IFF partners with Unilever and Wageningen University & Research to address flavor challenges in plant-based foods

We're just a few weeks into the year, and already we've been inundated with some great stories to bring to you! And even better news, it's been a record week for visits to our new website.

To kick us off, addressing the challenge of beany off-notes and lingering bitterness in some plant-based meat alternatives, a new collaboration between three powerhouses is looking to explore the ways in which flavors bind to protein molecules, the goal being to recommend novel flavoring strategies that elevate the sensory experience of plant-based meat alternatives.

Meanwhile, this coming Thursday, in California, USA, the new Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein, or iCAMP for short, will launch with an Innovation Day at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Center for Wine and Food Science. The team there will research ways to enhance consumer acceptance of and preference for alternative proteins, whether cultivated meat, plant- or fungal-based proteins.

Of course, some are still stalling when it comes to cell-cultivated meat. Following murmurings that the Turkish government was about to authorize 'artificial' meat, the Ankara government itself flatly denied the whispers. On the same topic, in the USA (Arizona), a Prescott Valley lawmaker wants to make it illegal to represent a product that’s not actually from a live animal as 'meat'. The states will still have a big say, regardless of the USDA/FDA greenlights that will ensue this year.

Perhaps the naysayers should take a leaf out of the +250 signatories to a letter sent to the USDA, calling to address greenhouse gas emissions from meat and dairy consumption? Immediately cutting 90% of US beef consumption and replacing half of its consumption of other meats with plant-based foods could save as much as two billion tons of greenhouse gases from being released by 2030. Wishful thinking?

Lastly, if you haven't seen You Are What You Eat, streaming on Netflix, it's well worth a watch and is based on Stanford University research tracking the health of 22 sets of identical twins over eight weeks: one set on a plant-based diet and the other an omnivore diet. The results are shocking. But you already knew this anyway, didn't you?

And on that note, here's our four most-read stories this week...

• IFF partners with Unilever and Wageningen University & Research to address flavor challenges

• Enifer secures €12 million grant to build a first-of-its-kind mycoprotein ingredient factory

• Netflix series on twins is 'empowering' insight into benefits of plant-based diets

• Turkish government: "Synthetic meat and insect flour? Never here"