Deep dive: Mixed Responses

As R&D continues, we can expect to see more innovative and delicious hybrid products on the market, catering to a variety of dietary needs and environmental concerns. Here, Lloyd Fuller, gathers the opinions of experts in the field who believe a combined cocktail of sources will deliver the best of all worlds for manufacturers, consumers, and the planet

Hybrid foods represent an exciting innovation in the alternative protein landscape, offering a technically sophisticated approach for the plant-based food industry, in particular, to create innovative products with better taste, texture, nutrition, and potentially even lower production costs.

Of course, ‘hybrids’ – or ‘blends’ – come in various guises, from plant and cell-cultivated, plant and fermented, traditional meat with plant, and even the combination of different plant proteins and other sources such as fungi.

Hybrid products make sense on many levels. With plant-based meat currently struggling with replicating certain meat cuts or products with intricate textures, cultivated meat could be used strategically to create these. Think of a plant-based sausage base infused with pockets of cultivated fat for a more realistic taste and texture. Cell-cultivated meat also has the potential to be engineered to have specific health benefits, such as increased vitamin content or Omega-3 fatty acids. Combining it with plant-based protein sources could create a more well-rounded nutritional profile. And with 100% cultivated meat currently too expensive to produce at scale, hybrid products with a smaller percentage of cultivated meat could offer a more affordable entry point for consumers while still delivering a satisfying meat-like experience.

Consumer demand?

But who’s to say consumers actually want these hybrid products in the first place? “Globally, almost one in three consumers identify as flexitarians and four in five consumers have already adopted or are on their way to adopting a meat reduction lifestyle,” suggests Dr Isabel Trogh, Customer Technical Support Manager at BENEO, citing the company’s Global Plant-Based & Meat Hybrids Survey 2023. “Hence, convenient and tasty ways to reduce meat intake will continue to be in high demand and hybrid products are a great way to respond to this rising trend.”

Convenient and tasty ways to reduce meat intake will continue to be in high demand and hybrid products are a great
way to respond to this rising trend

Trogh admits that for the four in 10 of consumers who are not as open to trying hybrid meat products, a key limitation is their uncertainty of how these products will taste. As well as wanting great taste and texture, consumers are expecting hybrid foods to be cheaper than the full meat or fish equivalent product. She says it is therefore vital that food producers work closely with functional ingredients providers, such as BENEO, on recipe development to enable the delivery of cost-effective products that offer an appealing sensory profile. “Also,” she highlights, “producers need to communicate clearly to consumers the benefits of choosing a hybrid product – for example, clarifying its nutritional profile, naturalness and sustainability benefits.”

BENEO, which specializes in functional ingredients derived from natural sources for the food industry, already has its hand in the hybrid pie, if you pardon the pun. “We have recipes available for hybrid meat and hybrid fish burgers,” continues Trogh. “We also have recipes and ongoing trials for baked goods that involve partial egg replacement with different percentages, including a great-tasting pound cake.”

The BENEO Technology Center’s recent work on recipe development for a range of hybrid burgers shows how taste and texture can be optimized in this category. A hybrid burger with a firm texture, juicy mouthfeel, nice color, and great taste has been created using partial meat replacement with BENEO’s Meatless Faba bean flakes. The flakes were used to reduce meat content in the burger by 40%, while boosting fiber. “This partial meat replacement can also reduce the recipe cost significantly, depending on the local raw material prices,” Trogh notes. “Meatless Flakes are easy to incorporate into recipe and production processes and have a great freeze-thaw stability.

“A Meatless Binder can also be used in this recipe to keep the burger mass together nicely during preparation, while also providing a good bite in the final product. Manufacturers can decide the percentage of meat that they want to replace and achieve the desired texture of their hybrid products by using texturates from different raw materials.”

The Meatless portfolio actually includes flakes derived from faba beans, rice, or wheat.

