Earlier this year, Protein Industries Canada announced a project and partnership with agriculture companies to help improve plant-based products including cheese. Partnering with Daiya Foods, Ingredion, Ingredion Plant Based Specialties (IPBPS) and Lovingly Made Flour Mills; the goal is to use Canadian grown crops such as peas and faba beans to help improve the taste, texture, and overall quality of plant-based cheese.
Lisa Campbell is the senior director of programs with Protein Industries Canada, and she talks about the excitement of the new partnership and the challenges that face these companies when it comes to producing a high-quality plant-based product.
“This is just a really exciting project with some great companies that have the size and scope to really drive innovation. Plant-based cheeses are just a really difficult product to emulate the real thing. We know cheese is delicious, it's got a very complex flavor profile, great texture. Plant-based milk products are very well accepted by consumers. You see them growing in popularity, but plant-based cheeses have been really, really difficult.”
Companies have the tall task of trying to replicate the real deal and are using new technology including fermentation technology to try and improve the current standard. Not just taste, but also texture, quality, amount of protein, and the overall pricing of plant-based cheeses is something that this partnership looks to improve on. As Campbell states, this sector isn’t going anywhere, in fact its growing more and more every day.
“This is a huge industry, and we’re going to see two big benefits come out of this. We're going to see some new and exciting functionality from Canadian made plant-based ingredients and we're also going to see brand new exciting ready to eat products up on the grocery shelves. These new cheeses come into the marketplace that have great taste and texture and nutritional value and also good pricing for people to just make plant-based cheeses more mainstream.”
A massive partnership with huge goals towards improving the ingredient manufacturing, food processing, and plant-based food sector to help reach is $25 billion dollar potential. Currently, $16 million has been invested into this partnership project with Protein Industries Canada investing $5.8 million and the partners investing the other portions.