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Plant-based meat extrusion Equipment

The extruder was first developed to make lead pipes in the late 18th century. But the extrusion process technique quickly spread to other manufacturing sectors, including food, feed, and biomass products. An extruder machine presses a fluid or solid material through a die. Depending on your use case, extruders adopt single- or twin-screw systems to push the premixed feed material through a barrel. Thermal pressure applied in this step can chemically modify the mixture, so the screw system must be precisely calibrated to achieve the desired result. Finally, a knife head cuts the extruded material into your designed dimensions. Extrusion machinery produces items of a uniform size, shape, and consistency.

Extrusion

With consumerism comes great responsibility. More and more are switching their diet towards vegan and vegetarian alternatives, varying from dairy to meat. As more plant-based meat technologies are being invented, the production is rising in popularity. Ever wondered which challenges come with that?

Plant-based meat

Low pressure extrusion for the production of slightly dispersed dust-free granulates. For shingled, highly porous granulates with good dispersal properties. With the basket extruder the material is compressed with an extrusion rotor with a perforating die.


<h2>Gentle pressure for granulates with a loose structure and large surface area</h2>
With the Bextruder BX from Hosokawa Alpine, the product is gently pressed to granulate with a loose structure and large surface area.

In the product chamber of the Bextruder two rotors operate in counter rotation. The upper rotor ensures good mixture and carries the material downwards. The lower extrusion rotor compresses the material and extrudes it through the screen basket.

The Bextruder is often used in pellets with a porous structure and large surface area, easily dispersible granulate, drinks powder, sauces and soups, detergent, pesticides and so on.

Basket extruder

An extrusion machine pushes or pulls material through a shaped die to form a continuous length of product with a preset cross-section. The extrusion process is used to produce a large number of commercial products which include plastic tubing, plastic sheets, and many food types.


<h2>Kneading, mixing and extruding in one continuous process</h2>
The Extrud-O-Mix from Hosokawa Micron is an efficient extruder that kneads, mixes, and extrudes in one continuous process; as a standalone unit or in combination with other process equipment. Perfect for mixing solids and liquids into very viscous and homogeneous pastes as well as plastic masses, and moreover it has better particle dispersion in comparison to higher pressure systems, is also less expensive to buy and less expensive to operate. The high shear mixer can be used for a variety of applications like mixing base powders with liquids to form uniform pastes, homogenizing filter cakes, blending wet material with powders or liquids, homogenizing powders with liquids into a plastic mass followed by extrusion and pre-feeding of caked masses.
<h4></h4>

Continuous extruder for mixing solids and liquids

Products can be extruded with various shapes and characteristics by controlling the nozzle geometry and pressure and temperature characteristics of substrates as they are propelled through a screw-style mixing machine. Precise control of pressure at the point of extrusion is essential to predictable, desirable results.


<h2>Product shaping with easy start-up and less waste</h2>
Amandus Kahl’s Extruder OE series is an extruder line that works on the same principle as the successful annular gap expander design. A conical stop restricts the flow out of a tube as materials are driven through it by a rotating shaft. The stop is moved towards and away from the tube, creating an adjustable-sized gap through which material leaves the line. Controlling the size of this gap relative to the material throughput determines the pressure under which the material is extruded and influences many of the product’s final characteristics.

Heating or cooling jackets can be added to these units for monitoring temperature and pressure. Precisely controlled product extrusion is thus achieved by applying Amandus Kahl’s patented gap control technology from the annular gap expanders to this more straightforward machine.

Extruder with annular gap expander

Soybeans are an essential ingredient in the creation of protein-rich animal feed. To achieve high-quality feed production, extrusion technology is used to facilitate mechanical and heat treatment of soybean seeds. The use of extruders helps to break apart the inner structure of soybean seeds, which makes it easy to transport nutrition in animals’ digestive system.


<h2>Mechanical grinding and heat treatment of soybean feed</h2>
The organic soybean feed extruder designed by Farmet is capable of heating up to very high temperatures and extruding oil seeds under great pressure. Soybean seeds are mixed, kneaded and squeezed into uniform shapes of pellets and granules. Short-time exposure to high temperature helps to alter the natural qualities of protein and reduce anti-nutritional substances from soybean seeds, thus enhancing the digestibility of soybean feed for ruminant livestock.