Best of both worlds

Andrew Arentowicz, CEO of blended meat startup, 50/50 Foods Inc, has a few personal reasons for creating BOTH – a blend that is 50% grass-fed Angus beef and 50% vegetable, a proprietary blend of roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, riced broccoli, and cauliflower. “Our company was essentially born from a conversation I had with a friend in around 2019,” reveals Arentowicz. “As meat lovers, we fully understood it wasn’t realistic to completely give up meat. But we would happily eat less.

“I also live in Los Angeles and our cities in the west – Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix – all rely on the Colorado River, which is facing a critical water shortage,” he continues. “Experts warn that Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the reservoirs supplying our water, could dry up in as little as a decade. Imagine millions waking up to no tap water! While homes use only 12% of the water, industries and farms use the remaining 88%. Shockingly, 55% of that goes to grow alfalfa and hay – food for cows! This means a massive amount of water goes towards just one product: beef.”

Of course, combining meat with vegetables can hardly be described as revolutionary – it’s been done for millennia. “It’s just a fact that vegetables enhance the flavor of meat,” Arentowicz adds. “Dishes like beef and broccoli prove that. We understand this concept. So, our goal isn’t to replace meat entirely, but to offer a convenient and delicious option for those who want to reduce their meat intake. Our plant-based burgers provide a satisfying experience with a familiar taste and texture, while also boasting health and environmental benefits. We’re not asking for a complete lifestyle change. We simply want to make it easier for people to make a positive difference.”

If everyone made just a small change, it could make a big difference. On average, Americans eat around 224.6 lbs of meat (beef, pork, chicken, and turkey) every year, which translates to roughly 347g a day – that’s actually more than 40% higher than what’s recommended by dietary guidelines. In 2021, US meat consumption actually reached record highs and although there was a slight dip in 2022, it still remained close to the second-highest level ever recorded.

Our goal isn’t to replace meat entirely, but to offer a convenient and delicious option for those who want to reduce their meat intake

But when push comes to shove, will people make those small changes? “Our core audience is people who already understand the benefits of reducing meat consumption,” says Arentowicz. “This includes flexitarians, paleo-curious individuals, and health-conscious parents. Targeting these groups first builds a strong foundation of understanding and loyal customers. Instead of a hard sell in unexpected markets, let’s focus on winning over those who are open to alternatives. The good news is, many people – even in meat-loving areas – acknowledge the downsides of excess meat consumption, both for health (cholesterol) and the environment. We don’t need complex explanations. Most people grasp the ‘why’ behind reducing meat. Here’s how we bridge the gap: taste! Our plant-based burgers provide a satisfying experience without sacrifice. You get the flavor and texture you crave, along with amazing health and environmental benefits. It’s a win-win!”

Launching the 50/50 burger hasn’t been easy for Arentowicz and his team, however. “First, we had to develop a recipe that kept its shape without additives. Then, the USDA wouldn’t let us clearly label the veggie content – a major hurdle in communicating our product. Financing has been tough, too, relying on friends and family while the venture world throws money at futuristic solutions that haven’t even sold a single burger. It’s a rough environment, but it makes you stronger. We’re all about doing more with less, and we’ll prove our concept, even if it means working a little harder.”

In addition to being on the shelf at 142 retail outlets and on the menu at six Southern Californian restaurants, at the start of 2024, Arentowicz was pleased to see his product launch at Disneyland as the ‘Meteorite Medley Burger’. “That meant we were the first commercial blended burger on the menu of a public company,” he enthuses.

“Nature will ultimately force us to change how we eat,” he warns, emphasizing the bigger picture. “Finite resources and growing populations can’t be ignored. Subsidies can only stretch so far. A wake-up call, maybe like Lake Mead running dry, might be what’s needed for consumers to truly embrace plant-based options. Beef simply can’t be sustained. Market forces will eventually push consumers towards options like ours, a delicious and environmentally friendly alternative.”

