One of the biggest challenges for plant protein manufacturing is creating products at a competitive price point and scale. But now Happy Plant Protein, a new company spinning out of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a novel way to reduce the cost of plant protein.
The company has raised €1.8 million in Pre-Seed funding.
I spoke to Jari Karlsson, CEO and co-founder of Happy Plant Protein, to learn more.
The company is focused on transforming manufacturing to develop a unique, high-quality vegetable protein made directly from legume or cereal flours. It can be used as a TVP (textured vegetable protein) or isolate.
A more sustainable way to manufacture plant-based protein
Unlike traditional TVP, which is often derived from protein concentrates or isolates, the startup's process uses whole flours to preserve more of the inherent nutrients.
Further, according to Karlsson, current production methods fail to meet the demands of the food industry or consumers due to the high pricing of materials and the end-products sold in grocery stores.
For example, traditional processes to produce isolates also use huge amounts of energy and water. To produce just one kilogram of protein isolate, existing production lines use 14 MJ of energy.
Happy Plant Protein has developed a manufacturing process that reduces energy usage to one-seventh of the isolate process. Furthermore, the process is chemical-free, uses almost no water and generates no waste.
Karlsson shared that the company's process "results in significant cost savings that we pass on to our customers.
In addition, this streamlined approach reduces waste and energy consumption."
As Karlsson asserts:
"There is a need for cost-efficient, environmentally sustainable methods to produce high-quality protein ingredients. Ensuring food security while making food manufacturing more sustainable, we must find new, more efficient ways to produce food. "
Happy Plant Protein's approach extracts high-quality protein from legumes such as peas, lentils, and cereals. The protein can then be incorporated into many plant-based food products.
Reducing the need for raw material imports
According to Karlsson, many countries, such as Finland, import significant quantities of soy, pea, and other plant-based raw materials to produce protein isolates.
Happy Plant Protein has developed a manufacturing process that relies on locally sourced pulse and grain flours.
"Our process can replace typically imported ingredients, supporting local agriculture and encouraging the production of more locally made foods.
Countries are paying attention to self-sufficiency and how to use local food to serve local people to start producing more valuable protein products."
The benefits of standard extrusion use over new machinery
The demand for plant protein is high. Regionally, Lantmannen —a major agricultural cooperative and a leader in Northern Europe's agriculture, machinery, bioenergy, and food products industries is investing approximately €105 million in a new plant for plant-based protein production in Lidköping, Sweden. It aims to produce 7,000 tonnes of pea and faba protein isolates annually. This is the largest industrial project of its kind for the company since the 1980s.
However, Finland's current plant-based protein production is relatively low. A stand out is Solar Foods, which opened a factory near Helsinki that produces protein using air and electricity, creating a protein-rich powder called 'solein'.
But it's expensive and time-consuming to build factories.
Happy Plant Protein has developed a methodology that can be adopted for existing extrusion plants. Worldwide, more than 5,000 extruder lines are in use in the food industry.
"This offers multiple opportunities to utilise the technology we have developed. By combining existing technology with Happy Plant Protein's process, the investment and operating costs of producing plant protein can be slashed by up to 90 per cent compared to current technologies," says Karlsson.
Empowering small-scale producers
Happy Plant Protein's technology reduces the cost of producing plant protein by up to 90 per cent compared to current technologies. High-quality plant protein could be produced near their source without needing to overcome time-consuming regulatory hurdles, making it accessible to small local mills and food manufacturers, as well as big global food brands.
Its technology is patented in Finland with global patents pending.
According to Karlsson:
"We're in the first stage with companies who are already making TVP ingredients, because they are using these protein isolates or protein concentrates in their business. And they already have an extruder machine."
Nordic Foodtech VC led the funding, with Butterfly Ventures and Business Finland also participating through a grant.
According to Mika Kukkurainen from Nordic Foodtech VC, consumers have been eager to try new plant-based food products, but the first-generation products did not meet expectations due to their taste, structure, price and health properties.
"Most of these challenges are caused by the current high-capex chemical isolate production, which is making the actual food products very expensive, highlighting off-flavours and lacking their natural beneficial dietary elements, like fibres.
As Happy Plant Protein is licensing its technology globally, more natural, healthier and affordable food from local ingredients will become available to consumers."
Tiina Nakari-Setälä, Vice President and leader of VTT's biotechnology and food research area, shared that Happy Plant Protein stems from VTT's long-term research excellence in plant protein ingredients, underlining the importance of persistent RDI investments.
"Our goal at VTT is to create global and national impact with our research as well as to create new deep-tech startups."
The company will use the funding to further develop and licence its patented technology.
The Happy Plant Protein team is also working on turning different types of low-cost crops into new sources of sustainable, high-quality protein for the future, testing source plants regularly.
Lead image: Happy Plant Protein. Image: Timo Kauppila
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