Farmet’s extruder removes bacteria and other unwanted organisms through sterilization and changes the texture of soybean seeds through expansion and gelatinization of starch. Designed with a hydraulically openable basket, the use of this unit will significantly reduce your downtime losses during maintenance as all parts are easily accessible and replaceable.

Organic soybean feed extruder

Cheese is the most demanding food in the entire dairy family to emulate using non-animal and dairy free ingredients. The complex physical and taste profiles of animal-derived milk products make plant-based cheese manufacturing challenging to pull off. But the growing appetite for lactose-free and non dairy products is serving alternative platters of cheese.

Plant-based cheese

First mentioned on a stone slab of the Eastern Han dynasty in ancient China, soy milk has survived centuries and spread from Asia to Global consumption due to the rising popularity of plant-based alternatives. To produce soymilk, raw materials must be harvested, prepared, and blended with water and desired ingredients, such as flavors and vitamins, in soymilk processing equipment.

Soy milk

Although invented in the 1990s by Rickard Öste, oat milk has only recently grown to be one of the most popular milk alternatives in coffee shops, and it owes it to its smooth mouthfeel and creamy texture. Extracted the plant materials from oats with water, this non-dairy milk is high in fibers, low in saturated fats, and eco-friendly. Oat milk processing equipment helps prepare raw materials, starting with harvest over kilning and making them into flakes or flour, and mixing the prepared materials with water and enzymes.

Oat milk

Although the first association with almond milk might be the modern plant-based lifestyle trend, it is dated even back to the Middle Ages when it was used as an alternative to cow milk during Catholic fasting. Once harvested, almonds undergo a series of treatments in almond milk manufacturing equipment, such as bleaching, peeling, and grinding, to get the delicious final product for breakfast and desserts.

Almond milk

Making.com is a new online platform that helps makers find production technology quicker by grouping it around the products they make.

Do you want to integrate vegan recipes into your product range but don't know where to start? Or do you already have production in place and need help to improve? Look no further! We visited <a href="https://www.anugafoodtec.com/">Anuga FoodTec</a> and had a chance to speak with Deria Entemeier from <a href="https://nvcfood.com/">Novel Vegan Crafts</a>, who specializes in giving a hand to vegan producers in development and consulting.


<h2>The full trajectory from R&amp;D to networking</h2>
Deria says that they help their clients with everything, from formulations and recipes to finding ingredients, testing the products, and also setting up production for scaling

"We are a small team of six people. And we're always at your service, call us in the middle of the night even," laughs Deria. The know-how of Novel Vegan Crafts is especially in processing raw plant-based materials, so for example their customer <a href="https://billie-green.com/de/">Billie Green</a> makes vegan bacon out of wheat.

But that's not all. In addition to human food, another customer <a href="https://dokas.eu/">Dokas</a> also produces vegan pet food.

The team knows that we have to make a change and do it fast. Therefore their helping hand can give you a head start in the vegan food market. We're thrilled to see what new ideas come from Novel Vegan Crafts and their customers!

#Changemaker: developing your recipe to success in the vegan market

Food

Our food chain starts in the soil, growing crops and livestock. But between the fields and the stores, there is a line of industrial food processing equipment. Processes may be as minimalistic as cleaning fruit and as complex as homogenizing milk alternatives made from pressed legumes. In each case, processing technology is an important link in the food production chain.

Creamier, sweeter and versatile are the key adjectives when talking about cashew milk, especially compared to other plant-based milk. Additionally, it is rich in vitamins B and D, as well as essential minerals. Being a blend of cashew kernels and water, the cashew nut milk processing equipment includes a peeling and washing machine, a colloid mill, and a blending tank.

Cashew milk

Menna was a man of many titles in ancient Egypt. He was officially a scribe, but his burial stones in Saqqara depict plows and sieves, sickles and baskets, angling lines, and nets. Effectively, he was Pharaoh’s food production manager.

