Living up to their name as The Plant Based Pioneers, our Partner – Planteneers – has developed “The World’s 1st Online Product Configurator for Plant Based Foods”.
The principle of individual product configuration is now common in a B2C context. Planteneers has put a huge amount of research, expertise and resource into creating a tool that applies this principle to the B2B food ingredients category.
How does the Plantbaser™ work?
You begin by choosing the raw material, selecting from a wide range of protein sources. The platform displays which proteins are best fitted to specific products. For example, if you want to develop a plant based yoghurt – you can choose between almond, cashew, oats or rice as the protein source.
You can also define allergic ingredients that you want to EXCLUDE from your product.
You then move on to define desired product properties such as:
- Fat & protein content
- Colour
- Texture
- Mouthfeel
- Taste
With the ability to constantly tweak how the product looks, tastes and behaves to get to exactly where you want to go
A STAR FEATURE of the Plantbaser™ is that as the user changes any of the selected properties, this is tracked visually on a video. As Dr. Matthias Moser, Managing Director of the Food Ingredients Division of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe (of which Planteneers is a division), explains, “for this visualisation we made videos of countless products, so that customers can see what the final product will look like right on the screen. They can immediately see how the texture changes if they increase or reduce the fat or protein content.”
The user is then asked to specify which production technology they have access to
How long does the process take?
Typically, the user can put together their desired product in 15-20 minutes using the digital configurator
Samples are ready 2 weeks after this.
What do you get at the end of the process?
The user can decide whether they prefer a sample product that is ready for tasting or a powder format that they can process themselves
The ready for tasting versions come as a set of four individual products, with a maximum of up to 3 sets per order.
The powdered formats are available in three different grammages and there is also a limit of up to 3 sets per order.
When a product sample is ordered, the customer will also receive:
- An ingredients list and specifications
- Step-by-step preparation instructions
- Specific guidelines on the production equipment needed
What happens after the samples are received?
If you are based in the UK or Ireland, you will be contacted by a member of the team at Andina Ingham (Planteneers’ official agent). Our technical experts can guide you through making up the samples, suggest what adjustments you might make if the taste and texture are not as required and advise you on how to get to the next stage in your development process.
What type of plant based alternatives can I develop using the Plantbaser™?
At the moment, users can develop:
- plant based alternatives to cheese and fermented dairy products
- plant based mayonnaise
- plant based meat products
Coming soon are:
- A variety of plant based baked goods
- Plant based egg
- Plant based alternatives to fish
If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch with our Commercial Manager – Plant based, julia@andina-ingham.co.uk