Ingredion: Balancing taste, texture and dairy-like experience in vegan cheese
14 Jun 2024 | Ingredion
Louisa Parrillo, strategic marketing lead - dairy & alternatives and emerging markets and Thomas Grataloup, technical service manager for dairy at Ingredion, discuss the advancements and manufacturing challenges in formulating vegan cheese and the gap in “melting” that such alternatives deal with. They also shine light upon the potential of dairy substitutes to be recognized as a separate category in the future.
This is Inha Noreen from CNS Media, journalist at Food Ingredients First.
Today I'm delighted to be joined by Louisa and Thomas from Ingredient to dive into the vegan cheese sector and alternative dairy advancements.
A very warm welcome to both of you.
Would you please like to introduce yourself?
Yeah, absolutely.
Hi, Isa, and thanks so much for having us today.
It's a pleasure to be here.
My name's Louisa Perillo.
I'm the strategic marketing manager for dairy and dairy alternatives at Ingredient for Europe, and I also take care of emerging markets for marketing as.
Hi Inja, thank you for having us.
I'm Thomas Gallou.
I'm the Dairy and Dairy alternative technical Service Manager at Ingredient within Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Wonderful.
Pleased to have you both here with us today.
So let's dive right into it.
Louisa, would you start by telling us about the latest consumer trends that are driving innovation in vegan cheese?
Yeah, so, it's interesting because the category's really evolving.
When, when plant-based dairy or plant-based cheese was introduced a few years ago, it was really about veganism and avoiding all animal products, but now, there's more dietary preference around health and sustainability, and those are really the top reasons why people want to sort of try or get into plant-based, cheese or dairy in general.
He's definitely the strongest driver.
I think over 40% of people claim health is their, their number one priority.
It's interesting too that that number of people has actually tripled over the last 5 years.
So, you know, the category is really growing, particularly with younger people.
So we see a lot of sort of 16 to 34 year olds, sort of trying plant-based, and again, that, that health claim on the front of pack for products is really, really key for them.
So as as health, the other things that are sort of driving the category are clean labels and ethical claims, and they sort of go hand in hand with this health preference.
There's, there needs to be a lot of transparency around sourcing it, and manufacturing, and I would say that's almost a sort of a, a baseline or a hygiene factor with these products because of the association with the sort of health and environmental.
The category is still doing , actually, despite some inflationary pressures we've seen, you know, and we, we, we're seeing some rebounding already.
So, despite, you know, most of Europe really struggling the last sort of 24 months, plant-based dairy has done even better, I would say, than meat alternatives.
So, it's, it's good news for us.
Yeah, yeah, that sounds interesting to know, and I think Thomas can tell us a bit about the key challenges that manufacturers face while they're formulating vegan cheese.
OK, so, when, if, if we really have a look at the, the manufacturing process, you know, like the different steps of the production of the vegan cheese, in some ways, it's, it's easier to produce than, than 100% dairy because, , one of the key factors like generally the process steps are shorter.
It takes less time to have the final product on , on the shelf.
But it comes with a lot of challenges, and to illustrate that, you can simply look at a bit of the back of the pack of those products on the market and you will see that it's containing different kinds of carbohydrates such as starch, modified starch.
There is more and more plant-based protein that is introduced in it, which is great in terms of nutritional, but also add complexity, you know, plenty of different sources.
For this kind of ingredients, it may be sometimes combined with hydrocaloids, with fibers, and it adds a lot of complexity, you know, which ingredient to choose, in which ratio to be used, and which ones are complementary to each other, and I think that's the first challenge that manufacturers are facing.
Then Those ingredients, they will also have certain needs to be, in terms of process to be properly functionalized and also certain behavior on the line, and that's key for the manufacturers to keep their manufacturing process as efficient as possible.
So it's all about a balance in terms of formulation and choosing the right, the right ingredients.
And of course we can't take also out of the picture completely, you know, the consumer.
The final consumer needs and you know, like the eating expense of the final consumer, so providing the right texture, the right atmosphere, the right functionality, and that's all.
The challenge is to balance that, how to make the process efficient and at the same time providing the right functionality and eating experience to the final consumer.
