This plant-based bratwurst is healthier and more sustainable than its regular variant

Before the product developers at the Wageningen technology center TOP started the titanic task of making a vegan bratwurst, TOP had already made a vegetarian bratwurst. “The challenge was to not only make it completely plant-based, but also healthier and more sustainable at the same time,” says food technologist Babet Waterink.

“In the vegetarian bratwurst that served as a starting point, we used hard pieces of vegetable saturated fat,” Waterink describes. “These pieces not only imitated the appearance of a regular bratwurst, but also provided the right mouthfeel after preparation. We wanted to replace that hard fat with unsaturated fat, i.e. oil.”

The saturated fat used in foods is often palm fat. Palm fat is in bad light because its cultivation leads to deforestation. In addition, replacing saturated palm fat with unsaturated oil also makes a food healthier. But that replacement also caused problems. The product was softer than the vegetarian or meat variety, and once in the vegetable casing, the oil seeped out of the sausage dough. “During the production process, when we had to hang the sausages out, they took on a pear shape,” Waterink remembers. “The oil that had leaked from the dough was clearly visible under the casing. That is of course not the intention.”

Another problem was finding a vegetable substitute for eggs that provided the sausage with a firm texture after heating. “We had already solved that problem with vegan minced meat and plant-based burgers,” says Waterink. “But those products have direct contact with the pan in the kitchen. They are heated completely. However, our vegan sausage is in a casing. The inside did not get warm enough and so we did not get the desired firmness there. The texture of the inside was initially more reminiscent of pate.”

Fortunately, plant-based bratwurst is a complex product in terms of production process and recipe. “That also means that we had a lot of buttons to turn,” says Waterink. “By playing with the composition of the sausage and the production process, we were able to solve all the problems in the end.” The end result was a completely plant-based product with the desired juiciness, firm texture and even the snap that consumers expect from a sausage.

“With the knowledge we now have, we can make a wide range of plant-based sausage equivalents,” says Waterink. “We can make vegan chipolata sausages, but also Italian fennel sausage. Vegan beef or vegan pork sausage, vegetable fine bratwurst or vegetable coarse bratwurst, a sausage for the kitchen or vegan barbecue sausages, it’s all possible.”

The plant-based sausages are also healthier than their regular variants. They qualified for a Nutri-Score B. “Meanwhile, the Nutri-Score criteria have been tightened,” Waterink points out. “Now our vegan bratwurst might have got a C. But by incorporating less fat or more protein in the recipe, for example, this can be addressed.” Another advantage for consumers is that the plant-based bratwurst has a shelf life of three weeks in the fridge, which is considerably longer than a regular sausage.

The technology is ready for scaling up. “We have already produced our plant-based bratwurst on a pilot scale,” Waterink concludes.