Recreating Animal Fats


Dates

Submission Deadline
11:59PM - Tuesday, 31 October 2023



Recreating Animal Fats 

Sime Darby Oils (SDO) would like to work with companies/start-ups/research institutions that can improve palm or palm kernel-based fats properties both structurally and chemically, for the development of alternative meat products, especially those with textural and mouthfeel challenges, such as whole cuts.

Importance 

The alternative food market is gaining traction. The industry currently relies on limited types of refined vegetable oils, mainly coconut oil due to its semi-solid attribute at room temperature, as well as soft oils such as sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.  However, by 2030, the plant-based meat industry will require at least 16% of the global supply of coconut oil (GFI report, 2022). For example, relying only on coconut oils when there are other existing and competing uses for the oils could lead to a significant bottleneck in alternative meat production as demand grows and the industry scales. In addition, current fat solutions lack certain physical properties which make them less ideal to completely substitute animal-based fats. Hence, the search continues for an ideal alternative to animal-based fat that is completely solid at room temperature but slowly melts during cooking.

Expectations 

Sime Darby Oils would like to collaborate in developing new solutions based on palm oil or palm kernel oil to overcome the above challenge faced by plant-based meat production. We are looking for new ready-to-scale solutions that are food-grade, halal-and kosher certified, that can be implemented in palm oil refineries. The solutions can range from developing an emulsion to structure oils, creating oleogels to encapsulate fats and flavours, or even modifying oils using enzymes.


Enquiries

Contact Person: SDP Innovation Committee
Email: innovation.portal@simedarbyplantation.com