And if I could just chip in there, I think, I think one thing you didn't mention, which is paramount, although texture is part of it, is taste, right?
So nobody's gonna have a pro, nobody wants to eat a product that doesn't taste good.
So, primarily taste and texture, are, are the main drivers still, and so that's the tricky balance that, that Tama is, is constantly trying to achieve.
Yes, indeed.
And Louisa, while you are touching upon the taste factor, I would also like to ask about the cheese stretch and pull that people love so much in their pizzas and whatever dishes that cheese is used in.
So what do you like to expand on how when Gideon is tackling that challenge?
Yeah, what, what we try and do is sort of look for the unmet needs in a product and, and try and fulfill those needs, right, for our customers, but eventually the end consumers.
So, to be honest, Tomas is the expert in this, so I'm going to hand over to him in terms of how we achieve those stretch and pulls.
But I can tell you that we're creating a dairy.
Like experience is still really important.
And so, although people recognize these products don't include, or sometimes they do because they're hybrid, but mostly they're plant-based, they still want to feel like it's dairy.
So, over to you, Tama, and you can, give us a snapshot of, of how we do that technically.
So, so in, in, in the recent past, we have, we have launched several products to address these needs and improve, you know, in terms of texture, you know, in plant-based, plant-based cheese.
And, what we have seen is that there was always a gap, you know, in terms of, first in terms of melting.
So we still see the plant-based alternatives that are not melting as much as as dairy or not, not the same, really the same properties.
And also what we have seen as a trend, you know, there is more and more protein enrichment, which is great for nutritional purpose, but with plant-based proteins that are not behaving the same way as dairy protein, they won't melt the same way as as a milk protein.
So it's becoming even more a challenge now to make sure that those enriched protein products melt as good, and in the recent, recently we have launched two new products, two starches, one modified and one cleanable, that are really providing great melting performance and and Really easy to to use for the manufacturer and and also providing for the cleanable version, , an advantage in terms of of labeling for the final consumer.
Yeah, those, those sound really interesting.
I'm looking forward to those products.
And what advancement do you expect in the future in the vegan cheese domain, Thomas?
So, for, for the future, I think that, yeah, there, in the past, there was a lot of work, of course, done on On, And using, you know, what ingredients, you know, we already have on our portfolio, you know, like modified starch, starch and things like that, and now there is The beautiful thing that I said at the beginning, you know, the complexity and the wider range of ingredients, it's almost becoming a help now.
We will have to explore new things, and there is already great things ongoing in terms of, you know, modifying properties of protein or improving the properties of protein to add more value to in terms of texture also and functionality additionally to the nutritional profile.
So I think it will go really through that.
And it will go still via combining, you know, different, different kind of ingredients, you know, like having, working with flavor and taste, but also on, on the fermentation, for example, to improve taste, to improve texture, and leveraging new source of plant-based protein and new source also of of texturizer that we are not necessarily considered that much in the past.
And I think that will bring us to the next level in terms of, of providing the right, you know, final consumer eating experience.
That's nice.
And I think it would be nice to wrap up this, the wonderful cheesy conversation with Luisa telling us about what she expects in the alternative dairy advancements maybe in the next 5 to 10 years.
Yeah, I think given the evolution we've already seen, sort of from vegan to flexitarianism, I think, you know, the products that are going to succeed in the category are really going to be the ones that deliver on that great eating experience that Tama was talking about, but that really sort of harvest the power of, like, innovation and, and technology, really.
So, it's, it's moving food forward or moving vegan food, or I should say plant-based food forward to the point that these dairy alternatives are not just about creating that dairy.
Like experience anymore.
They actually stand on their own 2 ft as, as viable products as plant-based.
So, not just about matching dairy, but recognized, and developed as a category by itself, , with their specific benefits and attributes standing alone.
I think that's what's coming next.
And I think as people become more familiar and more open to trying new parts of dairy alternatives, that's going to happen actually, probably quite quickly.
Yeah, that's an interesting way to look at it, certainly.
And thank you so much for your time, Thomas and Louisa.
It's a wonderful and it's just a great pleasure to have you with us today.
So have a great day.
Thanks so much.
