Soufflet Malt and Eat The Truth Partner on Malt-Based

Soufflet Malt and Eat The Truth have formed a partnership to develop malt-based flavor ingredients for food and beverage manufacturers. The agreement, announced on 10 September, will initially focus on creating solutions for cocoa replacement and non-alcoholic beverages.

Technology and process

The collaboration combines Soufflet Malt’s malting expertise with Eat The Truth’s solid-state fermentation technology. The process aims to produce complex flavor notes such as roasted, cocoa, coffee, umami, and kokumi using only food-grade ingredients. This approach avoids conventional artificial flavors and additives.

Soufflet Malt provides a significant production base, with 35 malthouses across 20 countries and an annual capacity of 3.6 million tonnes. Eat The Truth contributes expertise in solid-state fermentation, culinary research, and flavor creation. Together, they plan to offer an end-to-end platform covering flavor creation, sensory validation, prototyping, and industrialization to accelerate commercial-scale production.

Applications and benefits

The resulting ingredients are intended for use in chocolate confectionery, baked goods, sauces, and non-alcoholic alternatives. The partners state the approach can substantially reduce running costs for manufacturers, though no specific figures were provided. The solutions are designed to address ongoing challenges related to ingredient cost, availability, and the need for product reformulation.

Integration with corporate strategy

For Soufflet Malt, this partnership aligns with its MALTiply 2030 strategy. That corporate plan aims to expand into adjacent markets and develop new, high-value-added solutions for the food and beverage industry. Laurent Debande, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer at Soufflet Malt, confirmed the deal's strategic importance.

Eat The Truth, the solid-state fermentation brand of The Mediterranean Food Lab (MFL), brings culinary R&D from its chef founders. MFL raised $17 million in January 2024 to scale its fermentation technology, which uses microbes to transform grains, legumes, and farm waste into savory flavor ingredients. The company initially focused on professional kitchens and plant-based meat. Eat The Truth now works with more than 300 partners across Europe.

Yair Yosefi, co-founder and CEO of Eat The Truth, said the partnership "sets a new standard for food ingredients: delicious, honest, innovative solutions designed from the outset for industrial-scale production." The objective is to provide manufacturers with food-grade ingredient solutions that have complex flavour profiles, shortening the path from development to market.