Armored Fresh: Tapping into sustainability and plant-based lifestyles with oat-based alt-cheese
17 May 2024 | Armored Fresh
Armored Fresh, a food tech company creating dairy-free cheeses that taste and melt like traditional cheese is aiming to make a positive impact in the world through its sustainable and plant-based foods. Vice president Andrew Yu explains some of the wider market trends in the plant-based arena, the company’s latest range of oat-based alt-cheeses and its new collaboration with Bareburger.
One.
Welcome everyone, this is Liz Green from Food Ingredients First.
Armored Fresh, food tech company is creating dairy-free cheeses that taste and melt like the real thing, and is hoping to make a positive impact in the world through its sustainable and plant-based foods.
Today, the vice president of Armored Fresh, Andrew Yu, joins us.
Welcome, Andrew, thanks for joining.
What can you tell us about some of the company's innovations to date in dairy-free cheese?
Elizabeth, thank you for having me.
I'm really honored to be here and, and speaking with you and to your audience.
Some of the innovations that we're working on, you know, we've got our manufacturing, our, our team, our R&D team.
And so we're kind of unique, I think, unique in, in, in the way that we've got scientists working, on the science part of it.
And we've got chefs, in the, in our, you know, same office.
Working on the art of creating cheese.
And so they're working hand in hand, working very close together, and working really hard to bring cheese, , right now, we've got one, format, but, but we're working on, you know, we've got a very exciting product roadmap that's, that we're working on.
And so, we're really excited about the, the hard work that they're doing.
But, but the innovation that we're offering today, is, we just launched our oat milk pepper jack slices and oat milk based cheddar slices.
That's really, that we're really excited about.
The pepper jack slices are It's a fan favorite.
It's one of my favorite.
It's, it's delicious, it's spicy, and it's got an umami flavor.
And then we, the, the oat milk, , cheddar slices is, it's mild and it's nutty.
And what we're, what we've done is, you know, when we go out and do tastings with whether it's at the trade shows, or, you know, in-person meetings that we set up, we usually take our Our, , George Foreman grill.
And it's really a simple setup, because it's simple, and it's easy to do.
It takes, it doesn't take very long.
We just take our George Foreman's and butter and, and our cheese, and we, in, in less than 5 minutes, we can pop out a grilled cheese that that we can offer to people.
And, and they've loved it.
They really absolutely are surprised, , you can't win them all, but I'd say, you know, 99.9% of the people who've tasted our cheese are, are very surprised at how good it is.
So that's the two cheese that we're, the newest innovation.
Of course, we've got our American slice that we've been offering since last year.
So that's, so that's a couple of new items that we're offering.
We've also early this year, , debuted our shredded, oat milk-based shredded mozzarella that, you know, in, in, in this industry, we see, I, I think we see the shredded mozzarella as the , as the pinnacle, sort of, of, you know, innovation, because of how difficult it is for the mozzarella to be replicated from a plant-based, materials.
And so, we're able to debut that at the Pizza Expo in Las Vegas early this year.
We're excited about that.
And, and the And and what we're also going to be showing in the coming days at the NRA show in Chicago, this weekend, starting this weekend, is a cheese dip that we're going to be making, at this on the show floor.
It's the nacho cheese dip, or some people call it queso.
That is just, it's so good.
The melt, the flavor, you can't tell the difference.
We've, we've tasted, we've tested that at several college campuses over this, couple of months.
And, kids, kids, you know, college kids, right?
They love it.
They can't tell the difference, right?
And which is the, which is the, the goal.
They, you know, you don't want them to taste it and, and, you know, have a comment about, hey, this is, why is this different?
What are you feeding me?
And so we're excited about that and we'll, we'll do that at the NRA show this coming weekend.
So we're really excited about some of the products that we have and some of the products that we're debuting and showing in the next coming days.
And then You know, of course, we've got a, a, a very exciting, roadmap, product roadmap coming up for, you know, in the short term and long, midterm and long term.
So yeah, OK, nice.
So you've recently inked a new collaboration with Bear Burger.
What can you tell us about that?
Yeah, so that's, that was really exciting.
If you go to New York, , for, for your audience, if you're ever in New York and you go to, Times Square, we've got a billboard that showcases our partnership collaboration with Bear Burger.
It's in 47th, it's a corner of 47, 48th and 6th Avenue or something like that.
But anyway, we're, we're super excited.
And we, and we got introduced through a mutual industry friend.
And, you know, of course, Bear Burger, so, so they were interested in offering a zero dairy cheese.
And, and so we were introduced and And, of course, the chef over there, Chef Misha, wanted to test it and to make sure it passed his test.
And so he tested it, and he, and it passed his test.
And we're really excited because they created for us, just for using our cheese, a product called Impossible Standard.
And so it's on their vegan menu.
Now, many, I don't know if many of you, your audience will know, but Bear Burger has 31 stores or so in the Upper East Coast of the United States.
