On Friday, Protein Industries Canada announced its sixth investment into a collaborative R&D project to help advance Canada’s plant protein ecosystem. The project brings together investment into new technologies and processes along with efforts to build capacity in Canada’s growing plant protein sector.
The project will see $19.2 million invested between Protein Industries Canada, Roquette and Glenboro-based Prairie Fava. The consortium will work to address nutrition and processing challenges for pea and fava on the Prairies, while also exploring the utility of blended pea-fava protein products.
The project will address unique processing challenges associated with running a pea processing plant in Western Canada, such as how to mitigate the effects of cold weather.
“This project will be key to furthering Canada’s position as a global leader in plant protein,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel. “It’s building on Canada’s strength in pulse crop production and will bring solutions to overcome specific challenges with processing in Canada. It’s also taking technology from a Canadian SME and applying that to large-scale projects to help create new ingredients and end-products. The work undertaken on this project will truly build capacity across our ecosystem and bring benefit to Canadians through a stronger and more robust agrifood processing industry, right here in Canada.”
The pea portion of the research will start with evaluation of pea varieties in western Canada and their suitability for Roquette’s new Portage-based plant, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year. This will be followed with research on processing to improve the functional properties of the pea protein isolates.
“As a global leader in food, nutrition and health markets, Roquette has more than 40 years of experience in plant-protein research and development,” said Dominique Baumann, Managing Director, Roquette in Canada. “This PIC investment provides us with an opportunity to collaborate with Prairie Fava on developing and strengthening the value-chain for pulse crops across the Canadian Prairies. Growers, livestock producers, food innovators and consumers will all see the benefits of this supercluster funding.”
The fava portion of the research is largely focused on optimizing the dehulling and processing of fava beans by Prairie Fava, increasing their efficiency and reducing their costs of production. The partnership will also focus on the development of end-products and pea-fava ingredient blends.
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