Protein Industries Canada has announced a project that will create made-in-Canada plant-based foods offerings for consumers and restaurants.
The $11.3 million project will see a consortium of plant-based food businesses work together to process pea, lentil and faba bean protein concentrate into texturized pulse protein (TPP), tempeh, tofu, pasta and non-dairy alternatives that will be used to make market-ready food.
This project brings together AGT, considered one of the founders of Canada’s plant protein industry, with ulivit to execute projects that will contribute to revolutionising the plant-based food market. Building off each other’s experience and expertise, they will use dry fractioned pulses as feedstock to create high protein products using green production methods that will consume less energy and water than existing commercial processes.
“This project is exciting on so many levels,” says Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada. “First of all, it is a classic example of how the cluster is supposed to work – a collaboration between large and micro companies to bring new innovations to the market. Secondly, its benefit to Canadians – from the farmer growing the pulse crops who will now have more options to sell their product closer to home, to the processors and packagers in the middle who employ Canadians across the country, to the consumer looking to introduce more tasty and innovative plant-protein products into their diet.”
The announcement follows on the heels of earlier news that the government was investing $100 million in a new agricultural production plant in Winnipeg that plans to turn peas and canola into protein powders for the food industry.
Merit Functional Foods Corp. plans to have its new 94,000 sq ft production plant at Winnipeg running by the end of the year.
The company says it intends to use only Canadian-grown peas and canola and claims to be the first in the world that will produce canola protein for the food industry.
