“This is the best plant-based product I’ve tried during the whole show!” 

“I’m normally a meat eater, but I really like this!” 

“I am bringing my friends to try to burger, and I’ll be here for it tomorrow too.” 

 “The texture on this is really unique, much better than the competitors.” 

“I stopped by the Motif booth because word is going around that it’s the best plant-based burger at the show.” 

We had a fantastic time showing everyone what’s been cooking at Motif. Check out our social feeds for more highlights of the event.  

“This is the best plant-based product I’ve tried during the whole show!” 

“I’m normally a meat eater, but I really like this!” 

“I am bringing my friends to try to burger, and I’ll be here for it tomorrow too.” 

 “The texture on this is really unique, much better than the competitors.” 

“I stopped by the Motif booth because word is going around that it’s the best plant-based burger at the show.” 

We had a fantastic time showing everyone what’s been cooking at Motif. Check out our social feeds for more highlights of the event.  

The collaboration will support Motif’s rapid food-technology product pipeline by utilizing in vivo testing for functional properties of plant-based proteins.

BOSTON, May 4, 2022 – Motif FoodWorks, the Boston-based food technology company making plant-based foods better tasting and more nutritious, today announced a technology development partnership and investment with NemaLife Inc.,a Lubbock-based microfluidics screening platform company. Motif is investing to develop and utilize Nemalife’s unique in vivo testing and protein characterization platform that is new to the food and beverage space.

By using a microfluidics approach, NemaLife can test and categorize bench-scale proteins using far less volume of sample products than testing mechanisms today allow. This approach can more quickly and affordably help to identify Motif’s next breakthrough food-tech by testing the validity in terms of health effects, safety, and effectiveness. The data can also help guide R&D decisions, marketing claims, and streamline large-scale commercialization.

“The long-term potential of NemaLife’s screening technology could open the door for not only Motif, but the entire food and beverage industry,” said Stefan Baier, Motif’s Head of Food Science. “Identifying the most viable proteins from precision fermentation is not enough. We need to understand how these animal-free equivalents might perform as food technology. Using NemaLife’s AI-assisted microfluidic screening platforms will provide an early assessment that ensures a protein has the right functional characteristics and in vivo performance on its own and during formulation.”

The current model of novel ingredient testing is a slow and resource intensive process, taking months, if not years, and requires samples of newly developed ingredients that are often not initially available in large quantities. NemaLife’s AI-assisted microfluidics screening platform can test small amounts of new ingredients in a matter of weeks. Using NemaLife’s platform, Motif will be able to de-risk and accelerate its product development to generate safe and functional food-technologies with improved taste, texture and nutrition compared to alternative dairy and plant-based foods.

“We are excited to further our work with the Motif team on NemaLife’s rapidly growing in vivo and physical characterization platforms to determine the most promising ingredients,” said Siva Vanapalli, CEO of NemaLife Inc. “Motif’s science-driven focus is at the frontier of plant-based innovation. Our team of engineers, biologists and food scientists are excited to partner with Motif to achieve a more sustainable future for healthy plant-based foods.”

About Motif FoodWorks

Motif FoodWorks makes plant-based foods so desirable that people actually crave them. Motif provides companies with a range of food-technologies and finished food forms, from solutions for meat and dairy alternatives to experiences that inspire new categories. By pioneering breakthrough approaches to food science and the culinary arts, Motif is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in plant-based foods – delivering innovations for taste, texture and nutrition that benefit people and the planet. For more information, visit www.motif-wp.mocla.us.

About NemaLife

NemaLife is a biotech platform company developing AI and microfluidics-based solutions for various industries to reduce the costs and carbon footprint associated with screening. Its low-cost whole organism and functional assays help de-risk and accelerate product development by providing actionable data that reduce the use of mammals. NemaLife’s technologies are built with scalability and versatility in mind, helping innovative companies and academic laboratories accelerate their R&D and scientific discoveries, with the aim of improving the quality of human life on a healthy planet.  For more information, visit www.nemalifeinc.com

Media Contacts

Julia Dacri

Motif FoodWorks

Jdacri@motiffoodworks.com

Marton Toth

NemaLife

marton.toth@nemalifeinc.com

From crunchy first bites to silky smooth sips that delight our taste buds, texture is a big part of why we enjoy eating. Texture can turn a simple sustenance into an exquisite sensory experience and enhance the flavor of food. That said, texture is a very individual experience; what pleases the palate is a unique mix of preferences that can vary greatly by person.

