YUMGO Plant-based egg

Today, while the demand for plant based products is increasing, and that we know we need to reduce the consumption of animal products (for planetary and health reasons, as well as animal welfare), there is no simple way for pastry professionals to replace eggs in their recipes without changing all their recipes. Replacing eggs is complex and requires to adjust the recipes. Because of that complexity many pastry chefs (and individual consumers) do not try to replace eggs. With YUMGO we propose a 100% plant-based ingredient, that reproduces the properties of the eggs, and allows to replace eggs without changing the recipes, for a delicious, natural and 100% plant based result. Because of this simple approach, with YUMGO, we accelerate a large scale transition to a plant-based food diet which is the food of the future!

The consumption of eggs is very high all over the world and has increased for the last years. Globally, the yearly consumption of eggs is more than 70 millions tons. In the US, the consumption of eggs per person in 2019 was about 289 eggs. In France, the yearly consumption of eggs is about 230 eggs per person, and 38% of this consumption is egg products (liquid eggs or eggs in powder) used by the food professionals, and specifically the 35 000 bakers. We know that the egg production raises many questions, namely animal welfare, carbon emission linked to feeding the hens, space used for hens vs growing population, health and allergies issues. However it is very difficult to replace eggs properties (egg white, yolk and entire), and replicate the taste and texture of eggs. With YUMGO, we provide the bakers and pastry chefs an easy way to substitute eggs in recipes, with a plant-based substitute that has the same properties, and can be used the same way, for a result that is equivalent (visually and from a taste stand point). This allows a smooth and massive transition to a more sustainable food system, starting with the food professionals.

YUMGO proposes plant-based substitutes to eggs that allows to replace the eggs in recipes witout changing the recipes.  YUMGO  replaces the liquid egg products used  by food professionals (substitute egg white, egg yolk and entire egg). The first product, YUMGO Blanc, is a liquid egg white substitute. It is a fresh product, 100% plant-based, made of plant-based proteins, with a very short list of ingredients. It reproduces the properties of the egg white (foaming, coagulation, emulsifying properties), can be used as egg white, with the same quantity, and same recipes. It allows to create plant-based meringues, macarons, chocolate mousse, quiche etc, without any change to an egg-based recipe.

Our first target population is the food professionals, and specifically the pastry chefs. While there is a growing demand for plant-based alternatives, it is difficult for them to replace eggs and develop plant-based pastries easily. The traditional pastry chefs are used to work with liquid egg product. Their criteria to transition from egg product to a plant-based substitute were the following: ease of use, taste, technical properties, and clean ingredients. With Yumgo, we have worked with many french traditional pastry chefs to develop a product that fullfils these requirements. We have done many iterations of YUMGO Blanc, our egg white substitute, to make sure it was easy to use, it had the same properties, and at the same time was tasty, natural, and of course 100% plant-based. We are still improving the solution based on their feedback, and are proposing a coaching with plant-based pastry chefs to help a smooth transition, and are working with famous pastry chefs ambassadors to make the solution visible and known.

YUMGO makes plant-based egg substitute accessible to food professionnals because of its simplicity of use (similar to eggs), and its taste and texture similar to egg. Thanks to that, YUMGO promotes a shift towards low impact, and plant based diets, and ensure sustainable consumption system. Made from plant-based proteins, YUMGO has a much smaller carbon footprint than eggs. Plant-based substitutes to eggs contributes to improve animal welfare; at the same time, it does not require to use space to grow food for the hens, ensuring better resources sharing. We target 90% reduction of carbon footprint with YUMGO, compared to eggs. 

YUMGO is unique on the egg replacer market because it allows the pastry chefs to replace eggs simply, without changing their recipes. The use is similar to liquid egg product, but it is a 100% plant-based ingredient. YUMGO Blanc allows to replace the egg white very simply, without changing the quantity or adapting the recipes. It reproduces the texture, the taste and the properties of the egg white. While it is possible to replace egg with some vegan eggs or plant-based ingredient (I.E.aquafaba, soy protein) , they have many challenges: they cannot reproduce all the technical properties of egg white (foaming, coagulation, emulsification), they are difficult to use (powder, format, or small quantities, requires to review the entire recipe), the taste is not good, and the format is not adapted to a professional use. YUMGO Blanc is unique because it can be used as egg white (no change to recipe),  and because of that simplicity of use, it contributes to the transition of the traditional pastry chefs to a plant-based offer, while being composed of a short list of ingredients.

With YUMGO our objective was to provide an egg replacer that could be used exactly as egg white, meaning it should reproduce the properties of the egg white (foaming, coagulation, emulsifying), allowing to create recipes with the same taste and texture as it would be egg whites. Our approach has been to study the egg white proteins, their properties, and screen all plant-based proteins that could fulfil the same properties. Our formulation is meant to be as simple and natural as possible. We developed a  combination of ingredients that reproduces closely the properties of the egg white, and provided the solution in a format that is similar to the egg white (liquid), using food preservation technology that allows to keep the product for 3 months (refrigerated), with stability of the product and the properties.

YUMGO Blanc is an egg white replacer that is 100% plant based. It has been adopted by pastry professionals to replace egg white in traditional pastries recipes like meringue, macarons, mousse etc. It reproduces the egg white properties, as it is shown here in the demo of the meringue recipe: 

On YUMGO INstagram, some examples show the application of YUMGO Blanc in other reciptes (marbré, macarons: https://www.instagram.com/yumgofood)

MMO

YUMGO's ambition is to facilitate the transition to a plant-based food diet, with products that are easy to use and gourmet. Our first target population is the food professionals, and we think that to push the change, our plant-based products need to simply replace the products they use today. That's why we worked on a 1 to 1 egg white replacer, that has the same properties as the egg white, but also the same taste.

