Nourish Ingredients unveils breakthrough animal-free fat Tastilux

Food-tech company, Nourish Ingredients, has unveiled what its suggests is a world-first animal-free fat, Tastilux, that will help to accelerate the future food system by solving the biggest issues in the plant protein market around taste, nutrition and consumer adoption.  

Unveiled at SXSW Sydney, Tastilux is a major breakthrough in delivering authentic, meaty flavour and cooking performance without animal ingredients or artificial chemicals. The breakthrough fat, derived from nature and scaled through precision fermentation, is designed to provide global food and ingredient makers a fat that cooks, smells and tastes just like traditional meat for consumers.

With the global population expected to exceed 10 billion by 2050, it’s clear our current food systems are unsustainable. Today, 77% of agricultural land is used to grow animals despite providing just 17% of the global food supply. This model simply can’t scale to meet future demand – we don’t have enough land or resources.  

Plant proteins are a crucial and growing part of our diets but many have failed to convince broader consumers who enjoy meat, as they don’t deliver the taste and experience consumers want. To succeed, plant proteins must deliver a step-change in the authentic, natural and animalic flavours they crave. And that’s the challenge Nourish Ingredients is focused on solving with Tastilux.

Developed by Nourish Ingredients’ team of scientists over three years, Tastilux focuses on recreating the most flavourful fats found inside animal meat, using lipids found in nature. This proprietary fat provides the distinct taste and aroma of traditional meat fats and enables real cooking reactions when used in plant-based chicken, beef, pork and other proteins.

With Tastilux, Nourish Ingredients aims to accelerate the shift toward a healthy, humane and sustainable food system. By focusing on the most potent fats needed to make plant proteins delicious, Tastilux is built to enable global commercial scale. Nourish Ingredients is working closely with global food and ingredient leaders to incorporate Tastilux into a wide range of products.

“Tastilux represents a quantum leap in making plant-based meats live up to the rich, fatty taste and cooking performance consumers want and love,” said James Petrie, Founder & CEO of Nourish Ingredients.  

“We saw an opportunity to revolutionize plant proteins by focusing on the power of fat. Most alternative fats simply can’t replicate the rich, authentic flavor of cooked meat. So rather than take a plant-based approach, we analyzed the most flavorful animal fats in their uncooked state. Then identified where we could find these in nature, without the animal. By fermenting only the most potent fats, we’re able to recreate the authentic meat experience. Our unique process unlocks new possibilities for plant protein foods to deliver the satisfying taste and texture consumers crave.”

At the SXSW event, Nourish Ingredients demonstrated Tastilux’s capabilities through a realistic, plant-based chicken wing. The use of a chicken wing, crafted by Nourish Ingredients’ Head of Culinary Innovation, showcases the potential of Tastilux fats to completely transform the existing plant-based experience, providing a tastier and more natural alternative for plant protein companies. A select group at SXSW Sydney tasted the succulent chicken wing, with edible bones made from calcium, to experience the impact of Tastilux providing the authentic flavor, juicy texture and enjoyment of chicken wings, all without the animal.