Banken Chamignons, market leader on the Dutch market, has been working for years in order to get surplus value from mushrooms. “We want to be more than just a company that pushes around boxes,” says commercial manager Alex Vos. In recent years, that resulted in mix packs, the vitamin D-mushrooms and fresh soups and sauces with fresh mushrooms as a base. Banken has a new introduction this month: the Champ Burger.
“We did extensive research into market developments, and this always showed the increasing number of people who are flexitarian, or semi-vegetarian. The world population is increasing, and it is becoming more problematic to provide people with food, causing, among other things, the rise in the price of meat. Add to that the enormous environmental impact of meat and the stricter retail requirements regarding the so-called ‘clean label,’ and it becomes apparent that there is much need for meat replacers. And a lot of people then end up with our product group,” Vos explains.
“We took a lot of time for product development, and that resulted in the Champ Burger. The burger consists of 75 per cent mushrooms, but 100 per cent natural ingredients,” Vos continues. “We devoted ourselves to flavour experience and that resulted in four flavours: natural, Asian spiced, black pepper and smokey barbecue. The good thing about these Champ Burgers is the typical mushroom flavour, which cannot be found anywhere else on the market. Because of that, it can be said that this is a unique product due to its good flavour, juiciness and the unique characteristics of the mushrooms. Besides, the Champ Burger is low in calories and contains less salt.”
Response from retail and food service has been very positive. The natural variant will be introduced by a German retailer in a 2x80 gramme-packaging in two regions this month. “Towards the end of the year is a perfect time to introduce the burger, so we are very excited,” Vos concludes.
