Collagen from Plants?

Recently meaning this year, there have been a variety of new products claiming to be plant based collagen heck some even claimed to be from algae. Personally I am not too sure if such a thing exists I always thought collagen originated from mammals and fish.

Essentially what I understood was that manufacturers of per say this plant collagen hydrolyze several forms of gluten or wheat proteins to achieve a so called collagen. Due to the nature of processing plant collagen is inactive and has no bioactive activity rending it similar to consuming fried egg white (albumin).

Another question given to us from numerous customers was the taste and smell of collagen be it from a variety of sources predominately bovine and marine. My usual response to most customers is based on the following:

Garbage in garbage out

If your raw material is low quality in this case aged, oxidized, fermented and spoilt for example. Either you purify it further or you literally create a “garbage” raw material.

Instinctive role of smell

Instinctively smell plays an important role in food and for centuries we humans have yet to get it wrong.
Let me paint you a simple scenario, when fruit or meat is spoilt it gives off an unpleasant odor indicating spoilage. How much can this differ from a raw material used for food products?

Through my own opinion, I will agree a certain degree of off odors are expected due to the nature of the product. But a strong pungent smell would indicate a low quality product which is true in all instance for collagen.

Terminologies

Hydrolysed Collagen – Should originate from a source of gelatin longer chained collagen where water is removed from the compound to make a smaller molecule of collagen as measured in Daltons (Da).

Collagen – Describes a group of amino acids which encompass several types.