As early as three millennia ago, technology was inextricably linked to food production. Farming, fishing, or hunting developed in conjunction with the tools and knowledge of the community. This formula remains the basis of the food industry today, perhaps even more so since the industrial era.

The connection is most strongly seen in the nascent plant-based foods market. Start-ups in this space are as much tech companies as food manufacturers. That reflection is from Floor Buitelaar, co-founder and managing partner of Bright Green Partners, a global consulting trailblazer in the alternative protein field.

“Established food companies don’t typically build in-house capability to develop manufacturing processes,” tells us Floor. “But new manufacturers in the plant-based industry have engineers and technologists within their ranks.”

Products such as dairy-free blue cheese or vegan chicken breast convert the properties of beans, nuts, and legumes into the sensory profiles we learned to identify with casein and meat. This transformation requires specialized process knowledge that is hardly necessary for traditional foods. Plant-based food makers are a different kettle of fish - process design is an intrinsic part of the product offering and a primary differentiator.

“Unlike conventional food producers, plant-based product brands must create textures, tastes, and mouthfeel that do not naturally occur in the main ingredients they’re working with,” explains Floor, reducing the emerging industry’s challenge to its core.

However, not all plant-based food companies approach this question the same way. Some brands focus on pushing the industry boundaries and invest their energy in innovating. Other companies seek to perfect a method and create the definitive plant-based product in the category. “This industry is not simply about foods, but about the strategy to develop them,” adds Floor. And manufacturers should be clear about their objectives from the start.

Innovators rethink a food category by modifying the production method or sourcing network. They experiment with alternative ingredients and work with novel materials. Meanwhile, perfectors want to refine the plant-based type and provide the ultimate experience to consumers.

Innovation-led manufacturers try different recipes and aim for first-mover status with original tastes, textures, and whole categories. Perfectors focus on one product at a time, and their strategy is to master the process with an established ingredient base. Controlling the process method becomes critical in this case.

In Floor’s experience with start-ups in this space, most companies are a mix of innovators and perfectors. Manufacturers typically experiment with formulations while working to improve a food category. They develop expertise with a definite process or ingredient combination but want to apply that knowledge to a broad range of products. “But the nuances are crucial because they determine the production plan,” she points out.

The fundamental question plant-based food manufacturers must answer is whether they need their own production facility. Floor says that it typically takes four years to get from zero to a running factory. Before making substantial capital investments, startups should know whether they want to grow into an innovation-based brand or a fully-fledged production company.

Although most manufacturers of plant-based foods have their own engineering teams to adapt technology and processes, engineering is only one part of a production facility. Innovators can still run R&amp;D projects and customize equipment. but they might be better off leaving large-volume production with co-manufacturers and focusing on product development.

In contrast, since perfectors hone in on their unique process, it makes sense for them to set up a facility. As Floor warns, products that demand plenty of specifications make external manufacturing more challenging.

This is not to say that manufacturing internally is a piece of cake. In fact, Bright Green Partners was founded to help companies navigate the complications of setting up a production facility. Building a new site and commissioning equipment are just two steps in Floor’s six-step process. The rest are ideation, feasibility, engineering, and, finally, the official operational phase.

“Many new manufacturers opt to retrofit disused plants instead of greenfield projects,” Floor reveals. Former food factories, especially in the cereal industry, can be converted relatively quickly and with smaller capex. There are trade-offs, though, and Floor says that not all sites may be adequate for the particular process of a plant-based product manufacturer.

Ultimately, retrofitting a facility or building one from scratch depends on the process technology involved in making the end product. Unlike Pharaoh’s production manager, plant-based food manufacturers don’t need to figure that out all by themselves. Instead, they can count on Floor and her team's advice to turn their ideas into market-ready products.

Innovator or perfector – what kind of plant-based food maker are you?

With the right processing machines, almonds, cashews, pine nuts, hemp, coconut, oat and soy can be processed into healthy plant-based milk. To produce it, grind the raw materials, screen, soak and mix them till you obtain a milky white liquid.

Plant-based milk

The chicken crossed the road to plant-based poultry. Non-animal meat alternatives cut CO2 emissions by three-fourths and water usage by half, so it’s easy to understand why the chicken took the step. The big question is how it could be done.

