Veggarella

Abstract

In the past years, the vegetarian market has been flourishing. It is due to a growing number of people that goes on special diets like vegetarians, or other people that avoid partially or completely animal products. In many studies, it is shown that what people miss the most when they are going on that sort of diet is cheese. Vegan substitutes to cheese found on the market are not yet satisfying. It is because of the potential of this relatively new market that inspired this project of creating a cheese substitute. More specifically, a substitute for mozzarella that can be consumed fresh in a salad for example or hot on a pizza. At first, it was decided to create a product that would be clean label (no additives), nutritionally equivalent to mozzarella cheese and that could also have the same smell, taste and texture. But like always in life, you have to make some sacrifice. Firstly, this project focusses on selecting a protein source. First, with commercial soy milk, then homemade soymilk, pea protein isolates and finally with soy protein isolates. The latest was selected for this product for multiple reasons. It is easy to use, it is a nutritionally interesting protein and it was also the best technologically speaking. Secondly, the most important part of the project was to choose some hydrocolloids and other ingredients to form a thermoreversible matrix. It was the kappa-carrageenan combined with locust bean gum that had the best results for this product. Thirdly, the picking of the appropriate lipids and the best amount was important to help the product to melt when heating. A mix of palm oil and sunflower oil was mainly used. Indeed, these 3 components combination was supposed to create a texture that is hard and elastic enough for a cold use and that is also capable to melt when it is put in the oven. Unfortunately, the end results were not satisfying enough to compete with the real mozzarella. But, the prototypes can easily be compared to the competitors in the vegan market. On top of the formulation work, there is also a marketing plan, an innovating packaging, a logo and a name: Veggarella! To conclude, this work made us aware of the complexity but also the excitement behind the launching of a new product.