Production at scale

Nesli Sözer, Research Professor at Finland’s VTT, agrees with Arentowicz that the global food system needs a major transformation, and a shift away from animal products is essential. “The global food supply faces immense stress,” she laments. “We need rapid transformation, but current plant-based and cellular agriculture solutions fall short. Plant-based options are scalable and mostly affordable yet lack taste and some nutrients. Cellular agriculture can address these but faces scalability and cost challenges. Neither alone can enable the food system transition. At VTT, we’re focusing on hybrid food solutions, leveraging plant-based raw materials with minimal processing. We’re using solid-state fermentation to optimize nutrition and sensory aspects, creating microbial proteins, vitamins, and functional lipids. And we’re exploring incorporating high-performance, low-inclusion cell-ag ingredients like precision-fermented proteins and lipids. This hybrid approach offers production at scale with the best of both worlds: plant-based scalability and targeted functionality from cell-ag. It’s a key strategy for a sustainable future of food.”

Sözer, who gave at a presentation at The Future of Protein Production Amsterdam in October 2023 on the topic of hybrid foods, is an expert in alternative proteins and especially the processing of these novel foods. Given that font of knowledge, what types of processing techniques does she see being explored for hybrid foods? “Typical unit operations applied in the food industry can be utilized to combine plant material and microbial biomass,” she says. “I would like to highlight at this point the new opportunities when it comes to food structure design. Plant proteins, starch and/or dietary fiber can be transformed by using thermo-mechanical or enzymatic modifications to generate the main structural backbone where the microbial biomass can grow in a structurally organized way. Although we can utilize
typical processes, we can also come up with innovative biomimetic structural design inspired by nature.”

Suggesting we look at meat as an example, she adds, “Meat consists of proteins called myosin and actin bundled together to form muscle fibers and enveloped by connective tissue, made mostly of another protein called collagen. The lipids, flavor and color components go in and around the meat tissue. These all form the irresistible taste of meat. We have a patent application where we developed a technology focusing on multicomponent in-situ structural design inspired by nature’s own architecture. There is no plant-based material here, but various strains that bring in different protein and lipid components in a hybrid format. In this patent application, we utilized VTT’s own strains that produce lipids efficiently as well as specific strains with special binding domains that can connect the elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) with flocculating (FLO) proteins.”

ELPs are biopolymers that can act as a scaffolding structure. Flocculation is a reversible, calcium-dependent process of yeast cell aggregation into rapidly sedimenting flocs. Flocculating strains with special binding domains connect ELPs with FLO proteins. “This way, we can design meat-like multicomponent hybrid (protein-lipid) structures where the proteins can form the structure in situ as part of biomanufacturing.”

Looking at the overall market, Sözer believes we are already seeing exciting hybrid food options emerging in the market. “We see plant-based burgers with heme, like the Impossible Burger, replicating the meaty taste,” she says. “Strive milk offers plant-based beverages with animal-free whey, another innovative hybrid approach. Mycorena uses fungi as a base for meat alternatives. Even Quorn, though not strictly plant-based, showcases the potential of hybrids. It combines single-cell protein with egg white, demonstrating the possibilities beyond purely plant-based ingredients.

“Existing hybrid food options like the Impossible Burger and Quorn are a great start, but we can do more,” Sözer stresses. “By integrating plant-based ingredients with cell-ag solutions, we can accelerate the dietary shift. This requires leveraging computational design and modeling to unlock the potential of biomanufacturing. Imagine mimicking nature’s ingenious structures to create hierarchical food designs! This is a wide-open field with immense opportunity. Research should explore new value chain structures to ensure these hybrid cell-ag/plant-based products become mainstream. It’s not just about creating these exciting new foods – it’s about making them accessible to everyone.”

