Egg white (for all intents and purposes) that doesn’t come from eggs.
Yumgo Blanc is a plant-based egg-white substitute developed by Tamago Food. This new product for bakers just won First Prize at France’s National Agropole Competition, which rewards innovative food-industry start-ups.
Yumgo Blanc (Yumgo White) was designed to be allergen-free, using potato proteins and acacia and linseed fiber. Unlike other egg-white substitutes that are already on the market, it comes as a ready-to-use liquid. So it is a one-tot-one substitute for conventional egg whites that allow bakers to turn a traditional pastry into a vegetarian one without changing the recipe. The company also emphasizes the issue of environmental impact.
Yumgo allows for a 99% reduction in carbon emissions compared to egg production.
Aimed initially at professionals, the product will come in 1- or 2-litre packages – a liter being the equivalent of 32 egg whites. But with 25-centiliter bottles, Yumgo is also meant for home bakers. The equivalent of 8 egg whites, each bottle is enough for about 40 small meringues.
A €2.3 billion egg-product market in Europe
And Tamago Food has no intention of resting on its laurels! They are planning to launch Yumgo Jaune (Yumgo Yolk), an egg-yolk substitute, by late 2020, and they’re already working on a whole-egg substitute that should launch in 2021. They’ve set their sights on the egg-product market, which is estimated at €2.3 billion a year in Europe alone!
When junk food’s turning healthy
Second Prize at the 2020 Agropole Competition went to another potato-based product: Thaas Chips! Part of what makes them so special is that, from planting to packaging, they are entirely produced in the tiny village of Thaas, by David and Emmanuel Bourdelet. The brothers opted for a low-temperature sous-vide cooking method that preserves the potatoes’ nutritional value and organoleptic properties. Most importantly, the method reduces the level of acrylamide, a substance formed during high-temperature frying of chips, French fries, etc., which has been classified as a “probable human carcinogen.”
And finally, Third Prize in the competition went to Tinybird for its BonsBecs fruit-flavored gummy candies that incorporate a “super-food” (goji berry, chia seed, linseed) to provide fiber and essential trace elements.