An increase in diverse recipes and ingredients means that manufacturers of plant-based meat and vegan products are using difficult to flow powders such as pea and lupine protein with spice mixes which can easily segregate or cause blockages.
Many of the recipes used in vegan and plant-based meat products require a pre-mix to be dosed to an extruder. Poorly mixed ingredients and segregation during the movement of materials can lead to poor product integrity and wasted product.
Recipes need to be blended and transferred efficiently without risk of cross-contamination, which can result in extra time being spent carrying out thorough clean-downs between batches.