Meala scales up in Europe to replace 82,000 eggs a day

Meala FoodTech has more than tripled manufacturing capacity across sites in France and Germany, preparing to supply enough texturizing pea protein to replace 82,000 eggs a day in 2027. For the Israeli company, whose ingredients already feature in meat alternatives on European retail shelves, bakery offers a further commercial opportunity: replacing eggs while reducing formulation costs by approximately 30–40%.

• Meala has more than tripled manufacturing capacity in France and Germany, targeting enough pea protein to replace 82,000 eggs a day in 2027.
• Complete egg replacement has been demonstrated in muffins, pound cakes, and sponge cakes, with assessed formulation savings of approximately 30-40%.
• Co-founder and CBO Dr Tali Feldman Sivan explains the customer forecasts, formulation work, and manufacturing consistency behind the expansion.

In exclusive responses to Protein Production Technology International, Dr Tali Feldman Sivan, Meala’s Co-founder & CBO, details the customer forecasts underpinning the expansion, the applications where complete egg replacement has been demonstrated, and the practical work involved in moving manufacturers away from existing binding systems.

Her answers also put boundaries around the headline figures. The egg replacement target incorporates anticipated customer conversions and launch schedules, while the savings refer to formulation costs rather than a measured reduction in total manufacturing costs.

“Our forecast is built from the bottom up, based on our existing customer pipeline and the projected production volumes shared directly by food manufacturers,” Feldman Sivan says.

“These estimates are combined with assumptions around commercial conversion, launch timelines, and expected volume growth, providing a realistic view of anticipated market demand as customers progress toward commercialization.”

The expanded capacity is equivalent to replacing 1,400 metric tons of eggs in 2027. Meala has not disclosed how much of that forecast is covered by contracted orders, but Feldman Sivan says the company has planned production to accommodate growth beyond its current projections.

“We have taken a forward-looking approach to capacity expansion, ensuring that our infrastructure can support both our projected demand and additional growth opportunities.”

Founded in 2021, Meala develops texturizing pea proteins designed to perform several functions within food formulations. Depending on the application, they can replace eggs or conventional texture additives such as hydrocolloids, providing binding and structure while helping manufacturers shorten ingredient lists.

The company is working with dozens of food businesses across multiple categories. Its ingredients reach manufacturers through established partners: dsm-firmenich markets Vertis PB Pea for savory applications, while Lasenor Emul markets LASENOR VP-100 for bakery.

“The first plant-based meat alternatives featuring Meala’s protein have already been successfully launched by customers and are now commercially available across Europe,” says Hadar Ekhoiz-Razmovich, CEO & Co-founder of Meala.

“Our expanded manufacturing capacity enables us to support customers’ new product launches and reach more applications and markets.”

Those launches provide commercial experience as Meala pursues bakery customers, where the challenge extends beyond replacing the quantity of egg in a recipe. Eggs contribute structure, aeration, moisture, texture, and stability. The balance between those functions changes from one formulation to another, making performance dependent on the surrounding ingredients and the production process.

“We have successfully demonstrated 100% egg replacement in applications including muffins, pound cakes, and sponge cakes, achieving the key functional properties required for the finished product,” Feldman Sivan says.

However, she cautions against assuming that the product category alone determines how difficult a conversion will be.

“The more complex applications are not necessarily defined by a particular cake category, but rather by the interaction between the original egg content, the other ingredients, and the specific processing conditions.”

For a manufacturer assessing the ingredient, that means a successful demonstration in one sponge cake is a starting point for development, rather than a guarantee of identical results in every sponge cake formulation. The original recipe and processing requirements still determine what adjustments are needed.

“Our ongoing development work focuses on expanding the range of applications in which we can deliver consistent results, while minimizing formulation changes and ensuring compatibility with manufacturers' existing production processes,” Feldman Sivan says.

“This is a natural part of scaling an ingredient technology across the diversity of industrial bakery applications.”

