ITALIAN INVENTORS CREATE A VEGAN EGG

Four students of the Master’s Degree in Food Sciences and Food Technologies at the University of Udine, Francesca Zuccolo, Greta Titton, Arianna Roi and Aurora Gobessi, worked for a year and a half on experiments in the University’s laboratories to develop their vegan hard-boiled egg which has been patented and will soon be presented to the market.

The whole egg is produced entirely with ingredients of vegetable origin, but with its appearance and organoleptic characteristics are the same of a normal hardboiled hen egg. It is presented as a ready-to-eat product suitable for those who follow a vegan diet, but also for people with high cholesterol and those affected by celiac disease, since it is cholesterol and gluten free. The egg is entirely made up of natural ingredients, mostly protein, especially flours of various legumes, vegetable oils, a gellant and a special salt. It is a refrigerated product to be eaten in salad or in combination with sauces. The inventors commented that they encountered some difficulties during the development stage, “which required a great deal of testing to achieve the optimum formulation in terms of consistency and taste of the finished product.” Over the next few weeks, the patent will begin its marketing journey, with the presentation to companies potentially interested in acquiring the process to obtain this new food product. “The sector of interest is the food industry, in particular those industries that already produce products for vegan consumers or functional foods. The product can be sold in organic, vegetarian and vegan groceries, but also in any supermarket, in consideration of the growing demand for this type of products.”