Food innovation is not only about creating new flavors or improving convenience. It can also mean developing products for people whose dietary needs require entirely different approaches to food formulation.
At 9595, our Research & Development team has invested in the localization and development of highly specialized food products designed around specific nutritional and dietary requirements. These projects represent an important step toward making specialized food solutions more accessible while contributing to broader goals in nutritional responsibility and public health.
Our work currently focuses on five specialized product categories, each requiring a different technological approach.
1. Protein-Free Pizza Cheese for PKU Diets
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a metabolic disorder associated with a deficiency of the phenylalanine hydroxylase enzyme. As a result, individuals with PKU require strict dietary management, including extremely low protein intake.
Developing a pizza cheese without protein presents a significant technological challenge because conventional pizza cheese depends heavily on the protein network formed by casein.
To address this challenge, our R&D team developed an alternative structural system based on modified starches and synergistic hydrocolloids such as kappa carrageenan. By precisely controlling polymeric cross-link density, the formulation was designed to reproduce key characteristics such as melting and stretchability without relying on the traditional protein structure.
This project demonstrates how food structure can be redesigned when conventional ingredients are no longer an option.
2. Gluten-Free Pizza Base for Celiac Diets
For people with celiac disease, gluten-containing wheat proteins can trigger an autoimmune response that damages the intestinal lining. One of the major technological challenges in gluten-free baking is maintaining the structural and rheological properties normally provided by gluten while also limiting premature staling.
Our approach uses advanced hydrocolloid systems, including cellulosic compounds and xanthan gum, as alternatives to the network-forming role of gluten.
The resulting formulation is designed to provide good porosity and improved resistance to starch retrogradation, helping maintain the functional properties expected from a pizza base.
3. 100% Vegan Pastry Dough
Eggs perform several important technological functions in dough, including emulsification and thermal coagulation. Removing eggs therefore requires more than simply replacing one ingredient with another.
Our vegan pastry dough was developed to address both egg-protein sensitivities and vegan dietary requirements. Plant-based stabilizing systems and root-derived starches were used to optimize the dough’s rheological properties.
A key achievement of this formulation is its structural stability during freeze-thaw cycles without relying on animal-derived stabilizers.
This illustrates how formulation science can recreate important functional properties while completely changing the ingredient system.
4. Dairy-Free Pizza Cheese
For consumers who need to avoid dairy and lactose, developing a cheese alternative requires solving several challenges at once: structure, emulsification, texture, and sensory characteristics.
In this formulation, dairy derivatives including casein, whey, and lactose are removed. The emulsion is instead engineered through high-shear mixing technology using refined plant-based fats and specialized stabilizing systems.
To develop a sensory profile comparable to dairy cheese, the formulation uses vegan lactic acid for flavor development.
The result is an example of how food technology can replace an entire ingredient system rather than simply substituting a single component.
5. Functional Zero-Fat Dietary Pizza Cheese
Reducing or eliminating fat from cheese formulations creates another major technological challenge. Fat contributes significantly to texture, mouthfeel, and melting behavior, meaning that simply removing it can result in a dry product with poor melting characteristics.
To overcome this challenge, our R&D team employed fat-mimetic technology. Instead of conventional lipids, the formulation uses polymeric matrices containing inulin, a prebiotic polysaccharide.
This approach is designed to provide a creamy mouthfeel while producing a very low-calorie formulation. The use of inulin also provides a functional component associated with supporting beneficial gut flora.
Innovation With a Purpose
These five projects share a common principle: when conventional food formulations cannot meet a specific dietary requirement, the solution lies in rethinking the underlying food structure.
From replacing the protein network in pizza cheese to developing gluten-free structures, vegan dough systems, dairy-free emulsions, and fat-mimetic formulations, each project required a different combination of formulation science, ingredient technology, and process development.
For 9595, innovation is therefore not simply about creating a new product. It is about exploring what is technically possible and developing food solutions around real nutritional and dietary needs.
Our continued investment in specialized food technology reflects a broader commitment to responsible innovation—creating products that combine functionality, food technology, and nutritional considerations while expanding the possibilities of modern food manufacturing.
