Andfoods Rolls Out Fermented Black Gram Whipped Cream in Singapore
New Zealand food tech startup Andfoods has launched its dairy-free whipped cream, made from fermented black gram protein, in Singapore’s foodservice channel.
In Singapore, professional kitchens are now using a next-gen whipped cream made from fermented lentils.
New Zealand-based Andfoods, which spun out of Massery University’s Riddet Institute in 2023, has launched its dairy-free alternative in the city-state through foodservice distributor Lim Siang Huat.
The company’s patented product is derived from black gram protein, which is combined with vegetable oils and food-grade emulsifiers and stabilisers commonly used in whipping creams to deliver the ideal whipping performance and stability kitchens require.
“Singapore is a market where performance gets tested quickly and visibly. It has a dense concentration of professional kitchens, bakeries and beverage businesses, and it’s a gateway to the wider region,” said Andfoods co-founder and CEO Alex Devereux. “Lim Siang Huat gives us a direct route into those kitchens.”
Black gram alternative outperforms dairy whipped cream
Andfoods employs a patented fermentation process to eliminate the plant-like taste of black grams, which it landed on as a base ingredient after years of research, thanks to its unique functional properties.
The bean’s polysaccharides let the non-dairy cream create and hold structure on its own, delivering a superior mouthfeel and better frothing and stabilising ability than any other plant-based ingredient, according to the company.
It notes how most dairy-free whipping creams rely on cheap oils. But the startup’s version is made without palm oil, hydrogenated fats, or additives. It has been benchmarked against 30 alternatives, with the company developing the ingredient to match or outperform both dairy and plant-based creams in real kitchen conditions.
Andfoods’s whipped cream has a white colour and light mouthfeel, holds texture without collapsing, and can perform better than dairy in hot, humid conditions. This lentil-derived alternative retains its shape for longer and doesn’t separate in the heat, unlike its cow-derived counterpart.
It can be used in applications where whipping, piping, heat stability, and consistency are critical. These include beverage cold foams and cream tops, bakery items like profiteroles and chocolate ganache, and desserts such as ice creams, cheesecakes and mousses.
Andfoods’s dairy-free whipped cream praised by chefs
The black gram whipped cream comes in one-litre Tetra Pak cartons, each of which can produce 2.6 litres of usable product when fully whipped. It’s priced “very competitively” with dairy, and is produced in Shanghai to support production and distribution across Asia.
Devereux noted that the company built the cream for kitchens looking for alternatives with no compromises. “Chefs don’t accept trade-offs on texture, taste or consistency, and they shouldn’t have to when they go dairy-free,” he said.
One of its early customers is Singaporean brunch eatery The Glasshouse. “We were sceptical going in, because dairy-free usually means compromise. Andfoods Whip changed our minds,” said co-founder and chef Josh Liew. “It whips up beautifully, tastes clean, and holds up through service; we’ve already built it into our menu.”
Andfoods has so far secured NZ$4M ($2.25M) from investors like Icehouse Ventures and K1W1, and is currently targeting an NZ$6M ($3.4M) Series A round.
And earlier this year, its black gram milk powder was cited in a patent application filed by confectionery giant Mars, which covers plant-based ice creams made from black gram protein and highlights the lentil’s potential to enhance texture and stability better than incumbents like pea protein.