Recap: Engagement Session 2 Exploring Functional Ingredients with ProteinDistillery

On 30th September 2025, the second engagement session of the European Food Projects Case Competition took place, featuring an insightful presentation by Laura Herz, R&D Food Scientist at ProteinDistillery.

ProteinDistillery is a pioneering company that transforms industrial sidestreams into valuable food ingredients such as proteins, fats, and egg replacers by leveraging different fractions of yeast cells. Laura began the session by introducing the company’s vision and walked participants through their innovative product portfolio, which includes Prewtein, Prewfat, Prewmix Egg-like, Prewvital, and Prewculture.

The discussion placed a particular emphasis on Prewtein, ProteinDistillery’s protein ingredient, and the role functional properties of proteins play in determining their potential applications. Participants explored how these functional qualities such as solubility, gelling, and foaming shape product development, particularly in plant-based alternatives.

A key takeaway from Laura’s talk was that developing plant-based products is not simply a matter of replacing animal-based ingredients one to one. Instead, it requires reimagining formulations from the ground up. She illustrated this with an example from baked goods: in a cake, different reactions such as starch gelatinisation, protein denaturation, and baking powder activation occur at different temperatures. A successful product must be formulated in a way that aligns all these conditions to achieve the desired outcome.

The session concluded with an engaging Q&A. Questions from participants touched on challenges of standardisation and blending, given the variability of raw materials across batches, as well as the potential of combining different proteins to unlock new functionalities within a single product.

Overall, the session was both interactive and thought provoking, giving participants a deeper understanding of the complexities of formulation in the food industry. It also provided valuable insights into how to think like a product developer, considering not just ingredients in isolation but the entire product matrix and the science behind its performance.