That means we have to use our scientific lenses to uncover what makes texture “better” when it comes to improving plant-based meat. That “better” texture all depends on what you are trying to recreate, whether it’s the tenderness of chicken, the flakiness of a fish, or the springiness and chew of a burger patty. There’s a spectrum of texture attributes, which are even more nuanced when it comes to plant-based meat. The question is, can the experience of texture be measured? And how do we design unique combinations that improve food experiences for everyone? At Motif, we believe we’re doing just that for plant-based foods through our innovative plant-based technology: APPETEX™.

Why texture matters

Meat has a highly unique texture due to its complex structure. That springy feel when chewing comes down to a combination of proteins that comprise muscle and connective tissues in meat, along with elements of cartilage and even bone. While plant-based proteins like texturized soy or pea protein can mimic the fibrous structure of meat, these substances literally fall flat when it comes to the springy chewdown sensation of meat.

Innovating outside the box

Armed with this knowledge, Dr. Uzunalioglu and Dr. Stefan Baier, Motif’s head of food science, engaged an outside network of innovators and multidisciplinary experts across diverse fields like physics and aerodynamics to biotech and materials science to come up with a viable solution to our tricky texture troubles. 

Recipe for success

Development of this technology was just the first step. The biggest challenge lay in coming up with the right formulation to test it in—a task made more challenging by the pandemic and office and lab closures. At the start of the pandemic, Dr. Uzunalioglu recalls turning her kitchen into a food science lab and using a high-quality mixer and scale to test out the early formulations and methods for adding APPETEX™ into plant-based meat.

“The first APPETEX™ sample I received was also my first at-home kitchen sample! We had to do a lot of baseline formulation to get the size and composition of APPETEX™ just right,” says Dr. Uzunalioglu.

APPETEX™ is produced in the form of small, dried pellets which expand when hydrated. Dr. Uzunalioglu believes this is another major benefit of the technology, that it can be easily incorporated into existing methods of plant-based meat formulation.

“Selling the dry material and incorporating it into a commercial partner’s current process makes perfect sense from the perspective of shelf life and the logistics of preparing the final product,” says Dr. Uzunalioglu, whose team helps food developers formulate their foods with the optimal balance of this texture technology.

The results from consumers taste testing APPETEX™ in a showcase burger were overwhelmingly positive in Motif’s focus groups. “It tastes so much like meat: the juiciness, the texture, the color,” said one satisfied consumer. “The texture is almost identical to a hamburger!” declared another, echoing what many of the pleasantly surprised consumers had to say, along with many comments about how “it’s not just one uniform texture.”

Saloni Sanghvi Varma joins as CFO following the company’s historic Series B funding earlier this year.

BOSTON, November 4, 2021 – Motif FoodWorks, the food technology company making plant-based foods better tasting and more nutritious, today announced Saloni Sanghvi Varma will join as chief financial officer. 

Varma will act as a key member of the executive team and will lead Motif’s finance and investor teams. As an executive team member, she will help drive decisions related to strategy and operations as the company continues its rapid growth trajectory. Varma has more than 20 years of experience in strategic, operational and acquisition-related finance across a range of consumer packaged goods companies, most recently as CFO of ByHeart, a company focused on baby nutrition. 

“It’s an exciting time to have Saloni join our team,” said Jonathan McIntyre, CEO of Motif FoodWorks. “She will play a pivotal role in the future of Motif. Saloni’s well-rounded experience in accounting and finance with well-known brands like Chobani and Dove will be an asset as we prepare for the launch of our first products in the coming months.”

In addition to her time at ByHeart, Varma is currently a board member of Thorne Healthtech and has previously served in leadership roles at Chobani, Unilever, UBS, and KPMG. In her free time, she serves as the co-treasurer of Common Denominator, an education focused non-profit New York, and is a co-chair of the Wharton CFO Affinity Group. 

Varma joins the team during a time of massive growth, most notably the company’s historic $226 million in Series B funding.Over the past year, Motif has unveiled innovative plant-based technologies, including meltable cheese and marbleized fat, as well as previewed two upcoming food tehnologies that improve the taste, aroma and texture of plant-based meat. Motif alsoundertook a series of academic research projects with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Guelph, University of Queensland, and the University of Illinois, collaborating with leading food scientists and industry experts to uncover new insights and solutions to long-standing food challenges.

