By: Olivier Reglat, F&B Industry Manager at KROHNE
The Alternative Protein Revolution and Automation Needs
The shift toward alternative protein production represents a significant transformation in the food industry. While this evolution might seem to demand entirely new approaches to industrial automation, the reality is more nuanced. In principle, the machinery used in the production of tofu sausage, seitan, and similar products mirrors that used in the general food industry today, including classic food processing machines such as cutters, mincers, fillers, and forming machines used for conventional meat or dough production.
However, manufacturers of meat alternatives face a major challenge: they must compete in the price war against industrially produced conventional meat. Success in this arena can only be achieved through advanced, highly automated production methods and continuously running, uninterrupted processes that make highly efficient use of machinery.
The Case for Continuous Processing
Consider the production chain for plant-based alternatives. Legumes, grains, soybeans, or oilseeds form the basis for products such as plant-based burger patties and minced meat. In an upstream process, a premixed powder is produced from these protein raw materials, which must then be metered into the extruder feed with the addition of water. These powders are often very fine, sticky, and difficult to meter accurately.
At this critical juncture, many producers today interrupt the process to weigh the mass on a scale: the pre-product is collected in a container until a certain mass is reached, and only then is it fed into the next process step. As a result, the downstream process must wait, interrupting flow and eroding both time and efficiency.
A superior solution lies in continuous inline weighing of materials by Coriolis mass flowmeters, which can be easily integrated into the process engineering chain without impacting the flowing product itself. The alternative protein industry is at a point where it can leap forward to match the pace of automation common in traditional production processes, just as the chemical and pharmaceutical processing industries have already instituted.
KROHNE's Solutions for Alternative Protein Production
With precisely tailored measuring technology, meat alternatives can be produced with consistently high quality in highly efficient, uninterrupted production processes. As a full-range supplier, KROHNE offers a broad spectrum of food-proven process measuring technology for the detection of level, temperature, pressure, volume, and mass flow. This customized measuring technology can be individually optimized for specific processes and starting materials, leveraging extensive field experience to solve demanding, application-specific challenges.
EGM Technology: Addressing Air Entrainment Challenges
KROHNE has developed Entrained Gas Management (EGM) technology for Coriolis instruments in the OPTIMASS series, which delivers precise measurement results at all times based on powerful control algorithms. Application examples for EGM in the production of meat alternatives can be found in the extrusion phase, when the pulpy protein mixture must be weighed before being formed into balls, patties, or cutlets.
Depending on the pre-product, such extrudates have a more or less fibrous structure that corresponds to the texture of real meat. But the pressure drop as the material exits the extruder usually results in material expansion, creating a textured product that may contain air entrainments. These air pockets interfere with measurement in conventional Coriolis mass flowmeters, resulting in erroneous measured values or even measurement operation interruption, causing a failure of the measurement signal for process control.
With EGM, the meter always maintains operation, and measurement accuracy can be further improved by adapting instruments to the specific application. Examples of successful EGM technology implementation include the production of foamy products such as ice cream, yogurt, mayonnaise, bread dough, and margarine, where clean measurement results must be generated despite nitrogen content of 15% or more. This technology also enables highly accurate metering of spice sauce mixtures for products like creamed spinach, where measurement deviations in the order of 0.5-1.0% can be achieved despite air entrainments, values rarely achieved elsewhere in the industry.
Single-Tube Design Advantages
The advanced sensor geometry of single-tube instruments from the OPTIMASS series contributes significantly to performance. Where product flow is otherwise guided through two tubes in the measuring process, substantial pressure losses are to be expected with pasty products such as meat substitutes. With single-tube devices, not only can much more precise metering be achieved, but pump output can also be permanently reduced, delivering energy savings and improved process control.
Unique Requirements in Alternative Protein Processing
While engineering contractors and suppliers often rely on proven solutions from conventional food production, the emergence of alternative proteins presents an opportune moment to assess whether better technologies could be deployed.
In addition to consistent raw material quality, the production of meat alternatives relies on stable and uniform process conditions to achieve desired product quality and mouthfeel, the critical "bite feel" that determines consumer acceptance. This depends heavily on various process parameters and control variables such as feed quantities, pressure, temperature, viscosity, filling levels, and residence times.
