The Dutch supermarket Jumbo has replaced gelatin in its fresh pastries with plant-based thickeners. The company claims that this initiative made Jumbo the first retailer in the Netherlands to make the change.
In Jumbo’s new pastries, they will use alginate, derived from brown seaweed, and gellan gum, produced by bacteria during fermentation, as substitutes for gelatine.
Neither poses any health risks. Both are considered safe. However, some of the pastries will still have egg or dairy products.
According to the company, the process of changing recipes while preserving taste and quality took approximately eighteen months. These renewed items received positive feedback from consumers and are currently available across all Jumbo stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.
It was part of broader sustainability targets by Jumbo which came about due to animal welfare associations’ demands. The supermarket has been making efforts to reduce reliance on animal-based products to achieve these goals.
Last October, the retailer announced that it aims to make 50% of its protein sales plant-based by 2025 and 60% by 2030. The initiative received appreciation from animal welfare organisation Wakker Dier which has been campaigning against cheap meat promotions since 2010. Discover plant-based products at Jumbo supermarket below.
According to the organization, “Meat promotions drive up sales enormously. And animals are paying the price with deplorable living conditions.” Wakker Dier hoped that other supermarkets would follow suit.
The company also reduced the prices of its private-label plant-based meat alternatives to achieve parity with their animal counterparts. The core reason behind the move was to make plant-based options more affordable.
“We want to help our customers choose plant-based or vegetarian products more often,” said Anrico Maat, Retail Director of Jumbo, at the time. “By adjusting prices now, we hope to make the choice even easier for customers.”
To obtain gelatin, people kill animals and boil their different body parts such as bones, skin, ligaments, and tendons. That is why, the decision to use plant-based products as thickening agents will reduce the company’s gelatin consumption by 13000 kg per year.
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