Why flavour matters most in plant-based innovation
In a recent opinion piece, Hans Steenbergen warned of a growing reactionary wave against plant-based. At Nursh, we share his sentiment: why so much vinegar thrown at progress? In our lab, our philosophy is clear—critical thinking is necessary, but being pro-progress is even more important.
Bridging Science and Cuisine
It’s a familiar story: the plant-based start-ups in our Food Incubator have had a tough year. Rising raw material costs, the aftershocks of COVID, retail crises, inflation—and, crucially, the immaturity of the still-young plant-based market. Too often, flexitarian consumers are let down by the taste and texture of new plant-based products.
That’s exactly where our challenge lies: the pursuit of deliciousness. The race for better products, powered by new tools and ingredients to make them exceptional. As Hans put it: “The shift to eating more plant-based will only work if it’s truly delicious.”
Building a Better Toolbox
That’s why we’ve been fine-tuning our own plant-based dry sausage and fermented umami sauce for years. Increasingly, our R&D projects are driven by a specific mission: develop new raw materials to fix the “not delicious” problem in many plant-based products.
“Delicious” is a broad, multi-sensory concept—it’s about how something looks, smells, tastes, and feels in the mouth. Improving it means expanding the developer’s toolbox.
That’s exactly the aim of the EU-funded LIKE A PRO project: 17 countries and 42 partners collaborating to find applications for 16 new alternative protein products and 7 novel protein sources—including lentils, microbial protein, insects, mycelia, and mushrooms. Europe is investing €13.9 million to push this forward.
The Quest for the Best Plant-Based Melt
The result: a range of single-ingredient innovations to enrich our culinary toolbox in the hunt for better taste. Sometimes we study the whole product, sometimes we target a specific property.
For Bolder Foods, makers of plant-based grated cheese under the Chizou brand, we went back to basics—moving away from ultra-processed formulas that consumers rightly question. Their cheese is primarily made from cauliflower, with the focus on meltability. On the market since 2022, it’s now the subject of a new round of R&D: can we enhance melt and creaminess further through biomass fermentation with novel micro-organisms?
From Ingredients to Complete Redesigns
At Nursh, our search spans everything from singular new ingredients to redefining complete products with the help of micro-organisms. Is it just coincidence that so many innovations today are plant-based? Or is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Either way, the current push for “delicious” is being driven by the gaps in today’s plant-based offerings.
That doesn’t mean there’s no innovation in meat. Quite the opposite—and we applaud it. Take Belgian butcher Hendrik Dierendonck, a master craftsman who, together with Ruben Brabant and Ghent University, has revived the ancient Menapian pig breed after years of cross-breeding, feeding trials, and research. Unique in flavour, this is “less but better” meat at its finest.
Monsieur Boudin continues to develop inventive flavours of boudin (blood sausage) using high-quality organ meats—and will soon launch a plant-based version too.
Keep the Vinegar for the Vinaigrette
Who could object to all this hard work to make good food—whether plant-based or otherwise—better? Let’s keep the vinegar where it belongs: in a vinaigrette at a summer barbecue, where everyone can choose something delicious, no matter their preference.