Gimme Sabor Makes Plant-Based Fun And Redefines The Taste With Natural Flavours

With less than a month until the Taste of Tomorrow event, we're thrilled to introduce Gimme Sabor, a Spanish startup that's turning heads in the food industry. Imagine enjoying the rich flavors of meat, fish, and cheese — all from plant-based, allergen-free products that taste even better than the originals. We had the opportunity to speak with Victor Garcia Montero, Co-Founder and CEO of Gimme Sabor, to delve into the company's mission, the unique technology behind their products, and what sets them apart in a rapidly growing market.

Can you elaborate on the technology behind your allergen-free and MSG-free plant-based natural flavors?

Rather than technology per se, our plant-based flavors are the result of the expertise of our CPO and R&D department. After a vigorous and lengthy analysis process, we have created a vast database of flavor profiles that allow us to create combinations of natural flavorings, spices and herbs that replicate the flavor of animal-based products. By only using plant-based products to recreate flavors such as fish, cheese and seafood (all allergens), we are able to provide an quick and easy alternative for these flavours so absolutely anyone can enjoy them. Our products are also MSG-free since we specifically seek out ingredient combinations to create umami naturally.

What differentiates Gimme products from other solutions currently available in the market?

From the very beginning our mission has been to create healthy plant-based products that taste even better than the real deal, are sustainably made, can be enjoyed by all, and don’t break the bank.

Although it may be overlooked, the word “healthy” in our mission is just as important as “plant-based”. This is because, although there has been some improvement during the last year or so, many plant-based products are alternatives to animal products at the expense of the consumer’s health. We knew that our products had to be an alternative that allowed people to reduce meat consumption, but without eating products that were unhealthier versions of their replacements.

In the case of our seasonings and broth powders, they allow you to replace products that are normally higher in saturated fat and not recommended for regular consumption (bacon, cheese, chorizo) with an alternative that gives you the same flavour with practically no calories or fat. Also, unlike some competitors, we strive to keep our ingredients as clean as possible, avoiding E-numbers and sugar. In the case of our plant-based tuna, as well as being healthier than our competitors given our clean ingredients, it is also allergen-free since we use pea and fava bean protein instead of gluten or soy. Another big difference with some competitors is that our product is shelf-stable just like traditional tuna, meaning that it is in fact even more sustainable given that storage and transportation does not require refrigeration.

Do you plan to add sweet spices or other fish/meat alternatives?

We aren’t currently planning on expanding our B2C seasonings and broth product offering because we have narrowed it down and only offer the most highly demanded flavors.
Plant-based protein is an area we do plan on expanding, however. Now that we have perfected the plant-based tuna formulation using our tuna flavoring, we want to do the same with our other flavors such as lobster, salmon, etc. Also, since we have started expanding our B2B efforts and offer our products as ingredients to manufacturers as well as private label, we can offer these clients a more tailored and custom-made approach by offering other developments that clients may be interested in such as sweet flavors or fish/meat alternatives.

Could you share some insights into the research and development process and what challenges you faced?

One of the main challenges we faced when creating our plant-based tuna was finding the perfect plant-based protein. This is because there were several aspects we had to consider. We wanted a complete plant-based protein source that also was allergen-free, that is why we have used both pea and fava bean, if we were to use just pea protein or just fava bean protein it would not have been a protein source with all the essential amino acids.

The second challenge we had with the TVP was ensuring that it had the right texture. TVP comes in several sizes and the smaller sizes were too small and didn’t resemble canned tuna at all, however the larger ones were too big, so they were not quite right either. In the end, we opted for a solution where we process the larger size to our desired texture.

Another challenge we encountered was the flavor of the TVP. The most “neutral” flavour TVP we came across was soy, but of course that was not an option because we wanted to create an allergen-free product. The plant-protein we ended up using is actually one with a very strong after taste that made it difficult for our tuna flavouring to come through. However we also came up with a great solution to solve this problem and managed to turn the strong after taste into a barely noticeable one.

Why do you want to conquer the German market?

When it comes to our expansion within Europe, we knew that Germany was top priority given that it is the leading plant-based market in the region. Although this means that are more competitors, we also believe that our products compete with the big players in the German market given some of the previously mentioned advantages such as the fact that our tuna is allergen free, shelf stable and clean label. Another reason Germany is a great market for us is because we have the support of the ProVeg network since they have recently invested in our company. Their contacts and insights mean that our growth efforts will be more effective than if we were to prioritise another European country where we would have to rely on only ourselves to get our foot in the door.

Don´t miss our Taste of Tomorrow event!

RootCamp, in partnership with ICEX Spain invite you to opening event of the first The Desafía FoodTech Germany program. On September 11th, we are hosting a special Demo Day, called “Taste of Tomorrow”. Find the agenda and register here.