Satigny (Switzerland) (AFP)

Vegetarian steaks are popping up in supermarkets for the grilling season with the craze for alternatives to meat.

But how do you replicate the taste of beef in pea, soy, black bean, sweet potato or beet protein products?

Partly thanks to artificial intelligence, responds the Swiss group Firmenich, one of the world's leading flavor manufacturers, which advises and supplies the crowd of start-ups and food giants who have set out to storm this booming market. expansion.

Rediscovering the taste of beef in a vegetarian burger supposes an important work on flavors, textures, colors but also on the resistance to cooking or sensation in the mouth so that these products look like meat.

"What is very complex is to find a protein that looks like meat from a vegetable protein", explains Emmanuel Butstraen, president of the Aromas division, during an interview with AFP at headquarters social responsibility of the company, in Satigny, near Geneva.

One of the great difficulties is to avoid unpleasant after-tastes.

Pea proteins tend to release "a lot of bitterness" to which the taste buds are "very sensitive", he takes as an example.

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Vegetable proteins can leave green notes (reminiscent of green apples or pears), aftertaste of beans, astringency or even a feeling of dryness, explains Jérome Barra, the director of innovation, specializing in taste technologies.

To mask them or compensate them with other flavors, the flavorists rely on a huge library of ingredients that is like "a piano with 5,000 keys", he describes, from which the flavors will be composed.

Given the hundreds and hundreds of possible combinations, Firmenich uses artificial intelligence.

- The taste of barbecue -

"Artificial intelligence can generate millions of leads", enthuses Mr. Barra, the algorithms making it possible to review a wide range of flavors but also to integrate consumer preferences, technical or regulatory constraints and thus filter the combinations of ingredients from which the flavorists will be able to create flavors that they will then be able to test in the kitchen with a chef.

Artificial intelligence has enabled them in particular to develop an aroma that replicates the specific flavor of barbecued meat, the algorithms helping to find the grilled notes that exist in the plant world.

"Plant-based food is a very important shift in consumption", notes Gilbert Ghostine, CEO of Firmenich, for whom alternatives to meat but also to dairy products are among the trends with the highest growth potential. in nutrition.

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"I see this trend strengthening again and again in the future," says the boss of the Swiss company.

According to a study by Bank Credit Suisse, the market for alternatives to meat and dairy products already weighs around $ 14 billion globally and will reach $ 143 billion by 2030 and 1.4 trillion by 2050.

With the rise of flexitarian diets and concerns around the carbon footprint of meat, this market for vegetarian alternatives is booming under the influence of American start-ups such as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods but also the giants of food, such as Nestlé or Unilever, which have also joined the race.

"Steaks, cutlets and other vegetable burgers are highly processed foods whose value depends on the ingredients they are made of and which varies from one product to another", judges Muriel Jaquet, dietician for the Swiss nutrition company, however, contacted by AFP.

This organization, which works in particular with the Swiss Ministry of Health, recommends eating one serving per day of meat, fish, eggs or alternatives such as tofu or seitan, and advises for these vegetarian steaks to check their salt, sugar and fat content. by opting for "those whose protein rate is interesting".

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After jumping 11.4% in 2019, sales of meat substitutes decelerated in 2020, growing 1.3% in 2020 but are expected to rebound 5.1% in 2021 and 6.3% in 2022, according to research firm Euromonitor International.

By comparison, meat products, more affected by the health crisis, only experienced an increase of 0.3% in 2020, with a more modest recovery of 2.9% expected in 2021 and 4.6% in 2022.

© 2021 AFP