Motif will have exclusive access to the technologies, which it said hold the promise to address two of the most significant challenges in plant-based foods: achieving melt and stretch in plant-based cheese alternatives, and healthier fat that marblizes in plant-based meat.
Through this expanded collaboration, Motif will have exclusive access to extrudable fat technology: oleogel technology that replicates animal fat, allowing for more authentic fat textures, such as marbling, in plant-based meats—acquired from Coasun.
And it also can access prolamin technology – licensed from the University of Guelph – which uses plant-based ingredients to improve the texture of plant-based cheese alternatives, allowing it to melt, bubble, and stretch like animal-derived dairy.
Motif’s move to acquire exclusive commercial rights to these technologies is the first development from the company’s ongoing collaboration with the University of Guelph in Canada, and Dr Alejandro Marangoni, founder of Coasun, Inc., and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Food, Health and Aging at Guelph. Stefan Baier, Motif’s head of food science, will continue to lead the ongoing collaboration, which kicked off in 2019.
“Today’s plant-based meat and cheese alternatives lack the pleasure associated with eating the real thing. We want to change that at Motif,” said Baier.
“Leveraging two exclusive technologies through our collaboration with Coasun and the University of Guelph, Motif will enable performance in plant-based foods previously unheard of — from plant-based cheese on a sandwich or pizza that actually stretches and melts to plant-based meat with marbleized fat just like a ribeye or a NY strip.”
“Collaborating with the entire R&D team at Motif FoodWorks has been a rewarding experience, and we’re excited to further explore the implications our advanced plant-based technology will have on the industry together,” said Marangoni.
Motif’s collaboration with Guelph and Marangoni comes on the heels of the company’s opening of a 10,600 sq. ft. office and lab space in the Boston Seaport and continued expansion of its leadership team.
In addition to partnering with third-party experts and researchers across the industry, Motif leverages some new scientific approaches — from precision fermentation to materials science — and applies them in new ways to generate individual ingredients, protein systems, whole formula solutions and products to move the plant-based food industry forward.