Cheezy Delights: Plant-based alternatives to cheese

High quality plant-based alternatives to cheese have been available on the market for well over a decade.

There has been a recent market evolution in why manufacturers are making the plant-based switch, however. While the introduction of the first wave of products (circa 2009-2017) was generally motivated by cost reduction efforts, the latest generation (2018-now) of plant-based alternatives is all about meeting evolving consumer demand for more variety, texture experiences, and nutritional quality, in the form of specialist and deli style cheese alternatives.

But creating viable options is easier said than done, particularly when it comes to texture. In fact, a recent online poll of food industry colleagues from the INFUSE by Cargill™ service offering model found 47% of respondents to indicate “texture” as the biggest challenge they’re facing when creating plant-based alternatives to cheese; well ahead of “nutritional profile” (27%), and “cost” (21%).

Our solutions

• As different cheese types have different functionalities and textures that need to be mimicked, they all require different ingredients.

• We have created these recipes using our ingredient building blocks approach leveraging vegetable oils and fats, blends of (modified) starches and/or texturizer blends.

• We have a number of texturizing blends that are optimal combinations of (modified) starch and other texturizers, that are selected for their functionality in helping to bring back key properties such as meltability, elasticity, texture and stretch. One of our unique blends of functional starches can enable a variety of recipes to be created such as bloc, soft and fondue type cheese. They provide flexibility and allow for different textures to be created depending on dosage.

• Cargill IY 45 is a specialty blend based on cocoa butter and rapeseed oil, that is nearly 50% lower in saturated fat vs the market standard (coconut oil)*. It has a similar performance vs coconut oil in terms of texture (hardness), taste and color, and ensures a nice, creamy mouthfeel. Moreover, it helps to deliver the perfect meltability.

• This building blocks approach enables to solve plant-based alternatives to cheese formulation puzzles such as plant-based alternative to halloumi that does not melt when grilled, but rather remains solid and caramelizes.
   

*Saturated fat content of ~ 45g/100g vs ~91g/100g for coconut oil