Creating and sharing value – Story 3 The future of protein

Around the world, consumers are increasingly choosing to eat plantbased protein dishes. Flavio Garofalo, from our Flavour Division, tells us how a taste revolution is driving demand.

The juicy burger at the centre of the plate has the appetising look, smell and taste of prime beef. In fact, it is made of plant protein. And it is exactly what consumers are demanding: a climate-friendly meat alternative with a true-to-meat taste. This trend is driving a transformation in the protein element of diets, creating an incredible rate of growth in plant protein foods around the world. The key now is to maintain sustainable production practices and to assure that they are healthier than their meat-based counterparts.

“Plant-based protein is one of the most exciting areas in food right now, with great opportunities for our Flavours Division. 2019 has seen extraordinary advances in technology,

huge growth of the market, and a number of signs that this disruption of the food industry will continue in the years to come, driven by a desire for healthy lives and a healthy planet.” says Flavio Garofalo, Global Category Director, Savoury Flavours and Natural Ingredients. “While Givaudan does not sell plant protein, we make it taste great and appealing for consumers. They want healthier alternatives to meat as the main part of their meal and they love the meaty texture and the lingering aroma and taste of the new plant-based products. It is not only vegans and vegetarians, but especially flexitarians, meat-eaters who want to reduce their consumption of animal protein.

“People also want to choose food that protects the environment. Awareness of the carbon impact of livestock farming compared to crops is growing, and there is some concern about animal welfare. And in some regions there can be scarcity of certain types of animal protein, so consumers and governments are looking for alternatives.”

Givaudan is the leader in the plant-based proteins market as a result of our strategic decision in 2015 to invest in research and development of new tools and technologies for this area, and key acquisitions. We already had a wealth of experience in dairy alternatives, and were committed to transferring this to meat.

“2019 was an incredible year of advancement for us,” says Flavio. “We have an outstanding selection of tools that are necessary to make the many attributes in a product, such as flavour, aroma, texture and visuals, perform at their peak.” We launched our fat encapsulation technology which gives plant-based alternatives – burgers in particular – those same attributes. It is a healthier choice: the technology allows for a product with 75% less fat and 30% fewer calories than current market products, while enhancing juiciness. Further nutritional benefits are in development, for instance, meat alternatives with lower sodium and added vitamins.

Another of our 2019 launches, new masking solutions and a smart masking tool, addresses

one of the foremost challenges in turning plant proteins into appetising dishes: off-notes. Flavio explains: “Off-notes can simply ruin the taste. Another tricky element is combining different proteins from different suppliers, because they can have different taste profiles. Our new tools give flavourists a high-performing solution, and they help to strike the balance between functionality, texture, taste, nutrition and cost.”

We also found new ways to improve the experience of eating texturised vegetable protein, which gains a meat-like texture when globular vegetable protein is transformed into long fibres. This protein is extensively used, but its taste can be short-lived.

Flavio says: “We studied how best to flavour high moisture texturised protein and developed strategies to maximise performance and produce a much longer-lasting authentic meat flavour. When we combine this with marinating the product after

texturising, it transforms the taste. As well as great flavour, there is also texture and mouthfeel to consider, and we have developed the whole package. It is almost as much of an art as a science.”

For our customers who want to develop Texturised Vegetable Protein (TVP) dishes, we have built a pilot plant at Naarden, in the Netherlands. This is now working remarkably well in helping our customers with TVP product development, speeding up the process of bringing new consumer products to market.

As well as engaging closely with our customers, we collaborate with many partners, looking for new ideas, solutions and innovation opportunities. Our collaboration with the University of Berkeley, California, has identified six proteins which are likely to be the gamechangers of the future. We are the only flavour/taste company working with Plant Meat Matters, a public private partnership led by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, which aims to advance plantbased meat ingredients and products and create a ‘plant steak’.

With all of this, our objective is to continue to be a leader in protein, fulfilling our company purpose of creating happier, healthier lives, with love for nature, while contributing to our strategic ambition to double our business by 2030.

Givaudan's Chef’s Council is a collaboration with a rotating panel of leading chefs from the world’s premier restaurants, now in its 15 th successful year. In 2019, we wanted to envision the future of protein as the main part of a meal.

Our guest chefs rose to the challenge of creating innovative, healthy, delicious-tasting proteinbased dishes – with a strong focus on plant proteins – producing a variety of insights, ideas and innovation concepts. Their work touched on techniques, ingredients, flavours, taste and mouthfeel, all of which will ultimately be used to inspire entirely new concepts for protein products and research into new technical areas. The guest chefs were Chantelle Nicholson, of Tredwells, London, UK; Cristina Bowerman, of Glass Hostaria, Rome, Italy; Helena Rizzo, of Mani Restaurant, São Paulo, Brazil; and Amanda Cohen, of Dirt Candy, New York, USA.

Our internal team of chefs, flavourists, applications and marketing experts were able to speedily translate the expert creations into concepts we could take directly to our customers.

One of the key insights was the critical interaction and relationship between flavour, taste and texture in the main focus of a meal. The chefs were able to deconstruct different flavours and textures and reassemble them to achieve what consumers expect and prefer.

www.givaudan.com – investors – online annual report – 2019 success stories – the future of protein

Equity in CHF million 3,659

Liability in CHF million 6,737

Free cash flow, as a % of sales 12.7%

EBITDA in CHF million 1,275