Hydrosol sets up Competence Center for plant-based products

Plant-based alternatives to meat, sausage and dairy products have gone mainstream. Vegan products are getting more and more retail shelf space, and are the basis for new concepts in the out of home market. According to Innova Market Insights, in the last few years products marked “plant-based” and “100 percent plant-based” have experienced annual growth of 60 percent. Market researchers prognosticate continued growth going forward, among other things through new ideas in the trend category of snacking.

The reason for the steadily rising demand for vegan products is a cultural shift in eating habits, according to Innova Market Insights, as consumers are much more careful about what they buy. They are paying more attention not only to their own health, but also to issues like sustainability, animal welfare and climate change. Hydrosol saw the potential of plant-based foods early on, and in 2014 the company marketed the first functional systems for making plant-based alternatives to cheese and sausage. Since then its portfolio of innovative product ideas has grown enormously, and today Hydrosol is an established international expert for plant-based alternatives. With the formation of the Plant-based Competence Centre the company has now bundled all of its expertise in a creative pool. Here, product managers, nutritionists, food technologists and marketing specialists develop creative concepts to address the trends in international markets. “In our stabilizing and texturing system concepts we have long combined market trend knowledge with scientific and technological understanding. Our new Plant-based Competence Center is a seedbed for innovative food concepts with high future potential, as well as a dialogue platform for our customers,” notes Hydrosol Managing Director Dr Matthias Moser.