About Motif FoodWorks

Motif FoodWorks is a food technology company working to make plant-based foods better tasting, more nutritious and so desirable that people actually crave them. The company’s mission is to unleash the promise of plant-based foods by taking a new, holistic approach to ingredient development that combines science and technology — merged with sensory fundamentals — to reveal totally new answers. By changing our understanding of plant-based food, Motif will enable crave-worthy products that exceed taste and experience expectations, unlocking benefits for people and our planet. For more information, visit www.motif-wp.mocla.us.

Media Contacts

Julia Dacri

jdacri@motiffoodworks.com

How do you recreate the taste, texture and overall experience of biting into a juicy plant-based burger? Believe it or not, the science behind the physical properties of food and how it leads to different sensory experiences does not currently exist. That’s why we’re partnering with the University of Queensland (UQ) to answer this question.

This culinary quest is part of a three-year Australian Research Council project to better understand the sensory experience around the taste and texture of plant-based foods. While previous approaches relied on trial and error to measure these sensory inputs, this project will develop new sciences that uncover novel insights for measuring the physics, physiology and sensory experiences of eating food.

Ultimately, UQ’s work will help the bridge knowledge-gap in what happens to food at the material level—from the first bite of a burger to how it breaks down and dissolves in the mouth. Professor Jason Stokes and Associate Professor Heather Smyth are leading this work at the university, and will bring their expertise in chemical engineering and nutritional food science to the project. They are also working alongside Professor Louw Hoffman, Professor of Meat Science, who has a deep understanding of the material properties of meat.

I spoke to them about their hopes and goals for this project⁠—and here’s what they had to say.

Motif Team (MT): Congratulations on winning a grant to dive deeper into this important research. Recreating the taste, texture and experience of biting into a juicy beef burger using plant-based proteins is the Holy Grail of 21st century food science. Motif FoodWorks and UQ have worked together in this area before, so it’s great that we can cement our relationship by partnering to tackle big industry challenges around plant-based foods.

Jason Stokes (JS): It’s exciting to work with Motif, especially since your team includes a bevy of academics from around the world. We started this adventure when I was in the industry about 15 years ago and it continued when I joined UQ. We wrote influential pieces about how food is transformed during the eating process⁠—this is something that no one really focused on before and now we’re uncovering new techniques to examine that. Collaborating with Heather Smyth is really the step change because we can bring in a more sensory angle.

Heather Smyth (HS): We’ve been doing a lot of work to understand how functional ingredients can change and how we can modify them to create a more pleasurable eating experience for consumers. We have a unique offering here, with both a fundamental understanding of human oral physiology and sensory science, as well as the chemical engineering, structural or physical properties of food.

MT: Consumer demand for plant-based food is rising steadily, but the food industry has struggled in providing a plant-based experience that emulates the overall taste, texture, and aroma of meat. Why is this so challenging for plant-based proteins?

HS: Well, they’re not meat proteins to start with! They don’t functionally behave the same way that meat proteins do. So, they don’t release juiciness like a beef burger does or break down in the same way. And they don’t have that elastic quality when you’re eating a meat burger. We need to understand why they’re different, how they’re different and what consumers are really looking for from meat alternative products.

MT: How will this grant help uncover the differences between plant-based proteins and meat, especially in how they behave in foods we love to enjoy like burgers?

JS: As we eat food, we chew it, it interacts with saliva, it breaks down and that food is transformed quite dramatically. My research tries to understand that process in a mechanical sense and how that links to our sensory perception of the food, both in texture and taste. What is it that’s different about the structure in the product that leads to a difference in perception? If we can get a better handle on that, then we can deliver a seamless sensory experience and emulate as many features as possible with plant-based meat.

MT: In many ways this research grant is quite timely as consumer demand for plant-based foods has been rising steadily for the past few years, as has the global population and awareness of the global climate crisis. Why do you think people are adopting more meat alternatives into their diet and will consumers’ desires help drive it forward?

HS: Certainly, there’s a strong consumer drive for food products that are more sustainable and allow us to make choices that are better for the environment. Let’s say there’s a protein shortage in the future if our population doubles as is predicted, we still need to feed all those people and they’ll want to eat something that’s both sustainable and delicious.

