ProFormula

General objectives

Both the demand for and the supply of plant-based alternatives to meat, fish, dairy and eggs is growing. A clear evolution is visible towards a better nutritional composition of these alternatives. A distinction can be made between the analogues, which try to approximate the structure and taste of the animal-based products as closely as possible, and the 'natural' alternatives, which do not need to resemble their animal-based counterparts, but are nonetheless just as tasty and have excellent nutritional qualities with a high protein content.

The goal is the availability of a wide range of tasty and nutritionally high-quality (non-animal) protein-rich products on the store shelves. To obtain the meat analogues, new technologies and ingredients are used to achieve the desired result, while the 'natural' alternatives rather use minimally processed raw materials. Both are important for a successful protein shift, and can co-exist with each its own target audience.

Obtaining a diverse range of new products requires a lot of development work, complemented with more research to gain more insight into taste and structure formation.

Expected results

• New, high-tech protein products that approach the taste, texture and nutritional assets of meat (and other animal products) as closely as possible
• New, original, minimally processed protein products with an excellent taste and a high-quality nutritional profile