Tastilux® is a premium specialty fat developed by Nourish Ingredients via precision fermentation to provide a meaty flavor, aroma and cooking experience to alternative proteins.
AFBR has the opportunity to interview Ms Katie Leupin, Chief of Staff at Nourish Ingredients during the Sustainable Foods Summit, held recently in Singapore, to find out more on this exciting innovation. According to Ms Leupin, “To create Tastilux®, we produce animal-type lipids through precision fermentation of single-cell fungi, which are rich in long-chain omega-6 phospholipids. These lipids have been identified as key contributors to authentic meat taste development during cooking.”
Nourish Ingredients recently conducted a consumer survey in the US and Singapore to gauge how Tastilux® enhances the appeal of plant-based foods. The survey covering 200 respondents found that:
• Adding Tastilux® to a leading plant-based product boosted consumer preference to purchase by 30%. This represents a major shift in consumer willingness to adopt plant-based alternatives when taste expectations are met.
• Over 60% of young consumers (aged 18-30) expressed a strong preference for plant-based foods featuring products with Tastilux.
The above findings underscored the importance of high-performance fats in making plant-based foods more appealing to mainstream consumers, a challenge Tastilux® is uniquely positioned to solve.
A little goes a long way
In addition, Ms Leupin mentioned that Tastilux® offers ‘low inclusion but high potency’. This means it is designed to deliver maximum impact with minimal inclusion, thanks to the company’s precision fermentation process that focuses on the most potent fat molecules. Tastilux® works at inclusion levels as low as 1%, yet it significantly enhances the flavour, mouthfeel, and aroma of plant-based foods, making them taste more like their animal- based counterparts.
Traditional flavour complexes can comprise of up to 30 ingredients to replicate the complexity of animal fats. Tastilux® allows its customers to replace this with a single, high- performance natural solution.
Clean Label
Nourish Ingredients’ flagship products can be incorporated to create cleaner labels formulations by replicating nature’s most potent fat structures for flavor and function, without relying on artificial additives or lengthy ingredient lists.
This bodes well for alternative protein manufacturers that would like to place clean label claims on their products. Ms Leupin mentioned that more exciting updates to its products will be released towards the end of this year.
Synergy and Growth via Collaboration
Nourish Ingredients currently has an ongoing partnership with ScaleUp Bio in Singapore, which supports a 10,000 litre batch of fermentation capacity as well as 100 litres of thermal processing. According to Ms Leupin, “We are in the process of scaling up to commercial scale with another of our manufacturing partners, and more details will be released towards later part of the year.”
In November last year, Nourish Ingredients had also signed a partnership agreement with China’s CABIO Biotech, in which the latter will manufacture Tastilux® at its state-of-the-art facilities, thereby unlocking the vast potential of Tastilux® in China and the APAC region.
Nourish Ingredients is also seeking right partners to support its next phase of expansion and commercialisation. Currently, Nourish Ingredients is working with Fonterra to develop dairy products enhanced by precision fermentation- based fats. The partnership aims to improve taste, texture, and functionality in products like cheese, cream, and butter. Nourish Ingredients’ Creamilux® delivers the rich, indulgent mouthfeel of full cream, helping manufacturers meet consumer demand for premium dairy experiences.
Ms Leupin added, “Beyond dairy, our fats are also being explored for applications in bakery and other food categories, offering innovative, sustainable solutions that enhance flavour and performance while reducing reliance on traditional animal-derived ingredients.”
