FiE: Roquette’s strategies for navigating the future of plant-based nutrition
18 Jan 2024 | Roquette
At FiE 2023, in Frankfurt, Germany, we sat down with Christine Beauvois, Roquette’s head of food customer technical service in Europe, and Benjamin Voiry, the company’s head of marketing plant proteins, to discuss the latest plant-based innovations and the markets and trends they speak to. We also looked at sugar reduction, fiber fortification and what the company has planned for 2024.
Hello everybody, this is William Bradford Nichols for Nutrition Insight, and I am live from Food ingredients Europe in Frankfurt, Germany.
Today we are speaking with Christine Beauvois, the head of customer technical service in Europe at Roquette.
Christine, how are you?
Hello, I'm very fine.
And we are also talking to Benjamin Blay, the head of marketing and for plant proteins at Roquette.
Hello, how are you today?
Good, thanks.
We're excited to talk to you.
I've got some questions already for you.
OK, I'll jump right in.
Can you elaborate and tell us about some of the specific innovations in plant-based prototypes that you're showcasing this year?
So today on our booth Visitors we will be able to discover really new concepts, breakthrough concepts based on three main pillars, which will be the positive nutrition, the new cuisine, and also some concepts about transparency because It's really important for consumers and for our customers to make sure that our recipe and our proposal are really understandable from a tasty with a nice texture and healthy products.
How do the live cooking demonstrations that are going on behind you right now, how does the live cooking demonstrations reflect the practical your ingredients in everyday food products.
So of course our ingredients can be used easily in the kitchen, but not only because in the application team we are proving that we can move from a bench area to lab to pilot and then to enable our customers to scale up what we develop in our labs and pilots on industrial lines.
What inspired the creation of the unique food concepts that you have on display like the plant-based mimosa and the no added sugar cookies, and what trends and markets do they speak to?
That's a very good question.
In fact, we are answering requests from our customers as a B2B solution provider on specific key trends.
One you mentioned is definitely sugar management, where we can offer products that.
Answering by reducing the sugar but keeping a product that will taste good and be indulgent at the same time we can offer other prototypes in a more plant-based area to the needs of more plant-based products, also ing solutions for the fiber gap, addressing solution with nutrients soluble fiber that is allowing and improving as we want food indulgent and tasty products for a good texture.
In different, very interesting.
Can you tell me how does Roquette's portfolio address the three key areas of development that you've outlined positive nutrition, new cuisine, and transparency?
So as mentioned here, the prototypes are aligned with that.
To give you an example, that would be, for example, a titanium dioxide solution for chewing gum coating that will be a gelatin replacement for a confectionery.
That would be how you can enrich the positive nutrition a granola product with the texture of pea protein or that would be how you can make her gray tea with added organic pea protein to get this nice fog application.
That's great.
You mentioned earlier that over 50% of European consumers are reducing their meat consumption.
How do Roquette's solutions cater to this market shift?
You're right to mention it, and it's For us answering for our customers, how they translate that into product development.
Some of them would like to mimic products.
Some of them would like to make a totally new experiences.
For example, in our example, a product called Mimosa where we kind of be inspired by Asia.
Asia are able to offer products with a specific bite and not something that will compare to another existing product with a very good nutritional profile.
Can you provide us some insights into how Roquette's ingredients can be tailored to meet specific formulation needs for food manufacturers?
Yes, so in our Food Innovation center, we will manage to support our customers by providing them really dedicated solutions either on sugar management, fiber and.
Plant-based proposal to answer to their needs.
So we will have a lot of different matrixes, food matrixes either in the savory area or the dairy or the baking area and of course the confectionery really to make sure that we could develop.
With them it's really a hand on hand approach that we have to develop with their R&D center the proper recipes that they need.
It's really important to emphasize this point of exchanging, understanding the needs and being able to get this also in our facilities in our lab to get a fruitful exchange and development.
Looking beyond 2023, what future trends in plant-based food does Roquet anticipate, and how is the company preparing to meet these trends?
I think the trends we mentioned on sugar management fiber are here to stay, but it's kind of always some small evolution.
All our customers try to find new products, new developments, and it's likely it's getting more complex.
So that's why we absolutely want.
To position us as listening to their needs and adapt either based on our existing range or link to our innovation, or we can continue to support our customers.
I have one final question, and that is what can we expect from Roquet in 2024?
2024.
You can expect continued discussion for sure, new innovation in fiber, in protein, in carbs in tax rising, but really we need to talk.
Thank you both so much for talking to us and sharing your insights today.
I hope you have a great rest of the show, and we look forward to hearing more from Roquette in the future.
Thank you very much.