The magic of mycelia

In a similar vein to Arentowicz’s BOTH product, Mush Foods has developed its ‘50 Cut’ mycelium ingredient to slash the animal protein content in meat products by 50%. “Our mushroom-derived products address the reality that there is a sizeable population of carnivores who are simply not willing to compromise on beef’s rich taste, nutritional boost, and textural experience,” says Shalom Daniel, Co-founder & CEO. “50 Cut is tailored for hybrid meat products to satisfy flexitarians and carnivores with the unique sensation they crave, while easing the impact of global meat consumption.”

50 Cut is composed of three edible mushroom mycelia species. “By combining different types of mycelia, we can create a unique ingredient that perfectly pairs with the particular taste, formability, texture, aroma, and even color of beef,” says Daniel’s colleague, Dan Levanon, Co-founder & CSO. “Once you add 50 Cut to ground beef, it acts like a sponge and absorbs all the water, juiciness, fat, aromatic compounds, and assumes the visual appearance of the beef. From organoleptic and nutritional perspectives, it functions as the perfect complement to beef, enhancing its taste.”

Mush Foods – which in 2023 raised US$6.2 million in seed funding – announced its launch into US food-service in January 2024, which could be lucrative. The ground meat category is estimated at US$94 billion in the USA alone while plant-based meats represent just 1.5% of the category.

Fat (not) of the land

Berlin, Germany-based startup, Cultimate Foods, is also betting big on hybrid meat substitutes. Their secret ingredient? Cell-grown fatty tissue: an approach they believe will revolutionize meat alternatives while benefiting agriculture. Founded in 2023, Cultimate has already secured €700,000 from investors such as Big Idea Ventures and ProVeg. With a lab up and running in Göttingen, Germany, Cultimate Foods is a name to watch in the future of food.

“As the science required for fully cultivated meat as an accessible product is still years away, the initial impactful products will be ‘hybrids’, combining plant-based proteins with cultivated ingredients,” suggests Eugenia Sagué, CEO & Co-Founder. “A cultivated fat product like ours will enhance the popularity of plant-based items by bridging the taste gap and laying the foundation for the future of cultivated meat.

‍Tender touch

As recently as December 2023, US startup, Tender Food, announced it had been awarded the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The US$997,986 two-year grant underscores the significance of Tender Food’s innovative, plant-based, whole cuts of meat, and provides critical funding to explore the enhancement of these products by adding cultured animal cells.

Tender transforms plant protein into fibers that mimic real meat muscle fibers. In contrast to other plant-based products that imitate ground, processed meat such as sausages and burger patties, its products boast textures and cooking properties that it claims are indistinguishable from animal meat. Based on innovations developed at Harvard University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Tender’s technology enables the creation of whole muscle cut products (e.g. chicken breasts, pulled pork, and steaks) that look, taste, and feel like the real deal.

In the first phase of the project, Tender discovered ways to add cultured animal cells to its plant-based meat products. In this second project phase, though, it will collaborate with the Kaplan Lab at Tufts University and the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) to broaden the number of animal species and evaluate the benefits of adding animal cells to plant-based products. This work will determine if cultured cells improve the products’ flavor, aroma, and nutrition, and thereby inform the commercialization potential of these blended products.

“We’re excited about this opportunity to collaborate with the TUCCA, to explore the emerging field of cellular agriculture, and to find out if cultured animal cells can improve plant-based meats,” says Luke MacQueen, Co-Founder & CSO of Tender Food.

Since the science required for fully cultivated meat as an accessible product is still years away, the initial impactful products will be ‘hybrids'

That win-win can work in reverse, too. Joshua March, the CEO & Co-founder of the San Leandro, California-based company, SCiFi Foods, believes that if any cultivated meat comes to market in any meaningful way, it will be a blend, at least in the foreseeable future. Plant-based meats, he says in his interview in this issue, “are better than they used to be, but they still don’t actually taste like meat.” At the same time, creating affordable 100% cultivated meat isn’t currently feasible – and won’t be anytime soon. “That’s why we think you need to do a blended approach, at least for now,” he concludes. “It may not be true in 10 years; technology will improve. But at least today, you have to do a blended approach.”

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