Consumers expect their vegurts to be as close to yogurt as possible.
So how can you give them plenty of protein, deliciously smooth texture and as few ingredients as possible?
The answers are inside the plants, waiting to be found.
Consumers want higher protein from yogurt alternatives. Legumes such as soy, pea and lentil are high in protein. That should make them ideal ingredients for high-protein plant-based vegurts. But the natural grittiness of legumes can lead to unappealing textures.
You might be able to get around these challenges by using texturizing and stabilizing agents. But then your products may no longer meet consumer demand for more natural yogurt alternatives. And adding more ingredients could mean implementing changes in your process.
Consumption of plant-based yogurts is on the rise, and the retail value of the market is expected to grow by 29.9% to 20281. Giving consumers the texture, protein and simpler labels they want from plant-based yogurts can be a challenge. Turn the challenge into an opportunity with our biosolutions.
Nutrition is key for consumers: 85% pay attention to the nutrition label when buying2. But they also care about ingredients and texture.
We’ve developed a plant-based vegurt enzyme that targets and breaks down specific amino acids in legumes. Our enzyme gives vegurt a smooth texture, even at protein levels as high as 9%.
Poorly solubilized protein can lead to an unappealing gritty texture. By increasing protein solubility, our enzyme reduces grittiness. It also improves vegurts' water-holding capacity to reduce syneresis.
That means consumers can enjoy high-protein yogurt alternatives with smooth, silky textures.
Our enzyme technology is a natural processing aid. That means it’s not functional in the final product. It’s the consumer friendly-choice to help you meet market demand for less processed yogurt alternatives.
Wondering how enzymes work in vegurt production? Our technology is easy to implement in your existing legume-based yogurt alternative production process. Simply add it to the fermentation tank along with the cultures. It will break down the proteins during fermentation.
Many consumers worry that they don’t get enough protein in their diets. So when it comes to choosing plant-based foods, they focus on this crucial building block. But giving your vegurts and spreads higher protein can impact their texture.
With Vertera® Smooth you can include more soy, pea and lentil protein in your products without affecting their texture. That means you can achieve protein increases of up to 9% and still keep the smoothness consumers love.
Enzymes haven’t just improved consumers’ experience of legume-based vegurts. They’ve also improved production by speeding up the fermentation process. That can help to make yogurt alternative production more cost effective.
Proteins consist of chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. Enzymatic protein hydrolysis involves breaking down these bonds with enzymes called proteases.
The enzymes used in plant-based vegurts depend on the type of protein in the yogurt is based. For legume-based proteins, an endo-protease is best. Endo-proteases work by breaking down bonds on the inside of the amino acid chains. The endo-protease in our enzyme for legume-based vegurts is very specific. It hydrolyzes in a controlled and limited manner to deliver a range of benefits to yogurt alternatives from legumes.
We talked to consumers to find out what they want from vegurts.
We asked what motivates them to try plant-based alternatives to yogurt, and what stops them. We also asked how much nutritional labels interest them and just how much they care about protein.
You can find the answers to all these questions and more inside our consumer insights report.
How can you develop delicious plant-based spreads, drinks and vegurts with great texture and nutritional profiles as well as shorter ingredient lists? The answers to all these questions and more are inside the plants.
Sources:
¹Euromonitor International: Market Sizes. Passport (Retrieved March 2024)
²Novonesis via Conjointly: Evaluating consumer interest and willingness to pay for stronger protein related claims (2022)