Precise heating in the extruder is of particular importance. Textures and their cut resistance depend on pressure control. Consistent taste, quality, shape, and color require that imitation meat ingredients such as spices and flavors be precisely dosed into processes. Cooling or cooking temperatures and pressures must be continually monitored, and densities measured, particularly where very viscous, sticky, and highly adhesive mixtures such as protein masses are processed.
Where clients produce products with specific textures, such as fermented or other texture-built products, it is critical not to shear the product during measurement. Fibers, solids, inhomogeneous air content, fermentation by yeast, and other factors might be subject to measurement, with many considerations specific to each process.
Throughout these applications, food-compliant materials without dead spaces that meet EHEDG or 3-A certifications as well as material requirements according to EU law and FDA regulations are essential. KROHNE offers a classic portfolio of proven, food-grade process measurement solutions covering all key variables needed in hygienic production.
Automation for Startups and Scale-Up Operations
Some might assume that automation comes with a prohibitive price tag, particularly for startups. However, factors such as product consistency, safety and traceability, cost savings, and the necessary flexibility to keep up with changing global consumer demands tell a different story. Smart automation at the pilot stage can offer a seamless path to scaling for larger processes.
The question of when automation is right for a particular operation can be answered by examining scale and labor intensity of production. Consider simple processes like watering plants with fortified supplements, if these can be automated in an efficient and cost-effective manner, why should it not be beneficial for alternative protein production? Automation becomes right when you find the appropriate price point: there is a large bandwidth of automation components available, and proper consultation can identify the right degree of automation for each application.
Achieving Price Parity Through Inline Processing
Price parity with conventional meats remains a major challenge in alternative proteins. Automation offers a direct path to addressing this challenge by increasing quantity per time through the use of process measurement technology. Alternative protein companies can produce with significantly raised efficiency by switching from batch-type production to inline blending.
Many plant-based base ingredients are traditionally measured on weight scales, with all other ingredients added pro-rata to produce as many final products from a single batch as possible. KROHNE technology enables weighing of plant-based ingredients within process piping without any process interruption, continuously and scalable from pilot plant scale with small process piping to large-scale industrial process piping. All other ingredients can be added inline, virtually non-stop. Additional values such as inline process density and concentration measurement for quality control can further enhance operations.
Selecting the Right Supplier
When selecting an automation supplier, companies should seek partners that think and act with a customer and application-oriented perspective, creating solutions that offer added value. At KROHNE, this is called "application knowledge." KROHNE seeks to understand the main goal of each client, then draws on extensive knowledge of measurement technology behavior in processes gathered from thousands of applications. This enables KROHNE to develop solutions like EGM that offer specific benefits for customers.
More often than not, KROHNE suggests parallel measurements with benefits for quality control in terms of concentration measurements to avoid "give away" of the most valuable ingredients. The total cost of owning instrumentation should also indicate the better solution for each application.
Sustainability Considerations
For companies in alternative proteins, presumably more sustainable food options, sustainability considerations should extend to all areas of production. The greatest leverage lies in using measurement technology to avoid scrap and overproduction: no product giveaway, no rework of startup products that would otherwise be discarded. This approach maximizes yield from each batch while minimizing resource consumption.
A 30-year lifespan for measurement instrumentation is not exceptional in our industry. Should any component fail, it is typically the electronics, and KROHNE guarantees retrofittable electronics with the latest on-board verification and diagnostic options for low maintenance. Industry 4.0 maintenance capabilities, combined with the very low energy consumption of measurement instrumentation compared to agitators, valves, and motors for mixers, rank the energy consumption of our instrumentation as insignificant in the overall process energy budget.
Conclusion
Alternative protein producers are under pressure to deliver consistent quality at competitive prices while scaling rapidly and proving their sustainability credentials. By shifting from interrupted, batch-style production to highly automated, inline processes, they can unlock higher yields, reduced waste, and more predictable product performance. Process measurement sits at the core of this transition, providing the real-time data needed to control complex textures, manage entrained gas, and optimize energy and raw material usage. For manufacturers, the priority is not just selecting instruments, but choosing partners with deep application knowledge who can help translate these capabilities into robust, scalable production concepts. With the right measurement strategy and supplier relationships, alternative protein facilities can be designed from the outset to meet future demands for volume, consistency, and sustainability.
