It looks like an egg, smells like an egg and tastes like an egg: Portugal creates a 100% vegetable egg that replaces a traditional egg
A Portuguese food research and development company created a 100% vegetable egg, which can be used in food or in the pastry industry, maintaining the flavor and aroma of the traditional chicken egg.
“It mimics the egg, in its flavor, in its aroma, in its nutrition. We create a product 100% from plant extracts, which makes delicious scrambled eggs, makes good omelets and is used in bakeries and pastry shops”, guarantees Daniel Abe Ficagão, administrator and technical manager of CFER – Center for Food Education and Research, located in Alcobaça bakery and pastry shop, district of Leiria.
Created from soy – a plant that has “physicochemical properties that allow it to replace the egg and imitate it, also in terms of the way it is cooked” – it incorporates other plant extracts, resulting in a product that “smells like an egg.” , it tastes like an egg, but it is not an egg”, explained Daniel Abegão.
“It allows to give the final consumer, whether vegetarian or just a fan of a healthier and more sustainable diet, a product similar to the egg and that will not be similar, for sure, will miss the original chicken egg”, said the researcher.
ON SALE THIS SEMESTER
In a narrow street in the center of the city, overlooking the towers of the Monastery, Alcobaça’s current facilities are located, namely the research space, a mixture of a scientific laboratory and a kitchen at home, where there is no lack of a fridge, washing machine and, Of course, a stove.
Microbiologist João Peça is responsible for the role of ‘chef’ in the preparation of scrambled eggs from vegetable liquid egg with a texture and flavor equal to the originals, attested to Lusa.
The vegetable egg is not yet on the market, but, according to Daniel Abegão, it will be “still in the first half of this year”, after “more than five years of research and development”.
“We are currently finishing the industrial implementation of the project [em fábricas parceiras com as quais o CFER trabalha]studying the latest technical details soon, for the most advanced in the national and international market”, revealed the technician in charge, trained at the University of Coimbra in biochemistry and industrial chemistry.
The vegetable egg already has customers and clients in Europe, in Africa in the USA and Brazil.
“We hope people can realize that there’s a plus- to buying this egg, whether they’re vegetarian or non-vegetarian. It’s all about a healthier diet and a more sustainable lifestyle”, added Daniel Abegão.
According to the official, an idea based on a “great trend worldwide, which is the replacement of animal proteins with a vegetable base”.
EDIBLE STRAWS
No panel on the development of new products related to vegetable eggs, are fried or poached – currently liquid egg does not allow it, as it does not separate the yolk from the white – or scrambled eggs and omelets “already consuming”, revealed Daniel Abegão .
In the development phase is a new edible marine product, through attention also from plant extracts, here with the incorporation of the marine environment.
“Exclusive single-use plastics, to later be discarded in the trash, have been banned in recent years. We identified both a business opportunity in this area and an opportunity to create innovation”, he stressed, alluding to the straw “which looks like plastic, but is not based on plastic” and is edible, recyclable and “economically viable”.
The main one of CFER is healthy: “be it drinks, business sauces, more suitable ready meals, yogurts, dairy products, cheeses and supplements too [alimentares] are developed from the perspective of healthy eating”. Products have less and are supplied through an “increasingly transparent and fair human products chain and with fewer ingredients that are known to be harmful to consumption”.
The head of CFER has no doubt that, with the technical knowledge of the science and science contributors of technical knowledge in areas such as nutrition, food chemistry, industrial chemical engineering, it is possible to produce a good, interesting, technically correct final product, which also is good for the consumer in terms of health”.