Plant-Based Meat: The Bambi Factor

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

In the US market, it appears that the initial excitement surrounding plant-based meat has subsided. Various plant-based meat formats, such as burgers and sausages, are experiencing a decline in net data revenue in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Read more ...

The World in Transition: Cleaner Consumption

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

People, plants, animals, soil, water, sunshine, and ecosystems are all connected to food. New thinking will be necessary to allow the global food industry to transform and revolutionize the way food is produced by creating an environment-friendly supply chain that takes no more than what planet Earth can give.

Read more ...

Protein Equivalency

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

For most people, meat happens to be incredibly tasty and nutritious, and perhaps the only way to successfully replace it is to develop a superior plant-based product that is equally good in organoleptic performance, such as taste and texture. Plant-based burgers such as those marketed by Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and Nestle’s Garden Gourmet, are well on their way being at par with the beef burger equivalent.

Read more ...

Transformational Plant Meat

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

The transformational journey from animal protein nutrition to plant protein nutrition is a long and winding road. It has taken years of trial and error to create a plant-based meat analog product that is almost indistinguishable from animal meat. The science and technology are not quite there yet, but a little progress is made every day.

Read more ...

Soy Protein Too Big to Fail

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

The term “soy protein” was changed to “vegetable protein”, as a strategic move to ease the consumers’ concern and improve their negative perception of soy in the early 1990s. Fast forward, consumer soy negativism still lingers. This is primarily due to the ill attempts of the US-dominated soy industry to position its protein source as a pseudo-pharmaceutical ingredient to alleviate symptoms like high cholesterol, pre-menstrual symptoms (PMS), and some forms of cancer.

Read more ...

Social Media Foods: “McWHOPPER”

By Henk Hoogenkamp, Protein Applications Expert

Social media platforms have captured a rapidly increasing number of consumers driving food and beverage purchase behavior. Trends can achieve quick momentum especially for the consumers aged under 30, who are connected 24 hours a day. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Podcast, and Instagram, stimulate ultra-connectedness and even create visual food appeal and authenticity by sharing photographs and ideas in a setting that influences awareness, and ultimately, purchase decisions.

Read more ...