“The simple answer is technology development,” says Vera Kasics, Head of Global Manufacturing at Planted. The company has grown a reputation as a front-runner in the plant-based meat industry, serving mouth-watering alternatives to traditional chicken tenders, pulled pork, kebab shavings, and more.



The products are made from a mixture of natural raw materials such as peas, oats, sunflower, rapeseed oil and water.. In fact, they contain pretty little else and certainly no additives. But the plants on their own do not produce the juicy mouthfeel of chicken breast or the bite of a schnitzel.

Vera’s team relies on extrusion and fermentation to create the Planted magic. The techniques are well tried and tested, but the novel application of plant-based changes everything. “It’s never just extrusion or fermentation,” points out Vera, “You have to build a whole new process for each product, for each recipe.”

When the extruder was first developed, the US was only transitioning to its second president, China was still in the High Qing Era, and Bonaparte was busy reshaping the map of Europe. The technology has changed radically down the centuries, adapting to new products from breakfast cereals to plastic pellets. Fermentation goes even further back. Kenkey, surströmming, dhokla, tepache; the method crosses ancient traditions around the world.

Back to the 2020s and Planted brings all the food processing power of fermentation and extrusion to create fibrous and protein-rich textures. But this technology still needs a lot of innovation. Vera tells us that the unique requirements of the products demand an in-house engineering department. Creating the iconic boxes of marinated meals takes as much science as gastronomy.

Planted decided early on to pursue an own-production strategy, taking charge of the entire manufacturing process. After testing the first products at pilot scale, the founders took on the challenge to ramp up production into a full line. That’s where Vera came in. With extensive experience in food manufacturing and an appetite for change, she was the perfect conductor to orchestrate this complex transition to industrial-scale manufacturing.

The company invested time developing its special extrusion technique before launching the first products commercially. For Vera, one of the milestones of Planted’s young life was when the team finally established a production process that could be reproducible.

At this point of our conversation, Vera reminisces about how “low-tech” the company started out. Her disclosure reveals more about the plant-based food industry than the end products themselves; turning cereals, seeds, and legumes into nutritional and appetizing foods is a formidable processing puzzle. The technology is available, but processing knowledge is scarce. That know-how is what ultimately differentiates Planted.

Another peculiarity of the brand is its production plant in Kemptthal, Switzerland. Located in a glasshouse, the facility gives passers-by a full view of the production steps and process. Vera explains that transparency is a corporate core value and, unlike traditional meat processing operations, Planted is happy to show its work. Over 2800 visitors have visited the facility in 2022.

But what about process knowledge? Doesn’t total exposure give the game away? “Our production house is open to everyone, but the secrets of processing are in our experts’ minds,” replies Vera with a chuckle.

Technology is nothing without vision, and production steps without process knowledge do not produce new food categories. The process expertise at Planted grew hand-in-hand with machine capabilities. Even at this stage of processing maturity, the team registers new process knowledge every day, and the internal mantra is that the production floor is still a lab.
<blockquote>“There’s a delicate balance between innovation and consistency”</blockquote>
However, with the brand firmly established on several retail shelves and food service menus across Europe, experimentation must not come at the expense of market expectations. “There’s a delicate balance between innovation and consistency,” says Vera, summing up the critical production challenge she wakes up to every morning.

This tension is at the heart of the plant-based food industry. The category has taken giant steps forward since the minced-veg patties of the 1980s. The textures are definitively meatier, with long fibre strands that replicate the properties of animal-derived products in the pan and the mouth. Nutritional values are another substantial improvement as top manufacturers like Planted avoid over-processing and additives. Nevertheless, the sector acknowledges that it’s not yet where it wants to be regarding product development.

Vera explains that meat alternatives are only the beginning: “Our vision is to offer plant-based proteins in tasty and convenient formulations, but they don’t necessarily have to mimic meat.” A grand vision but entirely within reach of Planted. As the production team masters the manufacturing process, the brand will tantalize consumers with a broader plant-based range.

Until such time, it’s comforting to know that chickens can cross the road to plant-based safety. In less than five years, Planted spared over a million birds from the knife.

