Hybrid product innovations encourage consumers to eat more plant-based

Sabrina Buitenhuis, Business Development Manager at Ruitenberg Ingredients.

Hybrid products help bridge the gap for consumers from a meat-heavy diet to a more sustainable, plant-based way of eating. This development fits within the broader trend identified by The Protein Community as Blended Plantification. Sabrina Buitenhuis, Business Development Manager at Ruitenberg Ingredients, understands why consumers are now embracing these products. Adding plant-based proteins to animal-based products responds to an important consumer need: food that is both tasty and familiar. Buitenhuis explains how Ruitenberg Ingredients develops hybrid products and finds the right partners for this within The Protein Community.

How does The Protein Community support Ruitenberg Ingredients in hybrid product development?

“When Ruitenberg Ingredients became active in the plant-based sector, the network of The Protein Community was indispensable,” says Buitenhuis. “In that early phase, you are looking for partners in a market that is still unfamiliar. Ruitenberg Ingredients has a strong customer base in the meat sector and supplies casings, premixes and fillings. For plant-based alternatives, the company initially had very few customers. When I started at Ruitenberg Ingredients more than nine years ago, plant-based developments were only just beginning.”

What does Ruitenberg Ingredients offer in terms of plant-based protein sources?

“By now, Ruitenberg Ingredients has developed the Plantify product line and has the in-house expertise to co-develop high-quality hybrid products with companies. These products are made from fava beans, peas and, more recently, protein from brewers’ spent grain. They offer a meat-like texture, have a neutral flavour and are available in different colours, depending on what best suits the application.”

“The strongest point of Plantify is that the products maintain a good bite and the right moisture balance in the end product. When animal protein is replaced with plant-based protein, bite often decreases and more moisture is added. With our product line, we see that both bite and juiciness match what the application with animal meat requires.”

Why is there now demand for plant-based proteins that combine well with animal proteins?

“Plantify responds to the industry’s growing focus on hybrid rather than 100% plant-based products. Hybrid products meet the needs of a broader group of consumers. Only a small group of highly motivated consumers who aim to eat more sustainably regularly choose meat alternatives and eat more plant-based. Most consumers simply want familiar, tasty food.”

“Inflation, as well as retailers’ sustainability targets, is increasing demand from food producers. On the one hand, producers respond to the objectives of their customers, the retailers. Most retailers aim to sell fewer animal-based and more plant-based proteins within five years. On the other hand, the price of several animal proteins is rising. Both buyers and consumers want products to remain affordable.”

Are there specific applications that are currently particularly suitable for plantification?

“The rising prices of beef and pork certainly offer opportunities for our Plantify product line. Chicken is still somewhat cheaper, especially in processed meat products. At the same time, our products are more price-stable and also structurally more sustainable and richer in fibre than any animal-based protein ingredient.”

Do producers specifically ask for a healthier product composition when choosing to develop with Plantify?

“Producers mainly want to develop a more plant-based product with the same quality as the 100% animal-based variant. Health and sustainability are certainly important, but ultimately the most important thing for consumers is that it tastes just as good as always. Ideally, they buy the products they have always bought and those products happen to be more sustainable, without them really noticing.”

How much animal protein can be replaced with Plantify plant-based protein?

“In using Plantify, we see that up to 20% replacement is possible without adjustments to the recipe, such as adding extra binding agents. Plantify retains moisture well, which is also beneficial during preparation. Not too much moisture is released from the meat during frying. The range of applications is broad: from raw meat to cooked processed meat products to cold cuts and spreads. We are currently also working on dry sausage.”

Above 20% replacement, several factors need to be addressed. In addition to moisture content requiring attention, the colour of the plant-based protein may become noticeable. Animal protein browns during frying; our protein does not. If a customer chooses the brown plant-based protein, this is visible in the uncooked product. In the case of a pink variant, the protein does not change colour during frying. Ultimately, Ruitenberg Ingredients has the expertise in-house and within the TPC network to develop the product exactly as desired.

How do you see the market for hybrid protein products developing?

“Requests for 100% plant-based alternatives have really declined, and especially in the Netherlands we see increasing demand for hybrid products. We see some growth in demand from Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It remains to be seen how quickly demand for hybrid products will increase in the rest of Europe. Culinary traditions and consumer behaviour differ between countries. At the same time, the desire for familiar, tasty food is universal, and in many countries the step towards 100% plant-based products is still quite large. Hybrid products offer a solution in this respect – for consumers, but certainly also for producers and retailers.”

Source: EiwitTrends

Read the original article (in Dutch) on Eiwittrends.nl: