Life forced me to do that – there were simply no delicious snacks and dishes on the market.
“I stopped eating meat, I tried to eat beans because I lacked protein. It was just awkward. Radau seitano (proteins of wheat), but there was nothing to buy in the store. Soy sausages did not impress “, says G. Kesiūnaitė.
She says that she has found who produces seitan in Lithuania. He also began to study the damage that animal husbandry brings to nature, and the ideological basis also contributed to the taste. “Attitudes towards meat and its animals have changed,” she admits, laughing when she saw the seithana for the first time on a television show describing the product as yoga food.
Simply put, wheat protein is made from wheat dough. It is made and left for a while. Gluten is activated. The dough is then washed with warm water to remove starch. The remaining dough becomes the raw material for the product. Other spices, such as peas, protein, can be added.
“Another way is to produce seitan powder in an industrial way, which can be purchased and variously heat-treated. However, meat products are produced in Lithuania by meat processors. They use available equipment and technology. The most popular product is a burger. There are few other products, ”explains the developer, who decided to look for a more interesting product and turn it into a business.
He made a copy of the chicken thigh in which the stick even mimics a dice. The hardest part was making fibers that mimicked chicken fibers and not just the dough mass. In the future, there will also be a “skin” that can be separated when baked. The product is already fried in oil, it only needs to be heated.
“Most meat substitutes are ready to eat. They just need to be warmed up. The protein part is already heat-treated, ”explains G. Kesiūnaitė.
The first sales were gratifying – they participated in several fairs and the products were sold online. There was simply a lack of production capacity. Kneading tens of kilograms of dough by hand is difficult.
G. Kesiūnaitė participated in the EIT FOOD project EWA, which was implemented by the digital innovation center AgriFood Lithuania DIH and won the main 10 thousand. euro prize.
“So far, I have only ordered products for another company, now I will buy professional equipment, rent premises and start production. I hope to enter. The interest is that it is gratifying that people are asking for products made in Lithuania, ”says the start-up entrepreneur and plans to expand the range – to produce bacon and minced meat.
Giedrius Bagušinskas
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Giedrius Bagušinskas, Director of the Lithuanian Meat Exporters Association:
“Statistics show that the growing global pressure on ecology in Europe and around the world is leading to a growing number of consumers giving up meat, and at the same time a new business in meat substitutes. Lithuania is no exception. If a few years ago vegan burgers sounded like some kind of exotic, today we see such products full everywhere. Only if those products appeared in the Netherlands as one of the first and now the Dutch shelves are full of such products, then Dutch products came to us only recently. It is very gratifying that new initiatives are emerging in Lithuania not only to import, but also to produce meat substitutes, which may eventually become a separate part of the food sector representing Lithuania.
The project is promising in that it uses local raw material, we have a modern factory that produces raw material from local wheat. Such niche products are one step towards becoming a country that develops and manufactures high value-added products.
We can only learn and align ourselves with the same Dutch and be not only importers and sellers, but also manufacturers and developers of the new generation of products. ”
Seitan according to Wikipedia
Wheat meat or seitan (Japanese セ イ タ ン) is an elastic product originating in Japan that is made from gluten. In the traditional way of making seitan, the wheat dough is rinsed with water until the starch granules are removed from the dough. Often used as a meat substitute. Popular in Asian and Buddhist cuisines. In Western culture, traditional forms of meat products are often presented as a substitute for meat in a vegetarian diet.
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