Heura’s New Patent-Pending Tech Makes Its Clean Vegan Meat Even Healthier

Barcelona-based plant-based food tech startup, Heura, has unveiled its latest patent-pending technology aimed at generating never-before-achieved nutritional values in plant-based products.

Heura’s new technology is based on a novel thermomechanical technique, which uses heat and mechanical energy to shape or modify the properties of plant proteins.

Clean ingredients, novel tech

By creating a scalable technology that advances the scientific understanding of plant protein structures and developing predictive mathematical models for engineering design, Heura says it can now create plant-based products with unprecedented nutritional value, including more quality protein, low fat, and a shorter, more familiar “clean” ingredient list.

The move is part of the Spanish meat brand’s aim of becoming Europe’s net-positive food tech champion. It’s well on its way. Last year, the company saw a 260 percent increase in sales across borders, following its €20 million in bridge funding last October.

“Our new patent-pending technology is here to redefine food processing and accelerate the plant-based protein transition. By focusing on high nutritional values with clean labels, we are not only creating an unprecedented competitive advantage, but also offering a new level of animal meat successors, foods that are superior to their traditional meat counterparts,” Marc Coloma, CEO and co-founder of Heura, said in a statement.

The proprietary technology is part of the Good Rebel Tech (GRT) platform, which is focused on creating macro- and micro-nutrient-dense foods in a sustainable manner that goes beyond what’s been technologically possible to date.

Deli meats

Heura says GRT was created to elevate the plant-based food industry by providing a path to create foods that are superior from a nutrition, sustainability, and culinary standpoint. Earlier this year Heura debuted vegan fish filets. It says a line of plant-based deli meat made with the new tech will launch later this year.

“We use a transdisciplinary approach to Science & Technology to overcome the greatest challenges the industry is facing. Our goals are ambitious. We are not aiming for small, incremental advancements based on cumulative improvements on what already exists, but rather exponential progress from breakthrough innovations,” said Isabel Fernandez, Science and Technology Director at Heura.

“And those great problems can only be solved by research in the diverse, relevant scientific fields to jointly develop new fundamental understanding and technological innovations to address a common challenge,” Fernandez said.

According to Heura, its tech-forward focus helps it uphold the culinary traditions of the Mediterranean, including high nutritional density, positive climate impact, and exceptional taste.

“This is only the beginning of Heura’s journey to uproot the food system and resolve industry barriers and limitations,” the company said.