They're not, you know, they've got their traditional, hamburgers, and they've got a, you know, a selection of, of vegan options for their audience, their patrons.
And so, They loved our cheese, and so they decided to collaborate with us because it doesn't come, so, you know, it, it's all about taste and texture and meltability.
And so, Chef Misha, their executive chef, their chief chef, determined that there was no compromise on On the taste and the texture, using our cheese.
And so it's offered actually to all their, whether you're a, you know, vegan or plant-based dieter, or you're omnivore or flexitarian, it's offered to anybody.
And so what, just kind of anecdotally, people have come to their restaurants, ordered a regular burger, and put our cheese.
On their regular burger, which is kind of, I think, we can talk about this a little bit later, but that's sort of the trend that we're seeing, , in, in the consumer.
You know, their, their eating habits.
Yeah, definitely.
So do you think that Almond Fresh and Beer Burger both sort of have the same mindset and bringing plant-based cheese to consumers then?
Yeah, so, so the collaboration, was forged, created, started, because we both have sort of the same vision of, sustainability, and, insecurity and, and, inclusivity.
And so, you know, they, they want to do things that offer, a great tasting option, right?
But at the same time, sensitive to , the industry trends where people are conscious about, you know, what they're putting in their bodies, they want to be a little bit healthier, etc.
And we, you know, our goal and, and, and our mission, our vision, It it's, you know, it's embedded in the name of the company, Armored Fresh.
And people have asked me about, hey, where did you guys come up with that name?
Because it's kind of a, a peculiar name to a food company, right?
We're, you know, our, our vision, our mission is to, guard and protect people's health and -being, while at the same time, guarding and protecting our environment and our animals.
So, so that's kind of, you know, where we both kind of meet together.
And, and as I mentioned before, at the same time, not compromising on the taste and texture, and, and, you know, the eating experience of, of, people and their, And their patrons and their guests.
Mhm, OK, nice, fantastic.
So what about the ingredients that you're using in these dairy-free cheeses?
Is it, is your whole range, made from oat-based ingredients?
Yeah, that's interesting.
I, I guess I could go back, you know, into our sort of the genesis of, of the, our company's creation and, and getting into, Our, plant-based cheese.
And so, initially we started off with, using coconut oil, and it tasted OK.
But our, our vision, , and, and I actually, I don't know if your audience knows, but the, the, the , plant-based cheese category, was offered to the US market 50, almost 50, 60 years ago.
And for a better part of that history, you know, it's basically a science experiment.
Not a lot of people were putting money into it.
And it was very, it was a niche product for a very specific small segment of the, the, the, the consumers, right?
So, who are vegans.
And, , and it hasn't, it wasn't probably until the last 5 years or so where people started to think about, hey, you know, we should make it taste pretty good.
And so taste and texture, the, , you know, people's experience came into more focus in the last 5 years or so.
That's when we started.
And so, They, we started out with coconut oil, but we also thought from the very beginning that we wanted to not compete at the, at the vegan level, but at the dairy level, right?
So our competition, what we think about is we're competing not with, you know, other vegan companies, but with Kraft's and Borden's and the Sargentos of the world that are here in the US.
And so, when we came out with our first product, it, it was OK, but it didn't really, couldn't compete, in terms of taste, texture with the crafts, with the Bordens, with the dairy versions of it.
And so we scrapped that, and then, we offered almond milk.
Almond milk was, was received, and we launched with that into our, the consumer market.
And then we started to talk about this time last year, we started talking with our food service folks.
They loved it, of course, but they said, hey, Andrew and Arm Refresh, guys, we can't use almond milk in our food service side because of the nut allergies.
Excuse me.
So, so that, that's when we pivoted to using oat milk, because oat milk doesn't have those restrictions.
And so, so that's where we are.
And, and , the, the innovation that we're using, there's a couple of different or 3 different, technology that we've created to in-house to, improve the taste, and our products, right?
And so, first, the 1st 2 is patented.
And the last one is a kind of a protocol.
The first one is called, method for manufacturing vegetable cheese, using Lactic acid bacteria.
And, and in turn, that's a, that's a mouthful, right?
So, internally, we call that our key mix.
Maybe not unlike, you know, how Coca-Cola uses their key mix to, to manufacture.
It's, it allows our, plant-based, milk to go through a natural fermentation process.
The second technology that we use is called, method for making vegetable cheese using plant-based ingredients.
It's also known as our aroma compound.
It, it, it defines the temperature, it defines time, and a lot of other, , processes that allows us to kind of mimic the, the dairy, cheese.
And the last one is called TPS.
It's called Taste analysis protocol, solution.
And this is a protocol that we use.
First, we, we, measure and test out the world-renowned global cheeses, and how they do that.
And so we kind of mimic that and, , it, it helps us to, , come up with our flavor profiles and, improve our overall taste, of our products.
And so, we use those three technologies that we, developed in-house to kind of continuously improve the products that we put out, into the marketplace.
