THIS burst onto the food scene in 2019 with the aim of changing consumer meat-eating habits by providing plant-based alternatives that were nutritious, healthy and sustainable, without compromising on taste or texture.
The challenge
In 2021, THIS started considering how they could respond to market demand for a vegan egg substitute. Through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme, THIS developed a relationship with the world-leading School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds.
They hoped to harness cutting-edge academic knowledge of proteins and colloids to help produce a plant-based liquid egg substitute that would look, behave and offer the same nutritional benefits as a natural egg.
The solution
KTP Associate Dr Nur (Lily) Sulaiman divided her time between the company base in London and the food research laboratories at the University of Leeds.
Lily worked closely with the academic team of Professor Brent Murray and Dr Alan Hernandez-Alvarez: screening, selecting and characterising plant-based ingredients.
Products were analysed for their properties pre- and post-cooking and evaluated for their ability to be produced at scale. A critical aspect of the project was to recreate the gelling capabilities of egg, and the University's knowledge of proteins was fundamental to solving this problem.
Knowledge generated in the lab taken to the THIS factories where it the company worked on translating and optimising it so it could be produced at scale as a commercial product.
The impacts
The KTP allowed THIS to create the vegan egg its customers have been clamouring for, producing the equivalent of 10 million eggs per year, and achieving annual revenue in excess of £1 million. The company has also been able to apply the knowledge in gelling properties developed during the KTP to other products.
Senior R&D Manager Ray Zhang says, ‘Lily, our KTP Associate, is the ‘Protein Queen’. She's developed a process that enables us to screen raw materials very rapidly, and in this industry, that's the technology that everyone's fighting for.
More importantly, the project has helped embed a culture which puts product research and development at the heart of the business’.
Zhang comments, ‘If we are to realise our aggressive growth strategy, we definitely need world-leading academic expertise to help us develop the next generation technologies. We are delighted that the KTP has helped us build such a collaborative relationship with the University.'
Video transcript: University of Leeds KTP with THIS.
To discuss how working with us on a KTP could help your business, email the Knowledge Transfer Partnership team at ktp@leeds.ac.uk.