#Changemaker: The tastiest part of chicken is plant science

Vegan meat alternatives and plant-based foods have rapidly grown in popularity over the last decade. Many people are switching to meat substitute food products. Your body does not discriminate between proteins and calories coming from meats and those coming from plants. From a nutritional point of view, they all have the same value. But chewing on a portion of veggie pumpkin protein does not feel the same as a cut of meat - the texture is completely different.

Textured Vegetable Protein

I’m high in fiber, proteins, and minerals. What are your superpowers?

Lentils are one of the oldest crops ever, and you’ll be surprised how versatile this humble legume can be. They are higher in proteins than beef and have other essential nutrients. That’s why they are the new "old" superhero or, more accurately, superfood.



Martin Jager and Cassandra Winter know it well. Martin and Cassandra are the founder of <a href="https://www.easyvegan.at/en/easyvegan-is-loved-by-everyone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EasyVegan</a>, ready-made frozen products relying on the power of lentils.

The Making.com team met them at Free From Amsterdam 2022 where Cassandra shared how everything started. Cassandra is a <em>burger lover</em> but wanted to create something tastier than the tofu and veggie burgers already on the market. So after many experiments in the kitchen with lentils, she found the right combination for a burger that - we assure you - is a wonderful explosion of flavors. So she bought a sales trailer and traveled through Austria and Bavaria, selling her vegan products at city festivals, culinary events, sporting events and concerts. EasyVegan was then founded in April 2017 with the life partner Martin to make the lentil products accessible to a broad mass.

EasyVegan products such as lentil sliders, lentil sticks, lentil balls, and lentil patties are sustainable, purely natural, lactose-free, gluten-free, GMO-free, preservative-free, and palm oil-free products. Moreover, they are SUPER tasty!

<a href="https://making-tst.imgix.net/2022/11/WhatsApp-Image-2022-11-23-at-10.55.28-3.jpeg"><img class=" wp-image-60450 aligncenter" src="https://making-tst.imgix.net/2022/11/WhatsApp-Image-2022-11-23-at-10.55.28-3-225x300.jpeg" alt="" width="366" height="488" /></a>

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#Changemaker: The plant-based burger made of lentils you didn't know you needed!

It took the scientific community almost 70 years to agree on the name ‘protein’ and discard the popular alternative, proteid. But protein powder processing still needed another five decades to be commercialized in the 1950s. Once extraction and purification could be industrialized, protein powder soon became a basic staple supplement.

Protein powder

In NASA's early years, a research program was established on how to provide food for astronauts while in space. In fact, in the 1960s, nutrition bars were launched with a label called "Space Food Sticks" because they were designed to allow astronauts to eat them easily while wearing their helmets. Protein bar manufacturing equipment is used to mix ingredients, extrude the mixture at a set temperature, cool the product before cutting it to size, coating it, and allowing it to cool to prepare it for packaging.

Protein bars

Chickpeas for pumping up your muscle!

If you are looking for a meat, dairy, or egg protein alternative, you can try out @ChickP protein. This plant-based protein powder is, as you have guessed, made out of chickpeas!

<a href="https://www.chickp-protein.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ChickP </a>protein powder contains 90 percent chickpea protein, which is the highest rate in the world so far. The protein used in ChickP’s protein powder is isolated from fibers, oils, and starches that can degrade quality. In this way, ChickP has achieved almost equivalent protein content to milk.

This powder is uniquely white - even whiter than many other plant-extracted proteins - so it can be easily modified. Also, due to its neutral flavor, smooth mouthfeel, and white color, this protein can be used in different types of foods, such as beverages, snacks, and cereals.

Try this innovative and nutritious chickpea protein in your plant-based food product!

&nbsp;

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#Changemaker: Chickpea protein for your plant-based food product!

Do you have a sweet tooth, or are you more into a warm loaf of bread for a savory lunch? The bakery shop window displays something for everyone, from baguettes over croissants to muffins. Bakery products are a wide range of baked goods prepared from flour or meal derived from grains. These undergo mixing, fermentation, and baking processes with the help of bakery processing equipment such as a series of low- and high-speed mixers, fermentation tanks, and baking chambers.

