Functional ingredients company Beneo is investing almost $90 million (€50 million) in a new pulse processing site in Offstein, Germany, to produce protein rich pulse ingredients.
Beneo’s early focus will be on protein concentrate and starch rich flour and hulls from faba beans, looking to options with other pulses down the track.
The company said the new production facility would further strengthen the company’s plant-based protein portfolio and will enable it to meet growing demand for plant-based food and feed ingredients.
Beneo executive board member Christoph Boettger said the investment was just the starting point.
Forecast figures predict that by 2027, 75 percent of all protein demand will be vegetal, with products using these proteins expected to reach 11 percent CAGR between 2020-2027.
“We strongly believe in plant-based ingredients and see the new plant as an important first step in enlarging our protein offering moving forwards. This will enable us to produce a wider variety of sustainable plant-based protein ingredients over the coming years,” said Boettger.
Pulses are also growing in demand, with pea and faba beans considered the rising star ingredients of new product launches worldwide. They have achieved a CAGR of 20 percent from 2016-2021.
Faba bean protein concentrate and starch rich flour can be used for protein-enrichment and texture improvement in meat and dairy alternatives, as well as in gluten-free baked goods and cereals. Faba bean hulls and starch rich flour can be used in feed as a vegetal protein or fibre source for sustainable petfood, aquafeed and livestock nutrition.
Meeting demand and sustainability expectations
Beneo said it had made sustainability a priority throughout its supply chain. Pulses help reduce greenhouse gas emissions at farm level; for example, faba beans provide nitrogen for themselves and subsequent plants, making nitrogen fertilisation not necessary.
Beneo’s faba beans would be locally sourced from farmers certified by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) with all parts of the crop used for functional ingredients, it said.
It has also chosen low energy processing methods to help Beneo reach its carbon neutrality and sustainability targets.
The crops will inititally be processed at existing facilities, with the new plant due for completion by 2H 2024. In the interim, the faba bean ingredients are expented to be available from June this year.
Work has already begun on constructing the plant and it is expected to be completed within the second half of 2024.
