Author: Pieter Hermans

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Plant-based meat analogues: The taste challenges and prospects

taste

Despite the fast progress of delivering specific meaty cooking cues in today’s modern plant-based meat analogues, authentic beefy, chicken or pork sensorial experiences are still missing. This is due to different challenges facing both the flavor and the food industry alike; first (i) the overwhelmingly intrinsic off flavor profile coming from textured plant proteins used, then (ii) the flavor-scavenging feature of the plant proteins and meat analogues other ingredients they suck up the flavors like a sponge sucks up water, which leads to unbalanced flavor performance and weaker and inconsistent flavor stability and finally (iii) the lack of authentic vegan and natural meaty flavors that would create the genuine characterizing meat sensory experience.

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The shift towards alternative protein, an investor’s perspective

Big Idea Ventures

Investors are constantly looking out for innovation within the alternative protein industry, including plant-based and cell-based technology. Big Idea Ventures (BIV) supports the world’s best entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers. We have invested more than 40 companies in the alternative protein sector and will be highlighting several technologies that are established by our portfolio companies.

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Quorn -a case study in the development and marketing of a new protein

qurorn
  1. Something is broken in the way we produce and consume our food
  2. Our demand for cheaper and more plentiful food is unsustainable and our addiction to meat is literally costing the earth
  3. Malnutrition and food inequality remains unacceptable with over 20% of global non communicable disease now attributed to poor diets – worse than smoking.
  4. We can no longer separate the impacts of our dietary choices on their impacts on the health of our bodies and of the planet as well.
  5. We need healthy new proteins with a low environmental impact as an important tool to help address a sustainable food future.
  6. We need scientific underpinning to create a strong evidence and proof points for change that will help to change behaviour and remove consumer uncertainty. The Quorn story is a good example of what has to be done and, importantly, what continues to be done
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Protein transitions: fermentation, cultivated meat and structured meat

fermentation

This article is written by Fernanda Condi de Godoi, Chemical Engineer, PhD.

The 2020 World Population Data Sheet projects that the world population will increase from 7.8 billion in 2020 to 9.9 billion by 20501. Not only the global population growth but the rising understanding of the inefficiency in protein conversion through livestock meat production2 drives the transition from animal to plant-based protein sources.

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PepsiCo and Beyond Meat Establish Joint Venture to Introduce New Plant-Based Protein Offerings

pepsico

It is called The PLANeT Partnership. This joint venture will develop, produce and market innovative snack and beverage products made from plant-based protein. The joint venture will leverage Beyond Meat’s leading technology in plant-based protein development and PepsiCo’s world-class marketing and commercial capabilities to create and scale new snack and beverage options.

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