Pea-Powered Cheese
Plant-based cheese is gaining popularity in the UK, with 20-25% of households preferring it to its dairy counterpart, according to research by Pristine Market Insights. Factors such as health considerations, ethical choices and environmental concerns are driving buying decisions but one of the issues holding back the expansion of the vegan cheese market is its taste and texture, says entrepreneur Cesar Torres, founder and CEO of The Good Pulse Company.
Although the UK vegan cheese market is witnessing a notable trend of expanding product diversity, many of the innovative flavours, textures, and formulations being introduced are using ultra-processed ingredients.
“There are two types of vegan cheese. The bulk of the market is made using chemically modified starch, coconut oil and artificial additives so can be detrimental to health,” he explains. “An artisan cheese sector is also emerging which uses nuts instead. It tastes better but is sold at a premium and isn’t easily scalable. Neither of these options encourage more people to eat plant-based cheese.”
Nonetheless, the market for alternative cheeses is predicted by UKRI to grow and The Good Pulse Company is on a mission to make cheese made from its speciality ingredient more widely acceptable by raising the bar when it comes to the taste, texture, healthiness, affordability and sustainability of plant-based cheese, or more accurately, pulse-based cheese.
“Pulses are one of the most sustainable crops to grow and have benefits to soil health. Our PeaPower cheese mix made from yellow peas has a better nutritional profile, with 10 times more protein, 30% less fat, three times more fibre, and 70% less sodium than traditional vegan cheeses,” he says.
Founded in 2021, the ethos behind the company has been shaped by Mr Torres’ life experiences and in particular, his shift to Buddhism after a bad accident when motorcycle racing. Having broken his leg in many places, the journey back to being able to walk was a long one and the experience left him questioning his life choices.
“Learning Buddhism taught me to look at all living creatures in a different way and I decided not to eat meat. I also found that when you’re immobile, the body degrades so I needed high quality protein to build my muscle again.”
Plant-based products
That need for high quality protein sparked ideas for plant-based alternatives which he began to pitch when studying for an MBA at the University of Exeter as a mature student, having spent most of his career as an engineer in the offshore oil and gas industry. Winning a competition led to the development of a high protein pea-based milk product which was manufactured in Spain. However, issues due to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the company and it failed.
Although his first toe in the water into the alternative proteins market didn’t have a positive outcome, it has helped shape the direction of The Good Pulse Company. Rather than sell a product into retail businesses, the company will provide its pulse-based ‘cheese’ powder as an ingredient for food companies to manufacture into vegan cheese.
The narrowing of focus from producing a consumer product to developing functional ingredients was suggested by mentors when the business was successfully awarded funding under the SHAKE Climate Change accelerator programme.
“It was the SHAKE mentors that helped refine exactly what The Good Pulse Company was trying to offer by encouraging us to narrow our focus to one target application,” explains Mr Torres. “I’ve learned that you can learn the fundamentals of creating a successful business the hard way by making mistakes or you can improve its chances by taking advice. The mentorship under SHAKE has a lot of value.”
Validating the business
Validation of a business idea is important to help attract investment into a company, adds Mr Torres. “Validation can be from an organisation or an individual. My co-founder Dr Vincenzo di Bari was the first to back the idea when he decided to come into the company and SHAKE’s early investment provided further important validation.”
It was a networking opportunity and a resulting interest in his vision from the University of Nottingham that led Mr Torres to commission some R&D and gave him an introduction to Dr di Bari, Assistant Professor in Food Structure and Processing at the university. He has since become a partner in The Good Pulse Company and the brains behind the food technology side of the business.
With this external validation, the startup successfully received venture capital from Big Idea Ventures, EU funding under the EIT Food Seedbed Incubator and EIT Food Accelerator Network programmes, and UK public funding of £332K under Innovate UK’s Better Food For All. The government grant is funding further R&D work with the University of Nottingham and allowed the company to employ its first full-time employees, enabling it to advance significantly, says Mr Torres.
The innovative PeaPower Cheese Mix ingredient is currently around 18 months from coming to the market while The Good Pulse Company creates a vegan cheese protype product as a proof of concept for potential customers in the food manufacturing industry. While this development work is taking place, the company is running pilot trials to help scaleup its manufacturing process which will take place both at home and in the EU, recognising current capacity limitations in the UK.
Supporting change
There’s a huge interest in alternative proteins and the UK alone has 55 new startup companies operating in this space, reflecting the growth opportunities it offers.
The United Nations forecasts a global protein deficiency of 60 million tonnes a year by 2050 and this gap needs to be met by more sustainable means. That’s something the UK Government has pledged to address in its National Food Strategy, with plans to keep the UK at the front of this growing and innovative sector by supporting alternative protein research and innovation. But could the government be doing more?
Mr Torres believes some broader systems thinking is required to support innovations, expand processing infrastructure and encourage UK farmers to grow more alternative protein crops.
“Change is inevitable and alternative proteins are coming but to be at the forefront, innovations in agri-tech and food tech must be supported more to prevent these innovations from being exported, something that happens frequently.”
If UK innovators in this space are to succeed then there’s a wider picture to consider, particularly as pulse crops are risky to grow and don’t necessarily give farmers good returns. Yellow peas, in particular, is a niche market in the UK with around 5,000 tonnes produced each year, the majority being imported from Ukraine and Russia. Historically, yellow peas have been sold at a lower price than green or blue peas, but growth in a market for them as an alternative protein food could help support prices and make them a more financially attractive crop to grow.
Mr Torres recently presented to the UK Parliament, telling MPs that the country can either rely on imports or carry out the innovation at home and reduce imports.
“It’s necessary to look at the whole value chain and take into account any farmer impacts because they need to be brought on board to grow more pulses and become local suppliers. For this to happen, a mechanism to create farmer support is required so that there’s a reliable homegrown supply. It’s important to look at the social aspects of a move to alternative protein production as farming is very important.”
With demand for vegan cheese set to grow by 38% year on year, innovations like The Good Pulse Company’s ‘cheese from peas’ could help facilitate a move to consuming less meat and dairy products, while also tasting good with a more cheese-like texture, being affordable, healthy to eat and more sustainably produced. And the overall effect could help propel the UK towards its net zero targets without consumers having to give up eating tasty cheese products.
Visit The Good Pulse Co. to learn more