Eggs have long held a non-negotiable position in food manufacturing. They bind, leaven, emulsify and enrich, offering a rare, combined complexity that makes them difficult to replace. Today, however, the need to find viable alternatives is huge, due to soaring egg prices, avian influenza outbreaks, and shifting consumer values around sustainability and animal welfare.

Against this backdrop, egg replacement solutions are moving from niche alternatives to mainstream necessities, with the market for egg-free and plant-based substitutes in bakery and confectionery growing steadily at around 6% per year. For producers, the challenge lies not only in cost control but also in ensuring technical performance and sensory quality that can match, or even exceed, traditional egg-based formulations.

To support manufacturers in navigating this complex scenario, CSM Ingredients launched in April 2025 Egg ’n Easy Plus, the latest advancement in its Egg ’n Easy range for egg reduction in bakery.

Most recently, it also added to its Magic Glaze range of premium egg-free glazing solutions the new Magic Glaze Instant, an instant solution to be reconstituted with warm water.

Meeting industry pressures with advanced egg reduction

Egg ’n Easy range is a plant-based, customizable powder formulation designed to give industrial bakers maximum flexibility in managing egg reduction to meet production and customer needs.

The range is based on the combination of building blocks: wheat flour to enhance viscosity and help contain oil; wheat protein to support and maintain crumb structure and vegetable fibers for enhanced freshness, aeration and stability. In the Egg ’n Easy Plus version also enzymes are added, to provide an even finer crumb structure.

The newest addition to the range, Egg ‘n Easy Plus, enables up to 100% replacement of whole eggs in brioche recipes, where eggs can account for 5-15% of the formulation, and up to 50% replacement in cakes and muffins.

From a technical perspective, the formulation safeguards dough consistency, machinability and sensory attributes, while allowing manufacturers to reduce egg-related costs by as much as 55%.

Extending the Magic Glaze range

To further enable egg reduction efforts, Magic Glaze provides an egg-free, water-based glazing alternative that guarantees the golden shine and attractive finish consumers expect. Key benefits include:

• Hygiene and safety: Eliminates bacteriological contamination risk.

• Operational efficiency: Ready-to-use, sprayable without clogging.

• Cost stability: Unaffected by egg price volatility.

• Cleaner label: No preservatives, colours, flavours or hydrogenated fats.

• Vegan suitability: catering to the growing plant-based sector.

Applications across the sector span a wide range of bakery and pastry products, from croissants and puff pastry to sandwich buns and focaccia.

The Magic Glaze range is continuously evolving, with several additions including Magic Glaze Instant, a powdered format designed for maximum operational flexibility.

The new concept, developed for simple and quick reconstitution with warm water, will provide manufacturers with precise dosage control, reduced storage needs and predictable cost management, as well as maintaining performance consistency and supporting cleaner label positioning.

The range also includes Magic Glaze Freeze-Thaw Stable – developed for frozen bakery products, which maintains stability throughout long storage and distribution cycles – and Magic Glaze Post-Bake – designed specifically for application on hot bread buns and similar goods, offering excellent stability even after freezing.

Driving sustainable innovation

The launch of Egg ’n Easy Plus and the expansion of the Magic Glaze range highlight CSM Ingredients group’s broad vision, as surmised by Christian Sobolta, CEO of CSM Ingredients: “Our mission is to develop solutions that not only solve technical and economic pressures but also anticipate the evolving demands of the food industry".

"Egg ’n Easy and Magic Glaze are great examples of how innovation can deliver value across the supply chain, and they are great examples, for us, of how planet health, animal welfare and cost-efficiency can and should easily intersect.”