Consumer concern around processed ingredients for plant-based foods have raised questions about transparency and nutritional benefits, while taste and texture of these products continue to pose challenges for widespread adoption, pushing brands to innovate with cleaner labels to meet evolving consumer expectations.
During the Plant-Based World Expo in New York City last month, Novonesis featured its Vertera ProBite biosolution technology, which cross links amino acids in plant proteins like pea or soy protein isolates and concentrates, reducing the need for other additives like hydrocolloids, according to David Joiner, director of sales and technical service for Novonesis new foods & protein North America division, who spoke with FoodNavigator-USA during the show.
Vertera Probite, which was formulated into plant-based ham and pepperoni prototypes “brings the protein together … so that it has the right bite that consumers would expect from an animal-based counterpart,” Joiner explained.
Creating a shorter, potentially ‘cleaner’ ingredient deck
Along with addressing textural and taste issues, Vertera Probite also provides a reduced ingredient deck, Joiner said.
“Because the ingredient is a processing aid, it does not need to be put on the label. If a CPG [company] desires it to be on the label, they could list it as [an] enzyme,” he explained.
Most often though, companies prefer to go for a “cleaner label,” Joiner added.
“If we take an example of a plant-based meat …[which] in the past might have had another ingredient like methyl cellulose or some hydrocolloids like carrageenan or alginate or xantham gum, then the producers can actually take those types of ingredients out and replace that with … Probite, and then it does not need to go on the label,” he said.
Joiner continued, “You could substitute two or more ingredients and reduce the length of the label and make sure that the label is clean so that it would only contain things like protein, water, oil, maybe some flavorings and so forth.”
