What makes plant-based food a real success?

GEA has released a white paper explaining how taste, texture, and moisture control are direct commercial performance indicators when it comes to plant-based food products. 

The white paper suggests that people try alternative proteins for health, sustainability, or price, but ultimately, they would purchase again only if the food tastes good. 

(Source: GEA)

There are several points to consider when ensuring palatable plant-based food:

Since plant-based substrates behave differently from meat, they require different process strategies depending on the format. For instance, a plant-based burger would have a different process strategy from a hybrid plant-based format.

Another concern for manufactures is moisture management. Since plant-based are less juicy compared to meat, hydration is critical to ensure the preferred bite, yield, shelf life, and cooking performance.

Texture formation must be ensured early through cutting, grinding, emulsifying, mixing, and temperature control, and poor handling leads to defects later.

Other than taste, the color, coating and shape of the product impact – particularly of convenience formats – will influence a consumer’s decision to purchase.

GEA recommends testing before scale: Industrial trials ensure recipes hold up in production—formability, coating retention, moisture stability, and consistency.  The company said that for products to taste good, appetizing, and perform consistently, requires process expertise and technology integration.

Access the white paper