The company said the increased range is in response to consumers wanting more plant-based choices in a range of popular items such as nutritional bars, yogurts, waters, juices and smoothies.
The company’s new protein offerings are all plant-based and allergen-free, with organic options, and are suitable for use in a variety of creative food and beverage applications. Containing protein from pea, rice and sunflower, they address the need for organic, vegan and traditional choices while offering solubility, dispersibility and neutral taste.
“We recognize the rapidly growing demand for plant-based protein as more and more consumers adopt a ‘flexitarian’ diet for health and sustainability reasons and are delighted to bring our expanded plant protein range to the market,” John Reilly, VP business development, proteins for Kerry Taste & Nutrition, said.
“By combining these new sources of plant protein with our established processing technology, technical expertise and flavor-masking capability, we have opened up many new innovation opportunities for our customers — and innovation remains at the heart of our work. At Kerry, we keep a constant focus on developing new products and, for plant protein in particular, are now working on exciting applications in plant-based yogurt, ice-cream bars and clear beverages, to name but a few.”
Kerry said as more consumers take health matters into their own hands, food and beverage product developers have responded by increasing efforts to elevate the taste and nutritional quality of plant-based offerings to the same level as their animal-based counterparts. One strategy — introducing plant-based extensions of recognized traditional products — is gaining speed as companies seek to capitalize on the willingness of consumers to try vegan variations of their favorite foods and beverages.
With the exception of soy (a protein that contains all essential amino acids), there has been one continuing challenge facing the plant protein marketplace: the lower nutritional quality of many plant proteins. It was in an effort to address this need that Kerry developed its complementary pea, rice and sunflower combinations. Featuring optimized Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) up to 1.0, the company says the new products rival dairy in terms of providing enhanced nutritional, functional and taste value — in applications from infant nutrition to seniors’ protein beverages to vegan applications.
“With such changes under way, it’s nothing short of an exhilarating time to be in the fast-paced vegan and organic industry. And now, with Kerry’s expansion of protein offerings, the needs of organic, vegan, allergen-free and traditional product manufacturers are being squarely addressed — to the ultimate benefit of consumers,” Mindy Leveille, strategic marketing manager, proteins, Kerry Taste & Nutrition, said.