Givaudan has published initial insights and the first commercial innovation inspired by the fifth savory edition of its global Chef’s Council event – The Protein Challenge.

Held in central London in October, and bringing together top chefs and Givaudan experts from around the world, the event explored new culinary concepts for meat and plant proteins as inspiration to develop the future of food.

Louie D’Amico, president of the Flavour Division said: “Givaudan has been running the Chef’s Council for more than 15 years and over that time we’ve seen great success and many new product launches from the programme. This year, with a focus on protein, the teams brought it to a new level with delicious creations and new innovations that can vastly improve both the taste and healthfulness of our customers’ plant-based products.”

Commenting after the event Flavio Garofalo, global category director Savoury Flavours and Natural Ingredients at Givaudan, said: “One of the key insights coming out of the event was the critical interaction and relationship between flavour, taste and texture that is a key differentiator when considering side dishes and center of plate. Deconstructing different flavors and textures and reassembling them to achieve those that consumers expect and prefer is a key aspect in the evolution of plant-based meat substitutes as the main focus of a meal.”

“The pre-event workshops held in each region allowed our teams to collaborate with our guest chefs, drawing inspiration from their creative approaches to the challenges we posed. Our internal chefs were able to apply the use of many new Givaudan innovations to their translations of the guest chefs’ preparations. This included our new breakthrough fat encapsulation technology which can help reduce up to 75 percent of the fat content and 30 percent of the calories in meat substitutes compared to current market products, an exciting advancement.” In addition to improving a product’s nutritional value, this innovation in fat encapsulation provides the benefit of increased authenticity and impact through flavor stabilisation. Flavio went on to explain that Givaudan teams had “also created a novel collection of new flavours allowing for remarkable concept development”.

The 2019 Givaudan’s Chef’s Council event led to a number of insights, ideas and innovation concepts touching on upon techniques, ingredients, flavors, taste and mouthfeel, all of which will ultimately be used to inspire entirely new concepts for protein products. Givaudan’s commitment to protein many years ago led to unrivalled expertise, and all of the tools that are necessary to make the many attributes in a product such as— flavor, aroma, texture and visuals—perform at their peak.

Flavio remarked, “We’re excited to bring these new insights and concepts to our customers in the coming weeks and months”.

A summary of these insights, some of the inspirational dishes created for the event and more information on the application of Givaudan’s new fattiness technology are available in the event paper which can be downloaded from:
www.givaudan.com/flavours/meeting-your-needs/givaudans-chefs-council/london-2019 

Discover more about alternative proteins here:
www.givaudan.com/flavours/health-and-well-being/protein