wide range of vegan products for the food industry.

“We have seen a growing demand from food manufacturers for development in the vegan segment,” explains Cyril Carrat, Technical Director of KaTech. “The consumer of today is less compromising on taste and texture and that is where we can show our expertise by developing products that represent a step-change in both quality and appeal. We have developed our understanding of vegan products in order to support our customers quickly in developing new products in that segment, using their preferred raw materials and process.”

Head of development at KaTech, Alexander Maesse, spoke with FoodIngredientsFirst: “We can see strong growth in meat and dairy alternatives as well as plant-based spreads. The next big trend we believe will be in baked goods as there is currently not a lot of choice in high-quality baked vegan produce.”

The focus for NPD’s in the vegan category cover yogurt, desserts, drinks, cheese and cream products. In the fine-food area, the developments are vegan salad dressings, mayonnaises, sauces and spreads as well as vegan meat alternatives.

Constant concern regarding sustainability and the global food chain has been the catalyst behind the surge in new product development based on plants. This, in turn, has resulted in growth for products suitable for vegans and as such, an increase in products being positioned on a vegan platform. Food manufacturers are indeed accommodating this lifestyle trend with many products promoting their plant content, with claims such as “plant powered” or “plant-based” being prominent front-of-pack.

According to Innova Market Insights data, the leading market sub-categories in 2016 for vegan claims on a global basis are cereal & energy bars (5.8 percent), dairy alternative drinks (5.1 percent) and juice & juice drinks (4.6 percent). According to the market researcher, there should be no slowing down for new product innovation with vegan suitability going forward, with plant-based milk and meat substitutes, for example, already rapidly are moving into the mainstream. All types of consumers, not just vegans, are looking for innovative product options to take the inherent benefits of plants into their daily lives.

By Elizabeth Green