Pasta and Protein, It’s a Love Affair, PastaLife
Pastalife is a young player on the Danish food market. The company is described as a love affair between god taste and healthy living. The philosofy behind the company is to deliver an everyday grocery that not only tastes good but also gives a helping hand for the many people in the 21'st century, who are in need of fewer corbonhydrates due to less active lifestyle. To find out more about this exiting business idea Øresund Food Network met up with Martin ten Voorde, co-founder of Pastalife.
- It all started when my partner in life and now also in business, Pia Leth Andersen, got hold of a paper at the department of Human Health at the University of Aarhus, where she studied. The paper took up the relationship between protein and weight loss and was interesting because of the great focus on weight management due to the increasing prevalence of obesity in the world. Our idea was to maintain the taste and shape of what people normally eat and change the nutritional content instead of trying to change their entire eating habits. Because, in the end we are only humans and we want to keep things as we are used to, says Martin ten Voorde.
Pastalifes idea was to increase the amount of protein and lower the content of carbohydrate in a grocery. Though, a great idea is not always enough, since a food product needs to taste good. To find the right grocery to apply the idea on was not easy, especially with good taste as an important factor.
- We tried many different things with many different products. Our idea was that if it should result in a permanent change it had to be something that people use on an every day basis. We tried with bread, cookies, buns and so on, all products with traditionally high content of carbohydrate. Finally we found that pasta based on durum wheat and soy protein would work with respect to taste, price and nutritional profile. Because in the end, if it does not taste good people will not eat it, Martin ten Voorde stated.
As most companies producing foods with health messages, Pastalife has struggled with scepticism from consumers who see a negative correlation between healthy food and good taste.
- The typical reaction we get is "it sounds healthy, does it really taste good?" The common opinion from the average consumer is that if it is healthy it does not taste good. But we have gained great recognition by winning a taste contest in the program "Smæk for skillingen" on Denmark's Radio. We have also seen great differences in the two genders. Women tend to have better knowledge about food products and the nutritional profile while men do not have the same interest. If consumers have an interest in food and nutrition they are also more willing to try out new things, says Martin ten Voorde.
There is a huge difference in the Øresund Region of what is allowed or not to state on food packages, where the Danish side always have been the more restrictive part. In the case of Pastalife this meant that at first they were not allowed to use the name Protein Pasta in marketing.
- There was a change in turn of the year 2006/2007. In 2006 we were not allowed to use the name Protein Pasta. But due to a change in legislation we can now use the name Protein Pasta when marketing our products. It is a difficult task and the legislation has to keep up with resent findings from the academic world. If there is proof from clinical testing that products containing more protein is good for weight management, then I think we should be allowed to write so on the package. We have been through a lot just to state what we do on the package today. If we were to operate in the USA it would be a completely different story, since we would then also be able to state that our products reduce production of bad cholesterol, due to the content of soy protein. But on the other hand a more restrictive legislation will keep the non serious players out, says Martin ten Voorde.
To keep up with the latest research in the process of preventing and treating obesity Pastalife is sponsoring the European Diogenes project which is a European Union research project that aims to understand how obesity can be prevented.
- In the Diogenes project two things of great importance for Pastalife is studied, glycemic index and food with high contents of protein. As a matter of fact the research carried out in the project shows results of real and permanent weight reduction. The treatment of obesity is a relatively young research area and there is still an "anything goes" mentality related to weight management in many senses. So if we want to be sure that we are on the right track we have to keep constant contact with the world of research, says Martin ten Voorde.
The story of Pastalife has just begun, and with so much enthusiasm and energy as Martin ten Voorde radiated the saga will definitely continue. In the future we might even see the Pastalife products on both sides of Øresund.
