With egg prices expected to crack record highs throughout 2023, Kerry has flagged egg reduction as a strategy that manufacturers should adopt to reduce product costs, improve margins and overall profits.
Shelling out more
Globally, eggs have reached record high price levels, driven by an unprecedented outbreak of avian flu. Supply chain disruptions, runaway production costs, geopolitical instability, drought, inflation, COVID and regulatory changes have exacerbated the situation, creating headaches for producers and adding costs for consumers.
In January, egg prices were, on average, 30% higher in the EU, compared with a year earlier, according to EuroStat. At its peak, prices for large and medium eggs were up 69.3% across the bloc from November 2021 to November 2022.
“The rising interest in egg-alternative solutions has been accelerated by geopolitical instability, egg-price volatility and the upcoming EU proposal on caged farming,” said Jonathan Doyle, business development lead, Enzymes, Kerry.
Currently only available in Europe, the Irish headquartered company punts Biobake EgR as a “versatile, clean, cost-optimised egg-replacement solution that delivers the functional properties of eggs in many different baking applications - with no change to final product quality.”
Make the switch
Kerry said Biobake EgR will also allow bakers to switch from caged to free-range or organic eggs without increasing costs.
The launch comes as the European Commission is due to propose legislation to phase out the use of cages in animal agriculture by 2027, a proposal that has gathered support from some heavyweights in industry, including Bridor, Nestle, General Mills and Mondelez, among others.
“Consumers are also looking for more ethical label claims in egg-based products - including ‘cage-free’ - and Biobake EgR allows bakers to achieve that goal cost-effectively while mitigating volatile egg prices through the switch to a more consistent, lower-cost, natural alternative,” said Doyle.
Consistent egg functionality
Eggs are a crucial ingredient for bakers because of their specific functional properties and unique contribution to finished product sensory attributes, such as texture, softness, crumb structure and taste. They also add such vital functions as binding, aeration, emulsification and colour.
However, reducing egg content in recipes is a challenging task because there are very few natural ingredients that deliver those essential functional properties well enough to produce a high-quality finished product with optimal texture, volume and taste.
“Kerry’s Biobake EgR is a reliable and consistent egg-reduction performer that can enable the switch from caged to free-range or organic eggs in fine bakery recipes without increasing cost. It works by replacing up to 30% of the egg requirement while matching traditional baking performance measures such as specific volume,” added Doyle.
Moreover, Biobake EgR is a sustainable solution that also delivers potential CO2 emission savings of up to 14% when a 30% egg reduction is achieved.