Inside our APAC Meat, Seafood & Plant-based Analogues Pilot Lab: Expert Insights on Savoury Product Development

Demand for processed meat, with savoury flavours continue to grow and processed meat with added functional ingredients, such as fortified proteins or low-sodium options, are also gaining traction among health-conscious consumers.

Turning these demands into successful market products requires more than just the right ingredients. It requires technical expertise to understand how ingredients perform within real systems. At IMCD, our technical expertise and Meat, Seafood & Plant-based Analogues Pilot Lab, capabilities enable us to evaluate ingredient functionality and translate formulation concepts into practice applications.

Upala Ueanukul, Savoury Segment Expert

Common formulation challenges in processed meat include cost optimisation, where manufacturers must balance ingredient costs while maintaining product quality and yield. Sodium reduction is another key challenge, as lowering sodium can negatively affect flavour, protein functionality, and texture. The shift toward clean label and natural preservation also creates difficulties in maintaining shelf life, colour stability, and microbial safety without traditional additives.

In addition, manufacturers need to manage texture and water-holding capacity to ensure consistent mouthfeel and product stability, especially when reformulating. Finally, maintaining flavour profile and consumer acceptance, along with ensuring smooth scalability from pilot to industrial production, remains a critical challenge.

IMCD offers a comprehensive range of solutions encompassing both ingredients and technical expertise, particularly in processed meat applications such as salami, ham, sausage, bacon, and bologna. Our Pilot Lab is equipped with machinery that closely replicates real production line conditions, enabling customers to conduct trials using smaller volumes compared to full-scale manufacturing. This approach helps significantly reduce costs while maintaining conditions similar to actual production.

Jeremia Kevin, Technical Manager

The Pilot Lab acts as a link between formulation and actual industrial application, enabling us to optimise Meat, Seafood & Plant-based Analogues applications under actual industrial processing circumstances. It guarantees that our solutions are workable and scalable through the facilitating of formulation development, identifying processing challenges early, and building customer confidence through tangible results. Meat Pilot Lab is not just a facility; it is a technical innovation hub in the APAC region that enables our customers to deliver application-driven solutions and accelerate commercialisation  across diverse markets.

 Many of the savoury prototypes developed by the team are refined through trials conducted in the pilot lab. In 2025 alone, the facility supported 17 project trials, demonstrating its active role in product development. By combining ingredient expertise with hands-on application testing, the technical team can evaluate how functional proteins, flavour solutions, and preservation system perform under processing conditions.

This is reflected through a range of pilot lab applications across both supplier collaboration and customer engagement. In supplier-led training sessions, both commercial and technical team deepened their understanding of protein functionality beyond texture, including its role in flavour development. On the other hand, the pilot lab also plays a key role in solving specific formulation challenges that customers face. One such challenge was water leakage in ham after storage. Through targeted pilot trials and formulation optimisation, the team was able to reduce water loss, while also improving sliceability and enhancing flavour.

The Meat, Seafood & Plant-based Analogues Pilot Lab serves as a bridge between ingredient understanding and real-world implementation. By combining technical expertise with lab trials, we help manufacturers accelerate product development, optimise formulations and bring differentiated savoury products to market.

References