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Production of meat flavors of purely vegetable, natural
origin for flavoring vegetarian and vegan food products

Summary

Profile Type
  • Technology offer
POD Reference
TODE20240426011
Term of Validity
26 April 2024 - 26 April 2025
Company's Country
  • Germany
Type of partnership
  • Investment agreement
  • Commercial agreement with technical assistance
  • Research and development cooperation agreement
Targeted Countries
  • All countries
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General information

Short Summary
A German university has developed a a simple, cost-effective biotechnological process for fermenting spices using basidiomycete mycelium to obtain a savory flavor extract. This flavoring preparation could be further processed in many ways, e.g. to produce solid and liquid products for flavoring vegetarian and vegan food products by means of spray drying. The University is looking for cooperation partners, licensee and/or investors to further develop the new technology to series maturity.
Full Description
The market for vegetarian and vegan foods (meat alternative products, meat substitutes) has grown strongly in recent years. These products are now available in every supermarket. Double-digit market growth is expected for plant based sausage and meat alternatives. The market in Germany currently accounts for over 700 million euros. Conventional sausage products, i.e. sausage made from meat, still account for a market of just under twelve billion euros in Germany.
However, the quality and taste must be right to achieve this strong growth. In addition, consumers are attaching more importance to natural food ingredients. Therefore, natural flavours are becoming increasingly important for the food industry. Flexitarians - who now account for around a third of all households in Germany - will be the key to further growth of meat substitutes.

The need for meat substitutes is also being pushed by an even more pressing issue. It is becoming increasingly difficult to reserve resources and water to be able to produce meat. But also, for economic and environmental reasons it will be necessary to provide alternatives to meet the demand without wasting limited resources. For example, according to the consulting firm Kearney, actual meat production is expected to account for only 40 percent of the global “meat” consumption by 2040, which means that meat alternatives will surpass the market for animal-based meat. According to Statista, global market sales of conventional meat products are expected to decline to $880 billion by 2040, whereas sales of vegan meat products are set to rise to $450 billion.

To mimic the smell and taste of sausage and meat, appropriate savoury flavours are added to meat substitutes, but these are often produced artificially. Biotechnological processes using microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts or fungi have been developed to produce certain natural flavours, but not yet for savoury meat flavours.
Scientists at a German University have developed a simple, cost-effective biotechnological process for fermenting spices using basidiomycete mycelium.
(edible mushroom, not-genetically modified, GRAS status) to obtain a savoury.
flavour extract. This flavouring preparation (aqueous or after solvent extraction)
could be further processed in many ways, e.g. to produce solid and liquid products for flavouring vegetarian and vegan food products by means of spray drying.

The new technology makes it possible to produce spicy meat flavours of purely natural origin for flavouring vegetarian and vegan foods.
Advantages and Innovations
Advantages of the innovation are:

• Natural savoury meat flavours can be produced
• Simple fermentation process
• Almost limitless scalability
• Natural spices (onions and garlic) as substrates
• Use of mycelium of edible basidiomycetes
Stage of Development
  • Lab tested
Sustainable Development Goals
  • Goal 2: Zero Hunger
  • Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
  • Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Partner Sought

Expected Role of a Partner
The University is looking for cooperation partners, licensee and/or investors to further develop the new technology to series maturity.
Type and Size of Partner
  • SME <=10
  • Big company
  • SME 11-49
  • SME 50 - 249
Type of partnership
  • Investment agreement
  • Commercial agreement with technical assistance
  • Research and development cooperation agreement

Dissemination

Technology keywords
  • 06002002 - Cellular and Molecular Biology
  • 06006011 - Fermentation
Market keywords
  • 07003002 - Health food
  • 04005 - Biochemistry / Biophysics
  • 04007 - Enzymology/Protein Engineering/Fermentation
Targeted countries
  • All countries