CP Kelco and Chr. Hansen partner to develop breakthrough, ambient, plant-based 'vegurts'

Ingredient powerhouses CP Kelco and  Chr. Hansen are proud to offer customers a collaboration combining their world-leading expertise and solutions to take consumer-friendly, shelf-stable, plant-based yogurt alternatives (vegurts) to the next level.

Consumer demand for healthy and more sustainable food choices has driven an explosion in the launches of plant-based alternatives to traditional dairy products. Within these categories, manufacturers and retailers have recognized the advantages of shelf-stable products which can reduce food waste and increase geographical reach. For consumers, ambient-stable products offer convenience. However, to embrace regular consumption consumers are not ready to compromise on taste, nutrition, and the “naturalness” of shelf-stable, plant-based products.

Industrially validated prototypes for oat, soy, pea, coconut, and almond
CP Kelco and  Chr. Hansen has closely collaborated to demonstrate that the production of nutritious and great-tasting, ambient, plant-based yogurt alternatives is impossible for a variety of different plant bases. The result of this collaboration includes industrially validated prototypes of drinkable and spoonable vegurts with either oat, soy, pea, coconut, or almond bases.

“The technological challenge to produce both spoonable and drinkable ambient vegurts with great nutrition, taste, and texture is significant,” said Christian Gilleladen, principal application scientist,  Chr. Hansen. “Selecting the right culture to provide fermentation performance, texture, and flavor for each recipe, and having these complement the stabilization and flavor systems is critical to making great products.”

Gilleladen continued, “By working together, we have been able to unlock the synergies between ingredients and process to produce a variety of desired thicknesses and mouthfeel.”

“This collaboration represents a new way of helping our respective customers accelerate their product development and access technical application support globally,” said Anne Sinha, marketing director, CP Kelco, on behalf of the two companies. “With access to teams who know each other and work together well, and who are closely connected to other global ingredient producers, customers can benefit from an integrated team of world-leading experts with insights across their entire development chain.”

Prototype recipes can be customized
To date, a range of vegurt prototypes are available to food producers for tasting, and they have received positive feedback from select customers. The prototype recipes can be tweaked to meet specific requirements for sugar, protein, fat, texture, and flavor, thanks to the comprehensive expertise in fermentation, stabilization, flavor, processing, and packaging offered by the collaboration.

“Formulating plant-based vegurts is not straightforward and we want to help our customers to be best in ca lass by offering our joint technical expertise,” said Tora Jorn, sales technical service manager, CP Kelco. “Together, we look forward to this opportunity of sharing our support and helping with the development of the flavors, textures, and nutritional profiles our customers are targeting when they embark on the plant-based, shelf-stable vegurts journey.”

The vegurts will be available for tasting at the CP Kelco stand 4.C180 at Food Ingredients Europe (FIE) in Paris, December 6-8