Fermentation can improve taste of plant-based proteins

A new research project, partly funded by the Dutch government’s Top Sector Agri & Food initiative, aims to develop new fermentation processes to improve the quality and flavour of plant-based proteins. 

Plant-protein ingredients often contain unwanted compounds that can cause unpleasant flavours in end products. The three-year “Bio-purification of plant proteins” project aims to develop fermentation-based bio-purification processes to eliminate those unwanted compounds from plant-based protein ingredients. 

“Fermentation is an age-old, well-known and safe technique in food production, used in everything from alcoholic beverages and bread to sauerkraut and yoghurt. But it is much more widely applicable than that. With this project, we aim to build on existing experience of using fermentation to remove undesired components and apply that more generally to the manufacture of new and improved plant-based food products,” says Vesela Tzeneva, Senior Project Manager at NIZO.  

nizo.com