Don't rely on trial and error when developing dairy alternative products. Rely on Symrise's Plant Protein Database.
With a high consumer demand for plant-based products comes a fast-moving market, requiring rapid product development. New protein sources and suppliers are popping up constantly. In the past the main plant source for protein came from soy and dominated the dairy market. With the growing importance of sustainability and varied nutrition, the number of protein supply options have exploded.
New protein sources are constantly becoming available on the market. These protein types can widely vary in factors of sustainability, price and supply availability. The vast number of protein options for dairy alternatives can quickly become overwhelming. It can get hard to obtain an overview of the right protein source for your plant-based dairy application. Symrise can help you navigate the plant-based protein challenge with their extensive database of protein sources.
Symrise can help you navigate this plant-based taste challenge along every step of the way by leveraging the Symlife™ range of masking solutions paired with application development expertise. Symrise follows a three-step process to unlocking great taste for plant-based dairy alternatives:
Benefits and challenges of the most used protein sources of today
Plant-based protein sources are becoming more varied, sustainable, and abundant. Each protein type offers unique benefits and challenges for dairy alternatives. Therefore, it can be hard to know which works best for your plant-based products. Below, we have compiled the most commonly used sources and their characteristics.

How has Symrise solved the dairy alternative protein challenge?
With a rapidly changing protein supply market, Symrise is searching, purchasing, and testing new plant-protein matrixes to add into their protein database. This database builds on the basis of a technical sensory assessment, consisting of a comprehensive evaluation and screening process for all the different proteins contained within.
The database currently consists of around 100 different protein materials from all key global protein suppliers. To stay ahead of the fast-growing market, we are continuously updating this database with new protein bases. When paired together with Symrise’s ProtiScan capability, this gives a unique look into the evaluation and analytical assessment of plant-protein.
How can the Plant Protein database help you?
We have benchmarked the performance all protein sources in our database against regular dairy as a control to see how they differ. Because of this, the Symrise protein database enables a wide portfolio of flavor solutions that can help you quickly design the most neutral base possible. With masking capabilities in mind, Symrise can suggest the perfect protein base for bringing your dairy alternative product to market, with speed.
Symrise guides you in every step of the way
Makes masking easier by providing most neutral base (learn more about masking)
Quicker speed to market by making finding good protein sources easier
Can help find alternative supplier with similar characteristics
What does Symrise track in the database?
Plant source (pea, soy, fava, lentil, rice, oat, nut etc.)
Supplying company
Nutrition properties
Color (needs to be clear/white)
Non-Volatile Off-Tastes (Bitterness/Astringency/Metallic)
Volatile Off-Notes (Green/Oleic/Grilled cereal/Nutty)
Symscript-based sensory characteristics (Symrise’s standardized language)
In-Mouth Texture (thickness & mouthcoating)
Water solubility
Want unlock benefits for your dairy product development? Contact us now!