29 Nov 2023 --- Oat is a popular and trendy plant-based ingredient that has been gaining traction across the F&B industry. But, as consumers continue to seek ingredients that offer the same functionality as animal-derived milk in applications such as beverages and chocolate, there is another ingredient also rising to prominence: millet. In fact, this year has been coined the International Year of the Millets by the UN’s FAO.

Food Ingredients First speaks with Tim Van de gehuchte, international sales and marketing manager at Meurens Natural, who explains the company’s innovations with millets, at the ongoing Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) trade show in Frankfurt. 

“We are showcasing our millet offerings, specifically our syrup and powder. We also created a chocolate prototype wher we removed the milk and replaced it with millet syrup. What’s interesting about this concept is that swapping out the milk allows you to reduce the sugar content of the chocolate by up to 30%, which means you can label it as a low-sugar product.” 

Oat has been a key area of innovation for the company, and Van de gehuchte tells us that the focus “remains on oat ingredients.”

At last year’s FiE, Meurens Natural presented a chocolate concept that replaced milk with oat powder but gave the chocolate the same creaminess.

Van de gehuchte says, “Oat is capable of offering the same mouthfeel as milk, for example, but maybe a bit less suited for white chocolate, for instance.”

“When we make chocolate with oats, it is more similar to dark chocolate,” he adds. 

Millet and sustainability 
By bringing plant-based solutions to FiE, Meurens Natural is also promoting the reduction of animal-based products. 

“Plant-based ingredients like millet and oats are tapping into the sustainability aspect that we see a need for,” notes Van de gehuchte. “One important thing for us is that millet grows everywher. It doesn’t need much water to grow, so it can be grown in various climates and has a very short growing season.” 

“importantly, we can source it from Europe and Africa, which proves it grows everywher.”

“All of these things make it more sustainable and easy to handle,” he adds. 

The company is expecting to develop its millet expertise further in the coming year, with more focus on reducing the sugar content of applications. It is also exploring “less or more hydrolyzed protein levels and maybe varying protein levels,” notes Van de gehuchte. 

In the short term, Meurens Naturals is prioritizing its millet powder, which, according to Van de gehuchte, is a good alternative to milk in white chocolate and can be used with millet syrup to make millet-based beverages, for example. 

“This is quite a straightforward process,” he says. “You take the syrup, add water, homogenize it, take a UHT treatment or pasteurize it, and you have a millet drink.”

Innovation pipeline

Meurens Naturals already has a rice syrup made using rice from Spain and Italy, Van de gehuchte tells us. 

“Looking ahead, we are hoping to explore buckwheat and many more different kinds of cereals to see what we can achieve in terms of taste and texture and what we can learn from those different types of applications,” he says. 

Meanwhile, sustainability is a crucial area of focus for the company, meaning Meuren Natural will be “experimenting a lot more with local crops and sourcing much closer to home.”

With greenwashing claims rife and unregulated in the F&B industry today, Van de gehuchte flags that “local doesn’t always mean sustainable,” which is a common misconception. 

“Sometimes it’s more about accepting a product as it is, tweaking elements but also understanding that some products, especially plant-based products, are a product in their own right,” he underscores. “They don’t always have to be competing with something else.”

Flexitarian forward
As a company, “we stand for flexitarianism,” reflects Van de gehuchte, adding, “that’s not to say that animal-based products can’t exist, but at least the welfare can increase.”

“Nutritional-wise, products can be healthier for us and the planet, but I also believe that the consumption of animal- and plant-based products can be in moderation.”

“Of course, protein and fiber are important. That’s why, for example, our oat protein is a concentrate. So it’s not an isolate, we have the lipids in there, which makes oat protein more appealing.”

“So it’s a very wholesome product wher you have everything and not just 100% protein because that’s also an evolution that we also should be mindful of not consuming everything.” 

“We don’t have to pack the whole thing with protein. Nutrition is all about being balanced, but everything in moderation is key,” he concludes.