Expanding plant-based offerings with chickpea and wheat ingredients
16 Nov 2018 | Epi & Co
At this years’ SIAL trade show in Paris, Epi & Co presented their plant-based concepts which are making waves across France. As the demand for plant-based core meal solutions heats up across Europe, Epi & Co, part of the French cooperative group, Tereos, is offering new wheat and chickpea based gourmet specialties made from ingredients that have been sourced locally in France and Germany. Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, David Cygler noted that while the company started at the end of 2015, the whole range only came into existence a few months ago. “The idea behind our products was to use wheat and chickpea ingredients to develop meat alternatives, for the growing population of flexitarians in Europe. The range is vegan-friendly, kosher and halal as well,” he says.
This is Elizabeth Green.
I'm at Seat Paris 2018.
I'm with David Siegler, who is part of EP and Co.
EPR EP and are part of Terrios, who are sort of innovating on the plant-based protein side.
So maybe you can tell me a bit more about What you're here exhibiting at the show, of course, thank you for the interview.
EP is a new brand which initiated about 2 years ago, and we've just one product.
We received an award for innovation 2030.
We were a winner actually of this this competition.
We've developed a full range of products which target consumers who want to eat less animal proteins and who are looking for more plant-based products.
So what are the ingredients that you use for your products?
The products are the raw materials we use in the range of products are mostly sourced in France.
The wheat, it's wheat and chickpeas mostly.
These raw materials, they come from France and a little bit of Germany as because we are at the German borderline.
We have green lentils coming from the southwest of France and some seeds are sourced in the rest of Europe as , mostly Austria.
Fantastic.
So what trends do your sort of products answer to in the industry as a whole?
We realized that there's a real need for people to eat less, less animal byproducts or products, and we wanted to develop a range which can seduce most people who want to eat a healthy alternative, a nutritious and tasty product which you can cook easily and you can use very, very quickly.
The range consists of 6 different products.
Some come with veg, inclusion of veg and seeds, and they will perfectly fit for recipes in ethnic foods, in traditional French cooking as for meat-free alternatives.
Fantastic.
So are you looking to sort of further expand this range or the way that you use the ingredients perhaps to extend the range?
Yes, the range could be extended.
It all started with one product.
We have now 6, and maybe we will develop other recipes.
We have the capability to develop different shapes, different flavors as , so.
Yes, as long as there's demand there, exactly, exactly, fantastic.
So can you tell me a bit more about the relationship that you have with Terreos?
OK, we are 100% part of Terreos.
The plant, the manufacturing plant is based in Alsace, and in Alsace we work with mostly wheat and corn, and we decided to develop this range from Alsace because we source.
Wheat from Alsace and most of the raw materials used in Eianco are sourced in Alsace or very close from Alsace.
That's why it all started there.
That's it.
That's great, David.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
