Coefficient opens $10 million fund for tastier plant-based proteins

Taste still stands in the way of repeat purchase in alternative protein, and Coefficient Giving just put real money behind the problem. Through its Farm Animal Welfare Fund, the organization opened a request for proposals on June 9 with up to $10 million for research aimed at improving the sensory performance of plant-based and fermentation-derived proteins. Applications are due by August 10, with awards to be made on a rolling basis and no later than November 30.

The call is unusually specific about where the industry still falls short. Coefficient is asking for work on reducing off-flavors in plant-based and fermentation-derived ingredients, developing substitutes for animal fat in flavor generation, reducing or replacing eggs in flavor systems, and improving batch-to-batch consistency through better process control and modeling. That is a sharper brief than the usual broad funding language, and it reflects a hard truth the sector knows well: nutrition and sustainability got the category onto shelves, but flavor, aroma, texture, and aftertaste decide whether shoppers come back.

Coefficient’s own framing makes the problem even clearer. It says plant proteins often carry grassy or beany off-notes, commodity-oil systems do not reproduce animal-fat mouthfeel or lipid-Maillard chemistry, and egg replacement has changed too little even as avian influenza and feed costs have made the old supply chain less reliable. The fund also wants proposals that treat fish flavor as a serious research target, including welfare-priority species such as tilapia, milkfish, carp, pond loach, and catfish. Applicants are being directed to a technical context document that lays out metrics and evaluation rubrics, which suggests the money is meant to support measurable sensory gains, not just interesting chemistry.

The broader market logic is easy to see. The Good Food Institute says taste and price are the top factors driving meat and protein purchases, and that many consumers still think plant-based meat lags conventional meat on both. GFI also says retail plant-based meat products often cost two to three times more than their conventional counterparts, even though about three-quarters of the U.S. population are omnivores and many are open to adding plant-based meat to their diets. For emerging categories like fermentation-enabled products and cultivated meat, familiarity is even lower, which makes the sensory bar harder to clear.

This RFP also fits a larger push to fund the unglamorous science that private capital has often avoided. GFI and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research have already mapped research priorities for plant-based and fermentation-enabled protein ingredients, pointing to ingredient sourcing, multifunctional inputs, reproducibility, and other building blocks that improve functionality and sensory quality. Coefficient says it has allocated several million dollars to alternatives to animal products since 2016, and it now describes this work as foundational, pre-competitive research that has been underfunded by both public agencies and private R&D budgets. In a field that still lives or dies on taste, that may be the most important funding decision yet.