Cost is another consideration that needs to be assessed at recipe level. Meala’s reported savings of approximately 30–40% draw on work across muffins, pound cakes, and sponge cakes, with the outcome varying according to formulation and replacement level. An assessed sponge cake recipe delivered savings exceeding 40% against an egg-based reference.

“These calculations use typical European egg market prices, rather than peak prices during supply disruptions,” Feldman Sivan says.

“The savings therefore reflect ordinary market conditions, although the exact benefit varies with ingredient prices and each manufacturer’s formulation.”

The use of typical prices is a significant detail for manufacturers considering a lasting recipe change. It indicates that the assessed savings do not depend on buying eggs at an exceptional price during a supply shortage. Nevertheless, the benefit remains sensitive to the ingredients being replaced and their cost at the time of purchase.

The scope of the calculation is equally relevant. Meala’s percentages describe formulation savings, or cost in use. They do not establish the total cost per saleable finished product after accounting for factors such as mixing time, energy use, line speed, rejects, and shelf life.

“Meala works within manufacturers’ existing processing conditions, without requiring changes to production equipment or processing conditions,” Feldman Sivan says.

“As a dry ingredient, it can also simplify handling, storage, and transportation compared with liquid eggs. These potential operational benefits are additional to the reported formulation savings.”

That distinction leaves manufacturers with two areas to assess: the ingredient cost within the recipe and any operational benefit from changing how eggs are purchased, stored, and handled. Meala has quantified the former in its assessed applications, while describing the latter as potential additional advantages.

“For innovation to translate into commercial adoption, it needs to work within manufacturers’ recipes, processes, and economics,” Feldman Sivan says.

“In meat alternatives, our texturizing protein provides binding and structure while replacing conventional texture additives. In bakery applications, it typically accounts for just a few percentages of the formulation, replacing egg functionality and enabling meaningful cost-in-use savings.”

The company’s experience in meat alternatives illustrates how a multifunctional ingredient can change an existing formulation. Feldman Sivan describes one customer application that relied on several ingredients working together to provide the required binding, texture, structure, and stability.

“By incorporating Meala's pea protein solution, we were able to replace the existing binding system with a single multifunctional ingredient, significantly simplifying the formulation and reducing the complexity of the ingredient list,” she says.

The customer and original binding ingredients have not been identified. However, Feldman Sivan makes clear that simplifying the system still involved formulation work.

“As with any ingredient substitution, the process involved fine-tuning ingredient ratios to achieve the desired texture, stability, and overall product quality.”

On finished-product labels, Meala’s ingredient appears as pea protein. The company has also achieved self-affirmed GRAS status for its pea protein ingredient for US food applications, following review by an independent panel of qualified experts.

As volumes increase, the manufacturing challenge is to deliver the functionality customers established during development consistently across commercial batches. With production in France and Germany, that requirement extends across sites.

“Over the past four years, we have focused on process optimization, repeatability, and in-process controls to ensure reliable quality and performance at scale,” Feldman Sivan says.

“We have successfully validated consistent functional performance across our production sites, as this is an essential requirement for our customers.”

Meala has not disclosed its individual functional batch-release specifications or details of customer trials switching between the two manufacturing locations. Feldman Sivan says the quality assurance work addresses performance as well as compliance with product specifications.

“Our quality assurance approach goes beyond meeting product specifications to ensuring that every batch delivers the same reliable functionality, regardless of where it is manufactured.”

For Meala’s customers, the work therefore continues beyond selecting an ingredient with a shorter label declaration. The recipe has to deliver the required texture, run under existing processing conditions, and justify its cost each time it is produced.

“But changing even one ingredient can affect texture, stability, and processing behavior,” Feldman Sivan says. “Meala gives formulators a simpler starting point: one ingredient that delivers multiple texturizing functions, reducing the need to rebuild recipes around complex combinations of substitutes.”

“We help our customers meet sensory, processing, and cost requirements together, with a focus on consistent performance from lab and pilot trials to commercial products.”

(Photos courtesy of Ditales Studio)

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