‘Hybrids are coming’: Making the case for cell-cultured and plant-based blends
The idea is that by incorporating cultivated ingredients into plant-based products, the end product is more likely to match the nutritional profile of its conventional counterpart.
FLORA SOUTHEY: From soy-based sausages to pea protein burgers, the plant-based category is booming. According to EU data, Europeans’ consumption of plant-based food increased by 49% between 2018 and 2020. At the same time, meat sales – particularly of chicken and poultry – are on the rise. This begs the question: are meat eaters truly satisfied by plant-based options on the market? Industry experts at the recent Alt Protein Conference by Protein Directory and Cell Agri were unconvinced, making the case for plant-based and cell-cultured hybrid products to satisfy meat eaters’ cravings in the not-so-distant future.
“Hybrid products are coming,” Olivia de Talancé, COO at French cultivated meat start-up Vital Meat, told the event. Vital Meat is developing a cell-based chicken product, with plans to expand into duck, white fish, and pork in the future. “They are going to be scalable; they are going to be in our supermarkets; and we are going to get regulatory approval for that”…
Perhaps the strongest argument for developing cell-cultured and plant-based blends lies in the ‘king’ of all senses: taste… It is not all about taste, however. The ‘entire sensory experience’, including appearance, texture, and aroma, is key to consumer adoption, according to David Welch, CSO and co-founder at food focused VC and private equity firm Synthesis Capital. “I think once cultivated meat companies can demonstrate a significant improvement in those sensory attributes, compared to existing plant-based formulations, they are going to have a really compelling value proposition”…
In making the case for cell-cultured and plant-based hybrids, the experts stressed lab-grown ingredients can also play a positive role – although ‘somewhat secondary’ to taste – in nutrition. The idea here is that by incorporating cultivated ingredients into plant-based products, the end product is more likely to match the nutritional profile of its conventional counterpart… While the cell-cultured and plant-based matrix may be one of the first to reach market when cultivated fat receives regulatory approval, the ingredient needn’t be pigeonholed within the plant-based meat analogue space. SOURCE…
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