Veganilla: Stay ahead of your competition by solving the plant-based vanilla challenge

Do you want to capitalize on the rapidly growing plant-based dairy market? Among other things with the crucial taste of vanilla? Then, it may happen that traditional vanilla taste solutions fail to perform. This happens due to the properties of plant-protein.

At Symrise, we can help you. Because we have solved this product development challenge. You want to know how? Try our high-performing “Veganilla” range of vanilla taste solutions for plant-based dairy.

Plant-based dairy is gaining popularity every day. Market researchers expect it to keep growing at a CAGR of 6.5% Vanilla plays an important role in this, because it represents the most launched flavor in the plant-based dairy category. The biggest challenge relates to the fact that a lot of plant-based dairy just misses the taste preferences of most consumers.

Percentage of dairy consumer who don't consume plant-based alternatives because "they dont taste good":

45%

ice cream

52%

drinks

51%

fermented (yogurt)

51%

dessert

[Source: Symrise online consumer survey 2020]

The plant-based vanilla challenge

Standard vanilla taste solutions simply fail to perform well in plant-based applications due to an interaction between the taste molecules and base protein. Therefore, we need a completely different approach when including vanilla taste into product development. Symrise is able to deliver this unique, natural, versatile and performant plant-based vanilla solution because of their continuous consumer watching and market monitoring, comprehensive plant-based expertise, and holistic approach.

For this purpose, we have specifically created the Veganilla 2.0 product range for plant-based dairy applications, including plant-based drinks, ice cream and spoonable yogurts. Within this versatile range, we offer five different vanilla tonalities and can optimize them for the desired plant-based dairy application. We have crafted these vanilla flavors in a way to give plant-based dairy products identical flavor performance to their real dairy counterparts. As a well-known supplier of vanilla solutions, with high presence in Madagascar we can access the best natural ingredients, while also maintaining costs optimized.

Learn more about Symrise Vanilla

Understanding the market need for vanilla in plant-based products
Let’s look a little more in detail into the top flavor in plant based-dairy – vanilla. Consumers love this fundamental flavor and we therefore find it across all dairy product categories. At the same time, we see that around half of the consumers say they avoid plant-based dairy products, because they detest taste. We attribute this to under-performing taste solutions on plant-protein bases.

In a recent market analysis to understand this phenomenon, Symrise mapped out the sensory space for both plant-based and real dairy ice cream. It shows clearly that we can find hardly any overlap between the vanilla flavor profile of regular dairy and plant-based dairy. This explains the plant-based vanilla challenge and as to why consumers often associate vanilla in plant-based products negatively with metallic, astringent and cardboard flavors. With this, it becomes crystal clear why we still have to convince so many consumers of plant-based dairy!

The market sends us a clear message. Vanilla forms a key flavor tonality in sweet plant-based applications. At the same time, many plant-based products in the market fail to meet consumer flavor expectations. These need to move closer to real dairy products.Rene Fonteijn, Category Manager, Plant-Based Dairy

Symrise vanilla solutions for plant-based dairy alternatives

The high performing vanilla taste solutions from Symrise for plant-based can achieve a vanilla flavor authentic to real dairy. Symrise can help you master the vanilla challenge with their knowledge and expertise in dairy alternative development, with five different vanilla tonalities available (vanilla powdery, aniseed/coumarin, balsamic, phenolic and caramel) and Natural labelling declaration.

When paired with an additional Symlife™ masking solution, this leads to further vanilla benefits and off-note reduction (bitterness/astringency) and greatly improved mouthfeel.

Learn more about selecting the right plant protein source

Consumer insights: understanding market needs with flavors in motion and market mapping.

Know-how: vast knowledge of plant-based proteins with our Dairy Protein Database.

Masking: reducing off notes (Symlife™) with vast protein knowledge.

Flavor release: improving flavor release with improved formula.

Guiding: Consulting throughout process with application know-how.

Curious to learn more about the Symrise Veganilla solution? Contact our expert!

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