Scaling Balanced Proteins: Dutch Lessons on Balanced Products Go International

The Netherlands is a global frontrunner in plant-enriched meat and dairy products, also known as balanced/hybrid products. One of the key success factors is the strong ecosystem that Foodvalley, together with The Protein Community, has helped build and strengthen.

The Protein Transition MapNL now includes more than 50 companies and organisations active in the balanced products space. Foodvalley recently shared its learnings and insights at the Hybrid Frontrunners Forum in Aarhus, Denmark. This marks the first step in Foodvalley’s Scaling Balanced Across Borders campaign, which is also the theme of its event on 6 October at the Jan Zandbergen Group Innovation Centre in Veenendaal.
In addition to Denmark, there is significant potential for collaboration to scale plant-enriched meat and dairy products in Germany, Belgium, and France. According to Jeroen Willemsen, Lead Protein Transition at Foodvalley: “We have learned a great deal while building the Dutch ecosystem for balanced meat and dairy products. The time is right to use that experience internationally and further scale Balanced Proteins in other European markets.”

How did you end up in Denmark to speak about these learnings?
“We want the renaissance of plant-enriched meat and dairy products to become a success across as much of Europe as possible. Our Danish partner, Turbo Plant, organised the Hybrid Frontrunners Forum, making it the perfect venue to share our experiences. The theme of my presentation was ‘Beyond Taste and Price’. To successfully scale hybrid products, which we refer to internationally as Balanced Products, more is needed than just great taste and affordability.”

How did you build a Dutch ecosystem around balanced products?
“Foodvalley has more than twenty years of experience in food system transformation. We understand how transitions work in practice and know our role as a scaling organisation. One of the methods we use is our EAT methodology: Entrepreneuring Apart Together. Entrepreneurship is central to this approach. Entrepreneurs must have vision, courage, and the ambition to differentiate themselves. This has led to four insights that we developed together, but which individual retailers, product developers, and other stakeholders can each apply in their own way. I am happy to share these four insights and invite people to join our community.”

What is holding back the international growth of balanced products?
“Through The Protein Community, we have a clear view of the Dutch balanced ecosystem and have evaluated together what works well and what could be improved. Communication is a major success factor, but also a potential pitfall. Consider early product launches such as Quart by Schouten Europe and Hackplus by Vion. Their packaging prominently highlighted the plant-based content with claims such as ‘25% meat, 100% tasty’. For many consumers, this raised questions. The packaging looked different and the content was different, while consumers often value familiarity.”

“What works much better is improving the recipe of existing meat products while keeping the packaging and product name unchanged. Today, this approach is used in more than 90% of plant-enriched meat products found in Dutch supermarkets.”

“At the same time, consumers must be appropriately informed about the composition. Beyond legal requirements, agreements were also made with the Dutch Consumers’ Association. Guidelines have been developed for producers and retailers on transparent labelling and website communication. Balanced dairy products are subject to specific naming regulations, which is why packaging often uses alternative but recognizable product descriptions.”

How does Foodvalley monitor sales when recipes of existing products are changed?
“This is the second element we addressed together with companies and supermarkets: monitoring market development. We closely track product offerings and screen for indicator ingredients such as jackfruit, mycoprotein, fava bean, and oyster mushroom. Together with our data partners Circana and Datascouts, we analyse sales trends and share the findings with manufacturers and retailers.”

Is there much innovation in the combinations used in balanced products?
“This brings us to the third insight: there is no single ingredient that can do everything. At lower levels of plant enrichment this is not an issue, but when aiming for higher inclusion levels, smart combinations of plant ingredients are needed to create an optimal sensory experience. Ultimately, taste and texture must convince consumers and drive repeat purchases.’’ For this reason, Foodvalley encourages supermarkets to organize sessions with their buyers, category managers, ingredient suppliers, and manufacturing partners. Together they develop innovations in balanced meat, dairy, and other categories.”

“We specifically highlight opportunities for sustainable, local, and upcycled ingredients. Supermarkets are responding positively, and we are already seeing results. The first products featuring new ingredient combinations are expected to reach store shelves within the coming year.”

Is this mainly because rising meat and animal ingredient prices have increased retailer interest?
“That certainly plays a role. At the same time, product developers in the meat and dairy industries are enthusiastic because plant enrichment was once standard practice. I recently wrote a column about this for Eiwittrends.nl called ‘Friends with Benefits’. Historically, plant ingredients were commonly used in sausages, burgers, and other meat products for juiciness, binding, and texture. Today, butchers and food craftsmen can once again build on that tradition, combining their expertise and product knowledge with modern ingredient innovation.”

What should individual companies focus on themselves?
“This is the fourth insight. Every supermarket or catering company focuses on different product categories. Some target balanced meat products, while others focus more on dairy or bakery categories, including popular items such as sausage rolls and frikandel pastries. This diversity is essential for achieving scale.”

“Another form of ‘apart’ involves the individuals driving plant-enriched products within ingredient suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and catering companies. We recognize some of these pioneers with our Golden Bean Award. In Denmark, I presented a Golden Bean pin to Jakob Skovgaard, CEO of Planet Dairy, the Danish company that partnered with Farm Dairy to develop balanced dairy products for retailers including Albert Heijn. More recently, meat technologist Jos Havekotte of the Jan Zandbergen Group also received a Golden Bean Award. Previously at Vion, he developed the Hackplus concept mentioned earlier. The experience these individuals bring is, quite literally, worth its weight in gold for future scaling efforts.”

Does the higher price of animal products play an important role in the renewed rise of balanced products?
“Yes, but it is certainly not the only success factor. What has proven crucial in the Netherlands is the deliberate effort to build a strong ecosystem. An independent organization with deep market knowledge and strong stakeholder connections, such as Foodvalley, plays a key role. This includes sharing knowledge together and sometimes taking the lead on challenging issues. Earlier this year, Foodvalley published an inventory of plant-enriched products available in Dutch supermarkets. The report attracted significant media attention. Some of our partners, including meat processors and retailers, found that quite exciting. In the end, however, they appreciated that it clearly demonstrated that plant-enriched products are back and showed how consumers can recognise them.”

Can the Dutch ecosystem create value internationally as well?
“Last year, we conducted a feasibility study for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture on how the Netherlands can maximize both sustainability and economic impact through protein innovation. Balanced products emerged as a particularly strong proposition because the Dutch ecosystem combines companies, solutions, and practical experience. We see this reflected in the growing number of international companies joining The Protein Community. The Protein Transition Map currently shows more than 50 organizations active in the balanced domain. Many international visitors use the map to connect with Dutch solution providers.”

The theme of the Foodvalley event on 6 October is ‘Scaling Balanced Across Borders’. What can participants expect?
“During our event, Innovation Insights: Friends for Scaling, we will explore this topics in greater depth. We will share the key ecosystem focus areas for scaling beyond the Netherlands, including communication, market monitoring, smart ingredient combinations, legislation, and country-specific strategies. We will ask participants two questions: Who feels called to contribute to one of these focus areas? And what role do you personally want to play in scaling balanced products?”

“Foodvalley enables partners within its communities to help steer progress together with their neighbours. These neighbours are not competitors but partners who can support one another in scaling efforts. They are not competitors with common interests, but partners for scaling. Through collaboration in scaling balanced products, new market opportunities are created for everyone. Entrepreneuring Apart Together.”

This article was originally published in Dutch on Eiwittrends.nl. Read the original article in Dutch.