We met up with Roquette’s Plant Protein Digital Marketing and Communications Manager, Julia Bosman, at IFT First 2022 in Chicago to talk about their Nutralys line of plant proteins – and she even let us try some of the new applications!
Joey Thurman:
Julia Bosman, we're at IFT. This beautiful booth, amazing day and what products does Roquette have for us?
Julia Bosman:
Well, we have a lot of stuff to sample, but the most exciting thing this year is that we have a brand new product launch. So we last month launched NUTRALYS rice protein, and the most exciting thing is it's a totally new botanical source of protein. So we have pea protein, we have wheat protein, now we have rice protein as well. So it's super exciting to be able to feature the rice protein. And we have some samples to highlight some of the other ingredients as well.
Joey Thurman:
Are we going to try these? Are you going to try this with me?
Julia Bosman:
You're welcome to, yes.
Joey Thurman:
Okay. So what do we have here?
Julia Bosman:
Okay. So the first one is the pea and rice protein powder mix. So that's this beverage here.
Joey Thurman:
I worked out today, so that's good.
Julia Bosman:
All right, fantastic. Well this is good because what the pea and rice protein combined does is it provides complete nutrition. So pea on its own is a great protein, combined with rice, you have a really, really high DS score. You have a perfect DS score. So great for our workouts, great for post. Excellent protein beverage.
Joey Thurman:
Okay.
Julia Bosman:
Then we have-
Joey Thurman:
I'm going to give this a shot. This one?
Julia Bosman:
This one is the rice protein.
Joey Thurman:
This one here. Okay. Ooh, it's good. It tastes a little bit like vanilla.
Julia Bosman:
It's vanilla.
Joey Thurman:
Well, that makes sense. Why it tastes like vanilla. Okay.
Julia Bosman:
Yes.
Joey Thurman:
There we go.
Julia Bosman:
And certainly of course these are prototypes for our customers. So that we can show them how the product performs in applications. So the next one is our prebiotic yogurt type drink. So this is just pea protein.
Joey Thurman:
See, I had to smell it. This [inaudible 00:01:32] smells like yogurt.
Julia Bosman:
There is some peach flavoring in there. It's some peach puree, some vanilla, some brown sugar.
Joey Thurman:
Ooh.
Julia Bosman:
That's a delicious one.
Joey Thurman:
That is good. That'd be good in a smoothie. All sorts of stuff.
Julia Bosman:
That gives you a lot of protein, a lot of pea protein, but also the prebiotic effect. So your gut health is important.
Joey Thurman:
Happy gut, happy mind, right?
Julia Bosman:
Happy everything.
Joey Thurman:
Thinking with the gut. Okay.
Julia Bosman:
Happy everything.
Joey Thurman:
All right.
Julia Bosman:
And then we have our plant based pea protein empanada crumble. So of course it's inside the empanada shell, but the crumble is our textured pea protein. It's a TP 701G. So it's a textured protein. And of course there's vegetables and other plant-based things, but it's a great plant-based thing. And if you like spicy, you can dip it in cholula.
Joey Thurman:
Oh, see now she says, if you like spicy. So I've got to get it, dip it in the cholula.
Julia Bosman:
Yes, indeed.
Joey Thurman:
Okay.
Julia Bosman:
So we have a really good sampling of a lot of the different types of applications you can make with pea protein, but also combined with rice protein. And so we're really excited to share it all with our customers and potentially new customers.
Joey Thurman:
Lots of new customers. That's kicking in right now. Now IFT, what makes you excited about the plant protein market?
Julia Bosman:
So it's always changing. I mean some thought that plant-based may have been a trend or that if you ate plant-based you had to be vegetarian or vegan. This is about adding plants to your diet. This is not about saying don't eat meat or dairy products are bad. It's about feeding a lot of people in the future, doing it sustainably, but also so the tastes really good. So that's what's so exciting. Is that it used to be health food didn't have to taste good.
Joey Thurman: Yeah.
Julia Bosman: Not the case. Taste-
Joey Thurman:
Plants had to taste like dirt back in the day.
Julia Bosman:
Indeed. And so taste is number one and nutrition of course, is a priority. So it's just always exciting to see all of the new from startups to big companies, all of the new types of applications and new segments that they're getting into. So we have the ingredients to be a part of all of it.
Joey Thurman:
Amazing. And at IFFT with Roquette, what gets you excited about like all of these collaborations that could potentially happen?
Julia Bosman:
Yeah. I mean that's what's really cool. Because we, of course, hadn't been able to do this for a few years. And what it does is, when people have to travel just to meet with one potential customer or one group of people, it's expensive, it's a lot of money. So IFT provides the opportunity to be inspired with everything around us to see everything that's new. But it also just gives us the opportunity to talk to so many different people about so many different things. And with the backdrop of what's happening and what's new and what we can innovate in order to continue to be a leader in the area.
Joey Thurman:
Julia, thank you so much. I'm going to-
Julia Bosman:
Thank you Joey.
Joey Thurman:
... enjoy this-
Julia Bosman: Enjoy.
Joey Thurman:
... peachy yogurt concoction.
Julia Bosman:
Enjoy.
Joey Thurman:
Oh, that's good.
Julia Bosman:
See.