Plant-based substitute for liquid egg is ready for upscaling

It looks like liquid egg, it smells like liquid egg and the consumer or professional chef can use it as liquid egg. Yet it contains no egg whatsoever. The Wageningen technology company TOP has succeeded in making a full-fledged and completely plant-based substitute for liquid whole egg.

TOP’s product designers would have made it easier for themselves if they had simply developed ready-made vegan scrambled eggs. Instead, they developed a plant-based substitute for liquid egg that retailers or wholesalers can offer in the refrigerated aisle. Consumers and professional chefs who want to cook and bake on a plant-based basis can use it in the same way as regular eggs.

TOP’s innovation is ideally suited for making scrambled eggs, omelettes, potato tortillas and quiche. “Particularly savory dishes,” says food technologist and project leader Wouter Franken of TOP. “Our plant-based liquid egg is not suitable for cake and meringue. In these products, egg has the function of foaming by beating air into it. Our liquid egg is especially suitable for giving a solid texture and firmness to dishes.” TOP has other solutions for plant-based versions of cake and meringue.

Product designers who want to give firmness to completely plant-based foods often use methylcellulose. A disadvantage is that products prepared with methylcellulose lose their firm texture after cooling. Consumers and chefs who use TOP’s product will not have this problem. The plant-based liquid whole egg contains thermo-irreversible ingredients that become firm after heating and remain firm after cooling.

Chicken eggs very quickly form a gel in the pan. Preparing scrambled eggs based on TOP’s innovation takes only a few moments longer. To make scrambled eggs, the consumer would need 3 to 5 minutes. “That is a little longer than with regular eggs, but the difference should not be noticeable and the end result is what counts,” says Franken.

When product designers want to imitate the yellow colour of egg in plant-based products, they often use turmeric. A downside of turmeric is that the yellow colour tends to turn brown and the smell and taste of the end product are reminiscent of curry. “Many vegetable powders that are now on the market as egg substitutes have those sensory properties,” says Franken. “We thought it could be done better.”

Apart from textural properties, colour and taste, chicken eggs are an excellent source of protein and fats. TOP’s vegetable liquid egg is formulated in such a way that the nutritional value stays close to the original. “Our liquid egg contains vegetable protein that is neutral in both taste and colour,” says Franken. “For example, this could be a protein from soy beans, broad beans or chickpeas. It also contains vegetable oil with a high content of monounsaturated fatty acids.”

Fresh eggs can contain pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, but this is not the case for the plant-based liquid egg from Franken and his colleagues. In addition, the vegan egg can be stored for weeks. “If we pascalize the plant-based egg (pasteurization with High Pressure Processing), it can be kept refrigerated for up to four weeks,” says Franken. “Without HPP that would be two weeks – but if we add food acids, we would quickly reach a refrigerated shelf life of one month.”

TOP has already produced the plant-based liquid egg on a small scale. “If interested parties would present themselves, we are ready to start the upscaling process,” Franken concludes.