News ¦ IDM
January/February 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com · 37
Focus on taste and texture
GLANBIA Nutritionals advice to customers
According to Glanbia Nutritionals, plant-based dairy
alternatives no longer seek to mimic classic dairy
products but rather are developing into categories
of their own. Yves Vatomme, Product Strategic Manager,
Plant Nutritional, EMEA at Glanbia Nutritionals,
told IDM that even only 2 years ago product development
tended to copy taste and texture of conventional
dairy products but now manufactures convince
consumers with plant-based foods that really are different.
"The raw material base has broadened significatly,"
says Vantomme. "10 years ago we just had soya, now
we have oats, almond, grain and many more. It all
started out with milk-like drinks but now we have
yogurt-analogues and cheese alternatives are crossing
the horizon." As plant-based develops, manufacturers
are now aiming at producing foods that are
low in salt or sugar or rich in fibre. In all theses cases,
Glanbia Nutritionals is here to help with its portfolio
of ingredients.
"We focus on a limited number of ingredients,
though," Vantomme adds. At the core of Glanbia
Nutritionals offering is oats, flax, line and chia seeds
as well as pea protein. For making oat drinks, the
company has developed a gluten-free flour that allows
for making real drinkable products. Changing
functionality is the key here as well as it is when
pea protein is used as untreteated pea protein has
negative impacts on taste and texture. The company
is increasingly able to supply local sourced ingredients
and aims at processing Canadian oats for sale to
US customers from 2022. This avoids high transport
costs and also solves lead time issues. To all who work
in R&D on plant-based products, Vantomme has one
advice: "Focus on taste and texture and keep it as
natural as possible".
Plant-based
products are
developing away
from classic
dairy profiles
(photo: Glanbia
Nutritionals)
Continued CO2-neutrality through biogas
PALSGAARD
Palsgaard has started to build a biogas facility, named
Palsgaard Bio Energy A/S, which will produce biogas
from the treatment of wastewater from Palsgaard’s
production. The energy will be used for heating.
Partner in the project is the wastewater treatment
facility Hedensted Spildevand. The key to developing
the biogas facility was for the partners to change
their mindset and see wastewater as something other
than just waste. Instead, they considered it a useful
material that could become a vital part of a circular
system. The development of the facility will ensure
that Palsgaard’s production in Juelsminde remains
CO2-neutral as the production of emulsifiers and stabilisers
expands significantly towards 2030, which is
expected to increase the volume of wastewater by
8 percent annually. By producing biogas in the wastewater
treatment process, annual emissions of about
1,200 tons of CO2 can be avoided. At the same time,
the facility will provide 50 percent better wastewater
treatment than previously.
The facility will be able to treat a maximum of 350 m3
of wastewater a day and generate 70 m3 of biogas,
which means Palsgaard can cut their consumption of
natural gas and supplement it with biogas instead.
Kim Bøjstrup, COO Palsgaard, Ole Pedersen,
CEO Hedensted Spildevand, and Anders Brix,
CEO of the Schou Foundation at the groundbreaking
of the new biogas plant (photo: Palsgaard)
/international-dairy.com
