Consumers are critical when it comes to foods and beverages they want to repurchase. Unwilling to compromise on taste or texture and looking for value for money, manufacturers of plant-based alternatives still have challenges to overcome.
A broadening marketplace demands innovation
Today’s European plant-based meat alternatives market features a broad range of product choice already. From cold emulsified and sliced products to hot consumed emulsified meat alternatives and coarse ground & formed plant-based products, like sausages, many subcategories are now being catered for.
While each product requires a different formulation approach, and different ingredients, in essence the same building blocks are always required, including proteins, fats & oils and binders.
Through careful formulation it becomes possible to create tasty meat-like consumer products that deliver on taste, texture, and nutrition, while being friendlier for the environment too.
Our expertise for next generation products:
Ingredient solutions for winning plant-based meat alternatives
Overcoming the organoleptic and nutritional challenge of replicating the texture of processed meat products and delivering a healthy for me alternative, undoubtedly requires the use of various high-quality ingredients. Plant-forward innovation is bringing new technologies to market which can drive the expansion and variety of formats in the market. With our collective energy and expertise, we deliver a comprehensive, fully integrated portfolio of ingredients and solutions that consistently aims to meet your needs. From solutions to build texture and firmness, to improving the nutritional aspect of your product and more, we offer solutions that help.
On-trend recipe formulation & product development
Single ingredient solutions and services
Cargill is continuously expanding our portfolio of ingredient solutions to meet evolving consumer and customer needs. Within Cargill’s unmatched portfolio of plant-based ingredients, we have recently expanded our plant-based protein, oils & fats offering to help improve the nutritional value of the consumer products you want to bring to market.
Effectively working with building blocks such as fats & oils, binders and plant proteins demands an understanding of the complexity, linked to the interaction between multiple ingredients, rather than just focusing on one specific part of the formulation. As Cargill, is a “one solution provider” with a wide range of solutions, we can take a holistic approach to addressing specific challenges together with you.
Cargill also offers blended ingredient solutions for winning on-trend products through the INFUSE by Cargill™ service offering model.
Fast-tracking your plant-based innovation journey
Operating at the crux of innovation and reformulation, we understand the challenges when removing functional ingredients such as animal-based ingredients. Our technical experts can help with reformulation or development of completely new recipes, leveraging our unmatched Cargill ingredient portfolio and the synergies between ingredients.
By combining our formulation and application expertise, we can deliver a blended solution, tailored to your needs, helping you “fast track’ your innovation journey.
Your partner in innovation
We believe that overcoming the world’s biggest challenge of feeding 10 billion people by 2050 can only be achieved through the development of forward-thinking technologies that deliver alternative protein solutions that are label-friendly, and great in sensory appeal, nutritional composition and footprint. Getting there will require proactive cross-industry collaboration.
Besides already being a player with a network and technologies across the value chain, we made investments in innovative start-ups like BFlike and CUBIQ FOODS and few other alternative technology companies. In this way, we can help co-develop products and contribute to scaling up or reducing time to market. More than a leading ingredient supplier, we’d want to become your source of inspiration and growth, setting new standards for innovation and collaboration. To do this, we’re anticipating future trends and regulations, while investing in our research, innovation, safety, food application, formulation and scaling capabilities. All to help us co-create more effectively with you and accelerate growth in the alternatives space.
We are your partner in innovation to seize this huge opportunity.
Introducing our plant-based ingredient portfolio​
Protein
Enrichment & functional solutions for the best meat-like experience.
Oils & Fats
Mix of vegetable oils & fats are required to enable an optimal texture and improved nutritional profile
Texturizers
Compensate for a lesser texture profile of the plant-based protein.
- Starch: Modified and label-friendly for plant-based meat alternatives
- Hydrocolloids: Xanthan and Carrageenan​
- Lecithin
- Fiber
Functional ingredient blends
Tailor-made blended ingredient solutions that leverage Cargill’s complete portfolio of proteins, texturizers, emulsifiers, fats and oils.
Ingredient blends for:
Mouthwatering Meat Mimicking
Flexitarians are tough to satisfy for product developers – they were born to love meat and have specific expectations in mind about what a plant-based meat alternative should look and taste like.