Bunge Loders Croklaan launches oil portfolio for plant-based meat alternatives

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Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC; St. Louis, MO) has launched a portfolio of oils designed to replicate the taste, texture, and cooking experience of meat in plant-based meat alternatives. The portfolio includes oils, specialty fat fractions, shortenings, flakes, and emulsifiers that leverage high-stability sunflower, canola, coconut, and palm fruit oils. While the demand for plant-based food grows, consumer still want the experience of traditional meat in a plant-based package. Fat is an important way to influence the sensory characteristics.

“Different oils and fats uniquely influence taste, texture, and cooking experience,” explains Mark Stavro, senior director of marketing to Nutritional Outlook. “Oil is great for flavor and aroma release, fractions and shortenings for juiciness, and flakes for marbling. Flakes can also help replicate the pleasant sustained mouthfeel of meat fat. In addition, lecithin enhances surface browning, which greatly improves their visual appeal.”

“It takes the right ingredients, scale, and technical expertise to create high quality products for this growing category,” he added. “BLC’s advantage is being able to provide all three attributes to growing brands.”