Ulrick & Short takes ‘big jump forward’ in improving vegan bakery with new functional egg replacer
Driven by an ever more plant-centric consumer base, the demand for high-quality vegan bakery goods continues to boom. According to Innova Database 2020, vegan NPD in the UK has doubled over the past four years, rising from just 7% of all bakery launch activity in 2016 to over 15% in 2019/20.
The latest addition to Ulrick & Short’s ovaprox egg replacement range – ovaprox 5 – has been developed to mimic the functional properties of eggs in a 100% egg-free scenario, but with specific focus to improve the volume, crumb structure, texture, emulsification and tenderisation of vegan baked goods.
Using the natural functionality of crops, ovaprox 5 is clean label, non-GMO and allergen free, ensuring complete back of pack label transparency. Furthermore, it has the benefit of a 12 month shelf life in ambient conditions.
No cracking about
“ovaprox has been a range of ours for over a decade now, so we started from a really good understanding of egg replacement,” said Danni Schroeter, R&D manager at Ulrick & Short.
Initially, the range was designed for partial egg replacement. However, with the rise in veganism, along with cost and shelf life reasons, the clean label ingredients specialist placed emphasis on building on its knowledge and technology base to translate it into a total replacement solution.
“As the [vegan] sector is still a relatively new one, ingredients technology is growing at a very rapid rate,” added Schroeter.
“This latest ingredient reflects our ever-growing understanding of the best way to extract the correct functionality from our clean label processing technologies and crop bases. In this respect, we’re confident that this latest addition is a big jump forward.”
Ulrick & Short is a British-owned starch specialist – with facilities in the UK and Holland – that develop an extensive range of bespoke clean label non GM starches, flours, proteins and fibres.
All of Ulrick & Short's raw materials are processed by accredited partners worldwide and the quality of the ingredients maintained in the controlled environment of the company’s own development kitchens. Rigorous procedures and audits are independently assessed each year against the NSF-CMi Due Diligence Standard for which it holds the gold standard.
The company is also a member of technical association Campden BRI.
