If only a minority of consumers are following meatless diets, then why is there continuous growth of plant-based food at restaurants?

While most consumers enjoy mushrooms largely for the flavor, the recognition of mushrooms as bearers of powerful chemical compounds that help protect against and even mitigate disease is triggering a surge in interest from product developers.

Each dish leverages wholesome, accessible ingredients to put a new and flavorful twist on plant-based proteins and vegetables, using innovative swaps like cauliflower as an alternative to mashed potatoes, lentil-based pasta, lasagna layered with feta cheese and butternut squash and more.   

SternMaid America will present its wide range of customer-specific contract manufacturing services, while sister companies Hydrosol, SternEnzym, SternVitamin and Sternchemie all will exhibit trend-oriented food ingredients. These include individual stabilizing and texturing systems for vegan products, trendy vitamin and mineral premixes for different consumer demands, clean label lecithins and oils, and innovative enzyme systems for the efficient and economical manufacture of food products. At their shared IFT Booth #S671, visitors can get customized problem solutions and new inspiration.

DuPont Nutrition & Health will share decades of experience in plant-based proteins and their food and beverage applications during three educational sessions at the IFT annual meeting.

Impossible Foods discovered a scalable, affordable way to make heme without animals: the company engineers and ferments yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, called soy leghemoglobin. The heme in the Impossible Burger is identical to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat — and while it delivers all the craveable depth of beef, it uses far fewer resources.

Dennis Reid, vice president of business development, notes, “We developed this new product in response to demand and requests from several customers who had recently lost their incumbent supplier for their bacon bits. So we went to work and within 60 days we had formulated and commercialized an alternative for them.”  

Sethness can help food companies develop new offerings that pass the “eye test” with plant-based products that look more appetizing. As mentioned, the market for meat alternatives and substitutes is booming, and these finished products commonly incorporate caramel color to help achieve the typical appearance of meat. 

These include a fibrous structure identical to chicken and pulled pork, for instance, as well as selections that resemble crumbled beef and are just right for producing beef-like patties, fillings for tacos, burritos and wraps, as well as principal ingredients for Sloppy Joe mixes, chili and similar dishes. 

Consumers and the food industry are now recognizing the opportunity that veg-based options present in terms of versatility, exposure to new flavor profiles and evolving the way we eat.