Bakery

Cereals are also defined as breakfast food made from roasted grain and typically eaten with milk or yogurt. Cereal grain is a small, hard, and dry seed, which mainly harvests for human or animal consumption, like wheat, maize, or rye. Processed from the edible components of the grains, breakfast cereals contain rich nutrients and usually serve as the main course during breakfast meals. Different cereal manufacturing equipment allow various options to appear on the market, ranging from cereals, granola, and muesli. Granola and muesli can be converted into cereal bars. The healthy, on-the-go snack bar shows a growing trend due to its nutrient content and convenience.

Breakfast cereal

The building blocks of matter have driven the imagination of philosophers, scientists, and artists for millennia. But, for manufacturers, these elements have a more concrete existence as powders. Powder processing technology conditions these primary materials to create a vast range of products, from chemicals and foods to pharmaceuticals and ceramics.

Powder

Protein

Echinacea, also known as coneflowers, are brightly hued flowers with distinguished, cone-shaped flower heads. Over 200 medicines in the world are derived from coneflower extracts. Echinacea processing was introduced by Native Americans who were interested in the plant's medicinal qualities.

Echinacea extract

If you have cooked vegan food before, you would know how difficult it is to recreate umami flavor only from vegetables.

Luckily, <a class="ql-mention" spellcheck="false" href="https://www.senson.fi/products/senson-umami/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-entity-urn="urn:li:fs_miniCompany:990186" data-guid="10" data-object-urn="urn:li:company:990186" data-original-text="Senson Oy">Senson Oy</a> came up with this innovative invention - Umami Liquid Bean Extract!

This bean extract is made out of fava beans and pure water. Since this extract contains a high percentage of hydrolyzed amino acids, it can reproduce an almost “meaty” umami flavor.

The extract is naturally brewed without any coloring or additives. Slow vacuum evaporation allowed sugars and compounds to be balanced and the final product to keep a consistent flavor. This extract is easy to use as it has a consistency of syrup.

This amazing vegan umami extract by Senson Oy was selected as a finalist in the Innovation Awards <a class="ql-mention" spellcheck="false" href="https://www.figlobal.com/fieurope/en/home.html" data-entity-urn="urn:li:fs_miniCompany:3160240" data-guid="12" data-object-urn="urn:li:company:3160240" data-original-text="Food ingredients Global">Food ingredients Global</a> 2022!

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#Changemaker: Fava bean umami extract for your vegan diet!

Ancient civilizations discovered that plant extracts were useful for the treatment of pathologies. The origin of plant extraction cannot be specifically verified, but we can infer that the earliest attempts at plant extraction were more intuitive than scientific. Today, the extraction of compounds is a precise process with plant extraction systems complimenting traditional knowledge.

Plant extracts

Sauces bring personality to a dish. From a spicy, dense Zhoug to a tangy, runny Suero, sauces add an extra dimension of flavor, texture, and mouthfeel. But developing recipes into industrial products with long shelf lives and consistent tastes is a complex process. Specialized sauce making equipment prepares and combines the ingredients into delicious, high-quality foods. The result is a sauce ready to elevate meals.

Sauce

Industrially manufactured soups gained traction in the 19th century when canning was invented and they have been warming us ever since. Whether it’s a classic ready-to-eat canned soup, condensed soup or a dry soup mix, soup manufacturing equipment for mixing, cooking, boiling, or sterilizing caters to every manufacturer’s production requirements.

Soup

<span style="font-weight: 400">Spice manufacturing is one of the world's oldest trading products. The word spice refers to any dried part of a plant other than the leaves and is used for seasoning and food coloring. Spices are made from dried barks, roots, berries, and twigs, while green leafy parts of plants are considered herbs. Well-known examples include cinnamon, chilies, star anise, ginger, garlic salt, turmeric, cumin, or pepper, as well as pre-mixed blends such as Masala, Five-Spice Powder, or Old Bay.</span>

Spices

How many pigs does it take to make a kilogram of bacon? None, if you ask Matthias Neuner, COO at La Vie. The plant-based foods company has developed a unique method for producing meat-alternative rashers and lardons from just six vegetal ingredients.

