Cargill, Cubiq Foods harness novel fats for plant-based foods that replicate the appearance and texture of animal fat

Photo from Cargill

Cargill (Minneapolis) is teaming up with young food-tech firm Cubiq Foods (Barcelona, Spain) on fat technology for plant-based foods that replicates the appearance and texture of animal-based fats. Thanks to the new partnership, Cargill can now use Cubiq’s fat technology to help customers develop better plant-based alternative products.

“Most current plant-based options fall short of consumers’ expectations, but Cubiq Foods’ line of ‘smarter’ fats helps close the gap, including advances that replicate animal fat in terms of visual appearance, mouthfeel, and bite,” a Cargill press release states. Cargill points out that in plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, fats and oils play “pivotal roles” in determining a product’s structure, taste, texture, and nutritional profile.

Cubiq’s novel fats, including Go!Drop, will be added to Cargill’s existing portfolio of plant-based solutions, which already includes plant proteins, texturizers, and traditional fats and oils. Cubiq’s technology can help produce plant-based alternatives with enhanced flavor, better total fat and saturated fat content, improved caloric count, and inclusion of essential fatty acids like omega-3s, the firms say.

The companies’ partnership includes co-developing products and go-to-market agreements to help “accelerate widescale commercialization of Cubiq Foods’ innovative fat technologies.” Cargill initially invested in Cubiq Foods in May 2022.