ATLANTA – Nature-based ingredients company CP Kelco and global bioscience company Chr. Hansen announced they worked jointly to develop “vegurts,” a selection of plant-based alternatives to yogurts.

The companies shared that they developed the products to be shelf-stable, allowing for reduced food waste and increased geographical reach. They announced their collaboration resulted in industrial validated prototypes of both drinkable and spoonable vegurts made from bases of either oat, soy, pea, coconut or almond.

Christian Gilleladen, principal application scientist for Chr. Hansen, said it was a “significant” technological challenge to produce “both spoonable and drinkable ambient vegurts with great nutrition, taste and texture.”

"By working together, we have been able to unlock the synergies between ingredients and process to produce a variety of desired thicknesses and mouthfeel,” Gilleladen said.

Anne Sinha, marketing director at CP Kelco, said customers of both companies involved can accelerate product development and access technical application support as a result of the vegurt collaboration.

"With access to teams who know each other and work together well, and who are closely connected to other global ingredient producers, customers can benefit from an integrated team of world-leading experts with insights across their entire development chain,” Sinha said.

The companies shared that some of their vegurt prototypes have already been tested by select customers. The recipes for the alternative yogurts also can be tweaked, per CP Kelco and Chr. Hansen, “to meet specific requirements for sugar, protein, fat, texture and flavor.”

Tora Jorn, sales technical service manager for CP Kelco, said formulating plant-based vegurts isn’t straightforward, so the companies want to offer their technical expertise to customers.

"Together, we look forward to this opportunity of sharing our support and helping with the development of the flavors, textures and nutritional profiles our customers are targeting when they embark on the plant-based, shelf-stable vegurts journey,” Jorn said.

The vegurts will be made available for people to taste during the Food Ingredients Europe event in Paris, Dec. 6-8.