Beneo explores challenges and opportunities within plant based confectionery
Isabel Trogh, of Beneo, offers key plant based insights. Pic: Beneo
The plant based confectionery movement is seemingly continuing to gather pace, with new releases emerging regularly around the world. Dr Isabel Trogh, customer technical support manager at ingredients group, Beneo offers her view on some of the biggest trends hitting markets around the world.
Q: How has demand for plant-based and natural ingredients changed in recent years?
A: According to BENEO’s latest global plant-based survey, almost 6 in 10 consumers now say that they are interested in plant-based nutrition (59%). It is not surprising therefore that producers are responding with more products that carry a vegan or plant-based claim. While supermarket shelves offer an increasing number of meat substitutes, plant-based bakery and desserts are another promising category for food manufacturers.
In fact, the share of new bakery product launches with such claims rose from 5% in 2018/2019 to 9.5% in 2022/23. And interest in plant-based bakery products continues to increase, with 26% of global consumers saying that they currently buy them and a further 32% saying that, although they don’t buy them at present, they would be interested in purchasing them in the future. The results are similar for plant-based sweets, with 24% currently buying them and 32% interested for the future.
Tasty muffin closeup on a wooden board, selective focus.; Shutterstock ID 1219518373; purchase_order: BENEO; job: Marketing; other: Tools
What are the challenges for confectionery and/bakery manufacturers when reformulating with plant-based ingredients?
In line with the plant-based trend, egg and dairy replacement are becoming growing topics of discussion amongst food producers looking to reformulate. This is due to animal welfare, sustainability, health and ethical questions being raised by consumers and the significant price inflation of eggs that producers have been experiencing over recent years.
However, replacing eggs in baked goods creates a specific set of challenges for recipe formulation due to the fact that eggs have a multi-functional impact on the final product in terms of taste and texture. They can be used for foaming and aeration, texturising, emulsification, colour and flavour, as well as a glazing agent. This is why, depending on the type of application, an egg alternative also has to deliver on this range of technical properties.
What solutions does Beneo offer that allow manufacturers to cater to these trends?
The BENEO-Technology Center has been trialling ingredients for successful egg-free recipes and found that faba bean protein concentrate can serve as a suitable solution for partial and total replacement of whole eggs, egg whites and egg yolks. At the same time, the ingredient also offers clean label and cost reduction benefits.
Made from de-hulled faba beans via a dry fractionation process, Beneo’s faba bean protein concentrate is a natural and clean label plant-based protein source that is light yellow in colour and has a relatively neutral, mild beany taste. Containing a minimum of 60% protein on dry matter, the concentrate also has an excellent essential amino acids profile and very good emulsifying, foaming, thickening and binding properties, making it the perfect solution for egg replacement.
The Beneo-Technology Center has been exploring a range of egg replacement recipe formulations and initial successes have included the development of an egg-free plant-based muffin. With a pleasant taste and texture, the muffin contains faba bean protein concentrate at a reduced dosage than would have been needed if eggs were used, resulting in the potential for lower recipe costs. BENEO’s prebiotic chicory root fibre, Orafti Oligofructose, was also included to replace milk powder and to contribute to the taste and colour of the final product. At the same time, its use increased the fibre content and allowed a “source of fibre” claim to be made with the muffins. Manufacturers wanting to further improve the nutritional profile of their plant-based muffin, can increase the dosage of Orafti® Oligofructose to enable sugar reduction.