JS: This grant is exciting because it’s focused on plant-based foods. One of the biggest challenges in research is that consumers are driving this desire to be more focused around sustainability. This project is aimed at the most commonly eaten foods and trying to understand what makes meat products so interesting. What is in the structure of meat that leads to a different sensory presence and why are we attracted to it? We want to keep a similar eating experience but with alternative proteins.

MT: This is a three-year research project, where do you hope to be by the end of it?

JS: I expect that the knowledge and insights we generate will be used by Motif to make better plant-based foods. We will generate new knowledge that’s not been previously available and expanding that knowledge base into the sector is really important. We also want to train the next generation to think creatively and make a step change for companies in the food sector.

HS: In the short term, I really hope that we’re able to make some real breakthroughs in understanding how to modify and change plant proteins in a way that makes them just as good as meat. It’s going to take some breakthroughs in understanding how to make plant proteins as delicious as their animal counterparts. Together, UQ and Motif are working hard to develop a plant protein a sustainable option that meets high consumer standards.

Read more about Motif’s work with the University of Queensland team.

Plant-based foods are going mainstream.

Thanks to growing awareness of the health benefits of plant-based diets, and of the climate impacts of animal agriculture, more consumers are seeking out plant-based foods for the first time. The plant-based industry is a $25 billion market that’s growing four times faster than animal-based markets.^[1] In 2020 alone, the plant-based dairy market grew 12% year-over-year, compared to 3% for its animal-based counterparts, while plant-based meat grew 25% compared to animal-based meat’s 9%.^[1]

While the plant-based industry is growing, it’s important to note that there are still gaps in consumer acceptance. Our research at Motif FoodWorks and others’^[2] reveal that the biggest need and opportunity to gain wider acceptance is in improving taste and the sensory experience. In fact, two out of three Americans (67 percent) say they would be willing to eat more plant-based foods instead of meat if plant-based options tasted better than they do today.^[3]

So how can we get more consumers to adopt plant-based foods? Beyond tastier products, the key is understanding who the plant-based consumer is – and what they want.

Who is the plant-based consumer?

Based on our research with more than two thousand plant-based consumers, the average plant-based consumer is female, millennial, and politically leans liberal. Of the plant-based consumers surveyed, 69% were female, 29% male and 2% not identifying as male or female. Millennials made up 55% of the market, with Gen X coming in at 24%. Previous generations such as Boomers are slower in plant-based adoption, making up just 12% of the category.

What are they looking for?

The plant-based consumer is looking for more than what’s currently on the market, and are disappointed by the taste, texture and versatility of plant-based products when compared to the real thing. They expect plant-based products to easily integrate into traditional meals that use animal-based counterparts such as ground meats and shreds. And they want to incorporate plant-based into their lives through simple at-home preparation and substitute it into comfort foods such as pizza or chicken nuggets.

Where offerings fall short – and how to fix it

This surge in consumer demand is a major opportunity for the food industry, but it also presents its biggest challenge: making plant-based options that consumers want to buy again and again.

Consumers who are particularly conscious of health, animal welfare and sustainability no longer need to be convinced of the value of plant-based foods, but most consumers are still skeptical about how they actually taste. Some of these consumers even told us that today’s offerings feel limited. They want to move beyond animal mimics, and are increasingly interested in new, innovative plant-based food forms.

Understanding consumers’ needs and filling those gaps is essential to growing the plant-based category. That’s why at Motif FoodWorks we’re constantly talking with them – and why we believe that you shouldn’t compromise taste and experience when it comes to plant-based foods.

That no compromise approach is behind our recent food-tech breakthroughs that create the rich meaty taste, appearance and texture in plant-based meat. In fact, when we tested these products in a burger designed with our food tech, 73% of core plant-based consumers preferred our showcase burger to an 80/20 beef burger. We’re also hard at work on creating new, plant-based food forms that have the capability to stand on their own and occupy the center of consumers’ plates.

Ultimately, our mission is to make plant-based foods better tasting, more nutritious, and so desirable that people crave them. These consumer insights show that there’s a huge opportunity to do just that. Visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter to keep up-to-date on our progress and what’s new in the world of plant-based foods.

This blog was originally published on Women in Agribusiness.

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^[1] Nielsen & Euromonitor 2020.

^[2] Accelerating Consumer Adoption of Plant-Based Meat: An Evidence-Based Guide for Effective Practice. The Good Food Institute 2020.

^[3] Climate change and the American diet. Yale University and Earth Day Network 2020.