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Nourish Ingredients, an Australian start-up seeking to ‘upgrade’ plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, has secured a multi-million-dollar investment from Li Ka-Shing.
It is hoped the billionaire businessman’s Horizon Ventures firm will see further development in the plant-based protein industry.
Protein problem
Currently, getting the fats right in plant-based meat alternatives is difficult, a Horizon Ventures investor told Forbes. It is ‘an impossible task’, littered with ‘complexities’.
The investment firm has already helped provide checks for plant-based protein giants Impossible Foods and Eat Just.
Nourish Ingredients was formed to find the solution and to ensure that it is a sustainable and minimally-processed one. Despite it being in its prototype phase, ‘dozens’ of companies have already requested samples.
The $11 million funds injection will be used for further lipid testing.
Nourish Ingredients
‘Our specialty fats and oils make plant-based alternative proteins taste just as good as the original but animal-free. We can tailor flavor and mouthfeel to precisely reproduce the taste and texture of pork, beef, chicken, fish, milk, cheese, and beyond’, co-founders Dr. James Petrie and Dr. Ben Leita claim.
The pair met whilst researching lipids in 2013. Since then, they developed a fermentation process aiming to recreate the structure of animal fats.
Whilst a lot of companies are focussing on proteins, Nourish Ingredients claims it is fats that are ‘essential’ in making them taste like the real thing.
It is exciting to be part of a ‘revolutionary’ industry, the start-up added.
You can find out more about Nourish Ingredients here
