Company claims canola protein isolate will improve the bite, texture and mouth feel of meat, fish and dairy alternatives
A Dutch company is unveiling a canola-based product it believes will help overcome one of the biggest hurdles in the vegetable protein industry.
DSM has launched Vertis Canola-Pro, a canola protein isolate that addresses a key shortcoming of plant-based proteins.
“An estimated 30 percent of consumers in major markets identify as flexitarian,” the company said in a news release announcing the product launch.
“However, not all consumers of plant-based products are satisfied with the options on the market, which some perceive as falling short in terms of taste, texture or health.”
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DSM contends its product improves the bite and texture of meat and fish alternatives and creates a smoother mouth feel in dairy alternatives and performance nutrition products.
Taste and texture issues have been holding back the plant-based protein sector, according to recent comments by major food industry executives.
Sunny Verghese, co-founder of Olam, mentioned during a podcast kicking off the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit in Singapore that the industry has not yet figured out how to make plant-based protein palatable.
“Food is all about taste, taste, taste. Everything else comes secondary,” he said.
“So, if you can’t get the texture and flavour of the real thing through plant-based alternatives, I think adoption rates are going to be slow.”
He is hopeful there will be a technological breakthrough that fixes the taste issue and paves the way to increased uptake of alternative proteins.
Food industry executives made similar comments during the recent Plant Forward conference hosted by Protein Industries Canada, Pulse Canada and Plant-Based Foods of Canada.
“There are some barriers as an industry we need to overcome,” said Dan Magliocco, president of Danone Canada.
“This is food — it needs to taste good. This is food — it needs to be priced competitively.”
Adam Grogan, president of Greenleaf Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Maple Leaf Foods, said the struggles of companies like Beyond Meat served as a wake-up call for the industry.
“We got a flurry of activity and interest, but we didn’t keep them because the food didn’t taste good enough,” he said.
It turns out that flexitarians, or those who enjoy both meat and plant-based foods, had much higher taste expectations than vegetarians, said Grogan.
DSM’s Vertis CanolaPro is produced from canola meal in a joint venture with Avril Group, a vegetable oil processor based in France at its new facility in Dieppe.
