Anne‑Laure Gauthier, Board Member of Exter North America, and Ruggero Crameri, VP of Savory & Biotech at Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, here discuss the joint venture between the two companies. Trading as Exter North America Inc, the alliance formed this summer is strategically positioned to meet North America’s rising demand for plant-based and alternative protein flavors by combining Lallemand’s expertise in yeast fermentation with Exter’s slow-cooking technologies.
The collaboration enables the development of authentic, natural, and clean-label taste profiles mimicking various meat flavors (e.g., beef, chicken, pork), aligned with consumer preferences for transparency and sustainability. The JV’s Montreal-based application lab tailors solutions to the regional market, addressing key trends such as clean-label ingredients, reduced environmental impact, and localized innovation in the plant-based sector.
How does the joint venture between Lallemand and Exter strategically position itself to address the demand for plant-based and alternative protein flavors in North America? What specific culinary challenges or trends are you aiming to solve?
ANNE-LAURE GAUTHIER: Today’s consumers want, more than ever, plant-based options which are tasty and at the same time affordable and provide a wide variety of choice.
“Our mission is to provide the North American market with industry-proven products”
The joint venture between Lallemand and Exter brings together expertise in yeast fermentation and slow cooking technologies. This collaboration merges a range of plant-based tastes with a variety ranging from cheese to beef, chicken, pork, and umami. Having an application lab in Montreal, North America, allows Exter North America JV to customize these products to the needs of our North American customers. By leveraging regional presence and working closely with local manufacturers, we can address the growing trend for authentic, natural, and clean-label plant-based products that deliver on flavour without compromise.
RUGGERO CRAMERI: Our mission is to provide the North American market with industry-proven products, as well as custom tailoring new solutions.
It is an ideal synergy that combines Exter’s agility as well as Lallemand’s customer orientation and local presence, allowing us to serve this large market in a professional way.
Can you elaborate on the innovations this partnership will deliver, and how these developments will push the boundaries of taste in the plant-based sector?
ALG: Thanks to the state-of-the-art knowledge of Lallemand in yeast extract and fermentation technologies and the differentiating capabilities of Exter in slow cooking technologies, we can together create tastes mimicking perfectly the taste of meat. We can produce tastes of raw meat, baked and juicy meat, stewed meat, roasted meat, and many more profiles.
“We are confident that we will meet consumer demand for great taste with a steady flow of new product launches from our JV”
We can offer similar solutions for chicken tastes and pork tastes. Most of our taste solutions are 100% natural, all are non-GMO, and some NGP Verified suitable, ensuring that we meet consumer demand for transparency and clean ingredients. We will push the boundaries in the plant-based sector, providing consumers with the authentic taste experiences they seek.
How do you see consumer preferences shaping your joint product offerings, and what key trends in the plant-based space are you targeting through Exter North America Inc.? Can we expect new product launches / plant-based solutions in the near future?
ALG: Our application lab in Montreal has already started to develop the next tastes and presented those at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) trade show in July. We offered on our booth a delicious vegan goulash soup and two clean-label spreads (savoury and mushroom). As such we kicked off the innovation pipeline of Exter North America focused on natural and authentic tastes. We are confident that we will meet consumer demand for great taste with a steady flow of new product launches from our JV.
As clean-label ingredients become more important in food production, how are Exter North America’s future developments aligning with this trend?
ALG: Our combined technologies allow us to offer a wide range of clean-label solutions. It has been a main innovation direction for several years for both companies. This commitment remains a key focus of our innovation strategy as we go to the market under the JV Exter North America. We are continuously investing in creating natural and authentic taste solutions, both in flavouring space and beyond. Our efforts to align with consumer demands for transparency and natural products are underscored by our ongoing development of culinary flavouring-free products to ensure that our offering remains relevant to current and future demand for clean-label foods.
RC: Exter North America is committed to aligning with the clean-label trend by focusing on environmentally clean-label solutions, recognizing that ‘Taste is King.’ While expectations for plant-based nutrition development have been high, we believe the vegan nutrition trend and the need to reduce environmental impact are enduring. Our future developments aim to address culinary challenges such as shortening ingredient lists and reducing CO2 emissions, ensuring we meet the evolving demands of the food industry.”
Exter has mentioned a focus on regionalization as part of its long-term strategy. Can you share how this joint venture will leverage Lallemand’s established North American presence to enhance localization, and how this will translate into tailored solutions for the plant-based food industry?
ALG: Exter has successfully served the North American market using expertise developed primarily in Europe, but the joint venture with Lallemand allows us to accelerate our efforts in localizing solutions for this region. By leveraging Lallemand’s established North American presence and infrastructure, we can more effectively meet the needs of this market. The ingredients as described above are demanded by the North American customers so JV will allow us to increase the choice of tastes at a faster pace- particularly in the rapidly growing plant-based sector.
RC: Through our joint venture, we leverage Lallemand’s established North American presence and our Culinary Lab in Montreal to provide robust Applied R&D support. This, combined with the expertise of Exter’s R&D team in Amsterdam, allows us to enhance localization and deliver highly customized, tailored solutions specifically designed for the plant-based food industry in North America.”