The plant-based bacon provides the same crackle, crispiness, and aroma as your conventional pork belly cuts. “We managed to recreate the lean and fatty characteristics that produce the distinct sensory profile of bacon,” explains Matthias. But the real magic in La Vie’s formulations is the adhesion of the two textures.



The recipe is a closely guarded trade secret, but the COO points out that the manufacturing process is no less critical. In fact, the manufacturing partnerships that La Vie developed are a major ingredient of its success story.

The company’s relationship with co-manufacturers is fundamental to the final product. And that’s just putting it mildly. For Matthias, La Vie forges “an emotional bond” with its partner network.

Producing the perfect alternative to animal-derived bacon goes beyond formulation and production technology. This is unchartered territory for everybody, and manufacturing houses are pushed to rethink their process methods. It’s innovation at two speeds; while the internal team at La Vie advances the formula, the co-manufacturers are finding new ways of bringing them to life.

The in-house team must consider the implications for the manufacturing partners before making any recipe changes. Product development cuts across the multiple layers of ingredient management, process knowledge, and technological capability.
<blockquote>“As a startup, we want to improve fast, but our pace may prove too much for a manufacturing house used to the conventional food industry,” reflects Matthias. But he goes on to elaborate on a technique to manage changes without shaking the shop floor. ‘Smart innovation,’ as he calls it, scopes product development to the available building blocks – the materials already in use and the production systems in deployment.</blockquote>
By focusing innovation on the techniques and ingredients at hand, La Vie provides partners with a stronger sense of orientation and helps them adapt to changes smoothly.

A solid manufacturing pairing is critical to developing vegan specialties, but the relationship with partners runs deeper than technical competence. The plant-based category is evolving rapidly, so co-manufacturers must be able to cope with the volatility of the market and the requirements of the specific sales channels.

We ask Matthias whether this is too much flexibility to expect from partners. He replies that these criteria restrict the co-manufacturers field, “but we look for partners that get excited at the prospect of learning and growing with us.”

Building that kind of excitement is a full-time job. Suppliers accustomed to the legacy food industry need to step out of their comfort zones and work differently. They must reorganize operations and adapt to closer engagement with the producer. But that synergy is invaluable, as far as Matthias is concerned.
<blockquote>“Our co-manufacturers are our biggest fans,” he says, “they know that we’re doing something special together, and they’re prepared to go the extra mile with us.” It’s not hard to see why consumers fall in love with the La Vie brand, but Matthias reveals the same sentimental attachment from the supplier side. Co-manufacturers are proud to be part of the success story and share the same passion as the internal team.</blockquote>
No wonder that, for Matthias, the partners are an extension of the La Vie staff: “The process and the technology are the basis of product quality.” And a lot of the innovation in this department begins in the company’s R&amp;D centre.

At La Vie, fundamental R&amp;D and process development are strategic activities. If plant-based food companies want consumers to treat their products as genuine replacements, the vegan alternative must perform the same as the animal-derived original. The bacon and lardon options of La Vie do an extraordinary job at that. Still, perfection never sits on its hands, and Matthias tells us that investment in R&amp;D is a primary driver of excellence.

“The prototypes were enough to make our partners believe in the product,” but Matthias says that that initial spark is insufficient. “Our commitment to raising standards reverberates throughout the supplier network, and we constantly challenge each other to develop faster and produce better.” A proper definition of co-manufacturing in real life.

Working with external manufacturing means pulling the same rope, not a tug-of-war. And the result of the symbiotic relationship La Vie has with its co-manufacturers is a delicious, smoky vegan snack.

It takes hundreds of experts to produce one La Vie plant-based bacon pack. That’s as many people involved in processing the animal-derived option but with considerably less water, land, and CO2 emissions. And no four-legged intelligent creatures either.

To make a kilogram of meat bacon, it takes six pigs.

#Changemaker: Vegan bacon is a co-man love match

Feed ingredients

Find production technology for Plant-based meat extrusion, and connect directly with leading machine manufacturers worldwide

Plant-based meat extrusion

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Plant-based meat extrusion Equipment

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Basket extruder

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