Griffith Foods: Future alt-protein will rely on diverse sources
13 Dec 2022 | Griffith Foods
The next generation of plant-based foods will be highly nutritious and sourced from diverse, sustainable proteins, according to Rochelle Schaetzl, marketing manager for Griffith Foods Europe. She demonstrates three generations of alt-protein, evolving in sophistication, taste and nutrition. Schaetzl also delves into the current price challenges facing the plant-based market and what lower prices could mean in terms of consumer perception.
This is Missy Green at FI Europe 2022.
I'm here with Rochelle at Griffith Foods.
Hi Missy, thank you for having me and visiting us at Griffith Foods.
Our purpose is to bring care and creativity to nourish the world.
This means that we are working with our customers to find ways and bring nutrition and nutritious foods to everyone.
On a daily basis, the future of alternative protein is definitely to go beyond mimics and to bring more exciting, more nourishing dishes that consumers want to eat so that it becomes a natural choice for them to move away from animal protein.
What we are showing at the event this year is basically the three generations of alternative protein.
Dishes.
Generation 1 is what we all know, the classical mimics, a chicken nugget, a fish finger, a pork sausage.
Generation 2 then starts creating, adding more flavor, more nutrition into that such as like this Thai fish cake application, but generation 3 really starts making it exciting where we move totally beyond mimics into a space of plant-based proteins served.
In a nutritious, healthy, tasty way.
This protein ring has got a cereal coating that also addresses the biodiversity challenge that we have in in such a way that we are no longer only relying on pea and soy protein, but also looking at cereals, ancient grains and different unique plant-based species to try and address the protein need.
So is the, is the next generation of sustainable protein, a question of different protein sources?
I absolutely hope so.
I, I sincerely hope that we would move away from just relying on pea and soy and looking at a more balanced, more integrated, diverse combination of plants.
Species to meet the nutritional needs but also to be responsible towards the biodiversity challenges we have on the planet.
And what's also the correlation with pricing of alternative proteins?
Yeah, I think at the moment based on just scale and volume, alternative protein on a like for like basis is perceived to be more expensive than animal protein.
And I think this is where most consumers are battling in their own minds to, to clarify it for themselves because how can plants be more expensive than animal protein if you take into consideration the rearing and the costs of it.
That being said, it is the volume of scale, it is the industrialization that will actually drive price points down and that I believe is also one of the challenges in the alternative.
Protein space because the moment we start seeing the prices coming down, we will see different forces play out in the alternative protein space.
What kind of forces do you mean there?
What I believe is that consumers at the moment are no longer prepared to pay a premium for plant-based, and that could be one of the hindrances of why they are not making the.
The switch as quickly or as easy as we would want it to be, the other part also is that the moment the price goes down, people don't value it as much and and I do think that it's also from a responsible farming and industrialization practice perspective, going to be more responsible for us to actually pay what it's worth like for the manufacturing thereof.
Thank you very much.
