Europe’s fastest-growing plant meat brand today announces a new burger set to be the healthiest on the market, containing an innovative fat analogue that transforms extra virgin olive oil into a solid fat. Heura Burger 2.0 has 64.25% less fat, 85.6% less saturated fat, and has 11.3% more protein per calorie compared to beef.
Heura says that the biggest challenge facing the plant-based industry was creating a burger with the juiciness of beef without using high amounts of fat. To achieve this, the Barcelona-based producer conducted over 1000 trials to develop the first fat analogue made of extra virgin olive oil to create the Heura Burger 2.0.
Co-founder Marc Coloma said: “Accelerating the protein transition is my passion and it is in technology where I find solutions. Pioneers in the plant-based industry have always been our inspiration and we hope that this innovation boosts the plant-based meat category worldwide and leaves livestock obsolete.”
Knowing that the next big biggest next challenge in the plant-based industry was for the category to further boost the protein transition, Marc Coloma, activist and co-founder of Heura looked for the most experienced researcher in oils structures and hired Lorena Salcedo, currently the New Product Development Manager at Heura. She had two goals: reducing the amount of fat in a burger and using the best quality type of fat. Lorena knew then conceptually that we had to create a fat analogue and that she had to do it with the healthiest oil on earth, the extra virgin olive oil.
Lorena Salcedo explained: “When we visualize the fat from a burger or the coconut oil in the supermarket, they are solid. This is because they both have high contents of saturated fat. We had to reproduce that with an oil that is liquid (monounsaturated) and minimise its use to reduce the amount of fat on the burger. We have analyzed both structures separately, the beef burger one and extra virgin olive oil to get the experience of one from the nutritional values of the other. When you see the essence of what you really need it’s easy to see the most efficient way to get there.”
Heura has a presence in ten countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Chile and most recently launched into the UK.
