Food Ingredients: Plant-Based Protein Products and Ready Meals

Our concepts help make your product better and improve time to market

An increasing number of consumers are exploring exciting meat and fish alternatives and plant-based ready meals. The European retail market size for meat alternatives and plant-based ready meals is expected to continue to grow exponentially from €1.9 billion in 2020 to €3.3 billion in 2025. Driven by the rise in flexitarian consumers who want to limit their meat intake, there’s a growing demand for more product choices on supermarket shelves to include new types of meat and fish-free products, from plant-based burgers, nuggets and savoury balls to seafood alternatives.

Our technical team has selected just some of the hero ingredients in our portfolio to provide an insightful starting point for your new meat and fish-free product development. We are confident these products will enable you to create delicious meat and fish-free alternatives with a satisfying flavour, taste and texture that even meat-loving consumers will enjoy.


Plant-Based Proteins

 

Plant-based and texturised plant-based proteins are essential to help you build the right mouthfeel, nutritional profile and front-of-pack claims to capitalise on the booming markets of meat alternatives and vegan ready meals. We have selected some of our wide range of textured plant-based proteins (including pea and faba bean) to create a satisfying ‘meat-like’ texture with bite and succulence that appeals to flexitarians and vegans alike.

 


Plant-Based Protein Concentrates

 

The demand for plant-based protein-rich products is a major trend that has emerged and influenced the purchasing decisions of consumers in recent years. Supporting manufacturers in making ‘source-of-protein’ or ‘high-protein’ claims, our selected ingredients can add appeal to food and beverage labels. These claims can also appear alongside others such as ‘gluten-free’, ‘plant-based’ and ‘non-soy’ protein sources, to resonate across an even wider range of consumers with lifestyle and dietary preferences. Add plant-based protein appeal to your products, enhance the nutritional value and leverage protein appeal in your products with the help of our plant-based protein concentrates.

 


Plant-Based Crumb Alternatives

 

Plant-based products often require additional benefits of free-from claims. Breadcrumbs and wheat-based coatings, whilst recognised staples for meat replacement and extension applications, are known allergens for many consumers. We have selected functional clean label crumbs with all the functionality of breadcrumbs and none of the allergens. Learn how the single ingredient formulation of our pea crumb alternatives, used as a batter or breading in various coating applications as well as a binder for vegan meat-free applications, can offer unique solutions for the plant-based food marketplace.

 


Natural Extracts, Colours and Flavours

 

The staple of culinary innovation, our flavours emulate the home-cooked tastes of time and tradition, allowing to deliver the aroma and flavour of fresh ingredients in industrial manufacturing settings. Our selected portfolio of plant-based ingredients and solutions can help you create and deliver sustainable meat-free products which are nutritionally optimised with cleaner labels, authentic taste and appealing texture. Whether you are looking to deliver a traditional smoke and grill flavour while enhancing fatty and tallow notes, or attaining chicken top notes for that authentic customer experience, our flavours will help you craft custom, innovative and on-trend plant-based products that fit your processing requirements.

 


Texturisers

 

Formulators will recognise the challenge to provide excellent bite, texture and binding to plant-based products. Explore the strength of plants for your plant-based meat-free food products: our selected texturisers and texturizing systems are the optimal ingredients to create the desired meat-like texture in your heated vegan foods without the need for egg or animal protein. Join our technical team in our Plant-Based Foods webinar series as we demonstrate recipes that are sure to deliver on all key parameters and become consumer favourites.

 

Flex forward with plant-based foods

Univar Solutions is the ideal partner to help you bring innovative products to market that meet growing consumer demands for a better alternative. As a one-stop-shop for quality ingredients, we will support your brand across various end applications. From start-ups venturing into the plant-based foods space to big brands looking to expand their current line, we can deliver technical and ingredient solutions with sourcing diversity tailored to your business.

Start innovating with us today and begin your brand’s journey to flex forward to a better lifestyle and planet.