Food Matters Live Podcast · Food Matters Live

How hybrid proteins and novel ingredients are reshaping the market

·32 min·2 clips

Combining alternative proteins with polyphenols gives the mouthfeel of fat without the calories or the rancidity.

1. Food Matters Live Podcast recorded this Dublin panel in November on alternative and hybrid proteins, asking whether the field is "just about replacing meat." 2. Host Anthony Zahra introduces two speakers: Ellie Gaskell, UK and Ireland sales manager at Meatless by Beneo, and Professor Derek Stewart, co-director of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre at the James Hutton Institute. 3. Gaskell's thesis is that plant-based products built for vegans and vegetarians, about a third of the UK population, have not won over meat eaters, so hybrids targeting the roughly 30% "open omnivores" offer a better route. 4. She cites 71% of European flexitarians being open to hybrid meat and 62% of European consumers finding hybrids appealing, while German and Benelux government targets have supported openly labelled blends of beef and plant protein. 5. Meatless makes textured flakes from rice, fava bean and wheat using hydrocolloid technology, and Gaskell says they "literally taste of nothing" and replace meat one for one, with beef at €8-9 per kilo against €3-4 for the plant ingredient. 6. Product examples include a pepperoni pizza reformulated for HFSS compliance in UK retailers and nine recent European launches, only one of them fully vegan, an IKEA schnitzel in Germany. 7. Stewart frames the sector as having gone through a boom and bust and now stabilising, pointing to land-use pressure and a growing global middle class, and notes colleagues in India and Africa "just call it protein." 8. His centre keeps money back to fund UK projects pairing companies with academics, has spent about £1.2 million, and is building a knowledge database, training courses and a map of facilities such as screw presses and extruders. 9. Stewart's examples include combining alternative proteins with polyphenols to reduce mouth friction, oilseed rape protein that gives gluten-free muffins back their bounce, and a broccoli process splitting the whole crop into protein, fibre and juice rather than using only the 15% that is harvested as heads. 10. Suits food developers, retailers and investors tracking protein reformulation.

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