Our current solution serves mainly the vegan population in France (340.000 persons). Because it is not yet widespread, and more expensive than egg for the food professionals, YUMGO Blanc is not yet serving all the flexitarian people it could serve. In one year, we target to serve 5 % of the flexitarian population and egg allergic population in France (1 million people). In 5 years, we will be available in Europe, North America, Japan and some other Asian countries, serving a potential of 20 million people, throuhg smooth transition and practical use of the product.

Within the next year, we are going to industrialize our solution in order to be able to scale the production and make the YUMGO product accessible for more and more people, starting with France and Europe. We will work with distributors to accelerate the distribution and ease the logistics. Industrialization will also have an impact on decreasing the price. For the next 5 years, our objective is to expand internationnally outside of Europe. In a first phase we will ship the products. In a second phase, to make the product sustainable and decrease the carbon emission, we plan to source the raw materials and build YUMGO Factories in America and Asia. In the next 5 years, YUMGO will be the reference of the plant based eggs for the food industry.

In terms of technical challenges, we need to:

• keep improving the technical properties of the product to make them as close as possible as the egg
•  work on extending the shelf life of the product
•  work on more sustainable packaging
•  decrease the costs of refrigerated delivery.

We also need to drill down the costs of the products to facilitate the transition to a plant based food diet.

And of course, we need to work on cultural change management to convince the food professionals of the interest to transition to plant based diet.

To overcome the technical challenges, w keep focusing our energy on R&D on improving the products capabilities, packaging and shelf life. We are working with academics, with food ingredients providers, with industries, to test all new options that could be interested to us

In terms of regrigerated delivery, we are collaborating with distributors in France and Europe to define the best model for YUMGO.

The product cost will decrease with the volume and industrialization. We are also looking at the ingredients we use and test new options that could also decrease the total cost.

In terms of change management, we are closely connected with the food professionnals network in France and Europe, and communicate a lot about YUMGO. We have gained great visibility in the high end pastry world, as well as in the vegan community, and we keep pushing on these aspects to become the reference.

2 Full time staff

3 part time staff

1 intern

Our team has a winning combination :  complementary talents (business, pastry, scientific, management), wide network and connectionsof the team, engagement and motivation of the team members to drive change, have an impact forthe future and contribute to a more sustainable food system.

We are 3 cofounders, with multidisciplinary and complementary backgrounds that combines business, scientific and management expertise: Rodolphe Landemaine, baker, founder of Maison Landemaine (18 stores in Paris, Lille and Japan) and Land and Monkeys (100% plant-based bakery in Paris), Anne Vincent, Management, Consulting and Commercial experience; Anne Cazor, PhD food engineer, Founder of R&D Scinnov. Anne Vincent is taking the lead on the project, the operations and sales, Rodolphe Landemaine
brings his business expertise to test the products and develop an ambassador network, Anne Cazor is the R&D partner. Since January 2020, we have hired a full time R&D project responsible, Clara Theulin, food engineer. In the team we work with Chiharu Kaneko, pastry chef, expert in plant-based pastry and
R&D responsible for Land and Monkeys. We have an intern to support marketing and sales as of February 2020. Linkedin Profiles: Rodolphe Landemaine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodolphelandemaine-
469832b3/ Anne Vincent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/an... Anne Cazor:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/an... Clara Theulin https://www.linkedin.com/in/claratheulin-
368535153/ Chiharu Kaneko https://www.linkedin.com/in/ch...

For testing products, developing new recipes, and promote the products, we collaborate with the bakery chain Maison Landemaine (18 stores in France, 2 in Japan), the plant based bakery Land and Monkeys in Paris.

We are supported financially for the R&D program by BPI (Public Bank of Investment in France). We have internalized the R&D since 2020 but are still working with Academics and  R&D Lab to have an external view on our R&D.

We are part of the AgriFood accelerator program Toasterlab in Dijon, and as part of the program we have connected to industry experts and potential big industry customers for YUMGO. 

We won the European Plant based protein award in the food ingredient category and have been accompanied by the incubator VIllage By CA Nord de France. They put us in contact with big Food Service like Sodexo.

For the IP part, we are coached by INPI (French IP institute).

We sell the YUMGO products to food professionnals (pastry, caterers, restaurants, bakers) and provide coaching and support to customers to develop new recipes with a professional pastry chef, specialized in plant based pastry. We collaborate closely with renamed pastry chefs and schools to develop new recipes, new uses cases, and to accelerate adoption of plant-based ingredients for future chef generation. Our objective is to faciliate the transition towards plant-based cooking, more sustainable for the future.

Since recently we are also selling the products to individual consumers and have launched a smaller format. This helps to make YUMGO known and develop the community on the social network, with many experience sharing on the product.

We are applying to provide visibility to YUMGO, to get challenged on how to go faster and further, partner with industries and customers, have access to grants and international exposure.

With YUMGO, we contribute to the transition to the food of the future, a sustainable food system. 

With YUMGO we contribute to sustainable development goals: ensure sustainable consumption and production, whilehaving an impact on Climate Change, Good Health and well-being, Zero hunger. We know today that consumption of animal origin products contributes to emissions and climate change, and that a plant-based diet contributes to planet and people health. Made from plant-based proteins, YUMGO has a much smaller carbon footprint than eggs. Plant-based substitutes to eggs contributes to improve animal welfare; at the same time, it does not require to use
space to grow food for the hens, ensuring better resources sharing, which will allow to provide food for a growing population.

Being qualified for the Future Planet Capital Prize would help us to make our solution accessible to more people quicker, by accelerating the industrialization and hence decreasing the cost of the product.