CP Kelco has partnered with Chr. Hansen to introduce consumer-friendly, shelf-stable, plant-based yogurt alternatives – Vegurts.
The vegurts was earlier available for sample tasting at the CP Kelco at Food Ingredients Europe (FIE) in Paris in December.
Consumer demand for more sustainable food choices has driven an explosion in launches of plant-based alternatives to traditional dairy products. Within these categories, manufacturers and retailers have recognized the advantages of shelf-stable products which can reduce food waste and increase geographical reach. For consumers, ambient-stable products offer convenience. However, to embrace regular consumption, consumers are not ready to compromise on taste, nutrition, and the “naturalness” of shelf-stable, plant-based products.
Nutritious great tasting plant-based yogurt made possible via collaboration
CP Kelco and Chr. Hansen have closely collaborated to demonstrate that production of nutritious and great-tasting, ambient, plant-based yogurt alternatives are possible for a variety of different plant bases. The result of this collaboration includes industrially validated prototypes of drinkable and spoonable vegurts with either oat, soy, pea, coconut or almond bases.
Christian Gilleladen, Principal Application Scientist at Chr. Hansen said, “The technological challenge to produce both spoonable and drinkable ambient vegurts with great nutrition, taste and texture is significant. Selecting the right culture to provide fermentation performance, texture and flavor for each recipe, and having these complement the stabilization and flavor systems is critical to making great products.”
Gilleladen added, “By working together, we have been able to unlock the synergies between ingredients and process to produce a variety of desired thicknesses and mouthfeel.”
Anne Sinha, Marketing Director at CP Kelco said, “This collaboration represents a new way of helping our respective customers accelerate their product development and access technical application support globally. With access to teams who know each other and work together well, and who are closely connected to other global ingredient producers, customers can benefit from an integrated team of world-leading experts with insights across their entire development chain.”
Prototype recipes can be customized
To date, a range of vegurt prototypes are available to food producers for tasting, and they have received positive feedback from select customers. The prototype recipes can be tweaked to meet specific requirements for sugar, protein, fat, texture and flavor, thanks to the comprehensive expertise in fermentation, stabilization, flavor, processing and packaging offered by the collaboration.
“Formulating plant-based vegurts is not straight forward, and we want to help our customers to be best in class by offering our joint technical expertise,” said Tora Jorn, Sales Technical Service Manager at CP Kelco. “Together, we look forward to this opportunity of sharing our support and helping with the development of the flavors, textures and nutritional profiles our customers are targeting when they embark on the plant-based, shelf-stable vegurts journey.”
