A Brittany-based ingredient firm is using lactic fermentation to boost the functionality of green lentils, yielding a whole egg replacement solution that can undercut egg costs by 30%.
Whilst food prices have increased substantially across the board over the last few years, eggs have experienced one of the highest rates of inflation. According to Eurostat, egg prices in the EU increased by 30% between January 2022 and January 2023, driven primarily by avian flu and higher supply chain costs.
The bakery industry has been especially hard hit by rising egg costs, as eggs represent a large proportion of recipe cost. In cakes, for example, they account for 30-35% of the overall dough cost.
This has provided an impetus for innovation in egg replacers, with plant-based substitutes such as aquafaba, legume proteins and flours, and tapioca starch, among the contenders that have emerged.
French company Ingood by Olga has become the latest entrant in this space with the launch in October of Lengood, a plant-based egg replacer produced by fermenting green lentils.
With an annual turnover of €345 million, the business is small in relation to some of its rivals, but nevertheless claims to have overcome many of the limitations with current egg replacers.
“Plant-based egg substitutes are often blends of vegetable flours, especially wheat flour and starches, which are not always clean label, and often contain allergens such as gluten. There are also many solutions on the market based on chickpeas which work as a replacement for egg white, but not for whole eggs,” Adélice Siraudeau, R&D project manager at Ingood by Olga, told this publication.
In contrast with many other plant-based egg replacers, Lengood represents a whole egg replacement solution that is also non-allergenic and clean label, she said.
“It can provide all of the functionalities of the whole egg as well as being rich in fibre and protein. Its properties are similar to those of whole egg in terms of emulsification, texturisation, foaming, and gelling capacity,” she noted.
In fact, Ingood by Olga claims Lengood does more than match the functionality of egg; as it offers superior functionality, manufacturers can use less Lengood than egg in recipes.
Fermentation is the key to the ingredient’s functionality; French green lentils are dehulled and ground into a powder that is then subjected to lactic fermentation, a natural and solvent-free process that transforms it into a completely different ingredient.
“Fermentation brings new properties compared to non-fermented lentil powder,” said Siraudeau.
As well as enhancing the powder’s functionality, fermentation improves its nutritional quality, owing to a reduction in anti-nutritional factor content and an increase in protein digestibility. It also improves the powder’s organoleptic properties by breaking down the aromatic compounds, reducing the bitterness and off-notes that are present in the lentils, explained Siraudeau.
Lengood is the result of two years of R&D and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“Our R&D department researched the fermentation of pulses and the different functional and nutritional properties that can be developed using this technique. In particular, they found that the fermentation of green lentils allowed the development of emulsifying, gelling, and texturising properties,” said Claire Boniface, marketing and communication manager at Ingood by Olga.
Meanwhile, the company’s marketing department had identified the need to maintain the same cost price in the face of raw material price inflation as one of the main challenges facing the bakery and pastry industry, she added.
Based on these shared observations, a brief was drawn up with the aim of developing an ingredient that was derived from the fermentation of pulses and could replace eggs, reduce costs, and support sustainability.
With its promise of 30% cost savings versus eggs and a carbon footprint that is said to be 80% lower than that of an egg, Lengood meets this brief, the company says.
Following its launch at the start of October, several companies have shown interest and are in the process of testing the ingredient, reported Boniface.
She said Lengood can be incorporated into a range of bakery and pastry products, including brioche, doughnuts, cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and pastry creams.
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