Equinom announces seeds for plant-based meat products

Seed-breeding specialist start-up Equinom says it is helping food manufacturers unlock the true potential of plant-based meat products.

Equinom’s non-GMO seeds are, the company claims, enabling food companies to close the gap between consumer demand for cleaner meat alternatives and innovating palate-pleasing, affordable products.

According to Innova Market Insights’ 2018 consumer survey, 49% of U.S. consumers are driven by health when buying meat and dairy alternatives. Plant-based food demand is climbing, with consumers concerned about animal welfare and minimizing their carbon footprint. Educated shoppers such as flexitarians are flexing their consumer muscles, understanding that a balanced diet that addresses their health issues can include fewer animal products.

With the clean-label revolution hitting the mainstream thanks to consumers seeking simple-to-understand labels on food products, Equinom says that “clean” has taken on an expanded meaning.

“Natural products not only need to exclude additives and preservatives; they also must have short, simple ingredient lists,” said Itay Dana, Marketing Director for Equinom. “Unfortunately, despite the buzz, plant-based meat products don’t necessarily support clean-labelling.”

Most natural ingredients still require extensive processing to allure health- and ethic-minded customers, Equinom says, claiming that this over-processing strips the products of taste and functionality. To achieve palate appeal as well as nutritional and sales objectives, manufacturers tack on masks, flavour enhancers, fillers and highly processed ingredients, such as protein isolates, the company continues.

“In contrast, Equinom’s seeds for plant ingredients make processing nearly irrelevant because Equinom’s whole beans deliver on taste and nutritional goals that are closer to producers’ needs,” said Dana. “Equinom’s breeding technology grows better-for-you ingredients that do away with over-processing, simplify ingredient lists and eliminate the need for additives, so producers can go ‘from plant to product’ in fewer steps.”

In their historic pursuit of optimizing profit by maximizing yield, Equinom claims that growers bred out highly functional plant qualities. In the past, the triad of texture, taste and nutrition was too much to ask for in a single isolated ingredient. This caused food manufacturers to pursue the impossible, according to the company: to create taste-bud-pleasing natural meat-free burger products from poorly flavoured source ingredients.

“Equinom breeds specifically for organoleptic properties, custom-designing plant varieties that have revived great taste, appealing texture and improved nutrition,” said Sigal Meirovitch, Head of Protein Development for Equinom. “The company has restored these high-demand qualities naturally in the crops, demonstrating that one plant can have it all.”

By leveraging the whole plant and designating key components to meet food company product development needs, Equinom says it maximizes component contribution using minimum separation, which also reduces the need to mask unpleasant tastes. Equinom uses electronic sensing systems such as e-tongue and e-nose for high-throughput analysis of off flavours, which helps top quality and accelerate breeding.