GFI: Alt-Protein Sees Advancements in Crop Development, Ingredient Optimization and Texturization Methods

In 2021, the rapidly-growing plant-based food industry saw several technological advancements across the value chain, ranging from crop optimization to ingredient isolation and functionalization all the way to end product formulation and manufacturing.

During The Good Food Institute’s State of the Industry panel presentation Thursday, panelists explored a central question: how will the world feed 10 billion people by 2050 – and how will it do so sustainably, efficiently and safely. During the presentation, experts from GFI, which advocates for and attempts to accelerate the growth of the alternative protein industry, broke down the latest technical advancements in addition to highlighting key trends and identifying areas downstream that may require improvement.

These ideas are fully grounded in the idea of the development of plant-based protein products becoming exponentially more important in the food stream, an approach that’s not a settled path, although one that is increasingly drawing large tranches of investment capital.

Advancements in Crop Breeding and Molecular Farming

While traditional crop breeding aims to enhance and yield product while resisting pests, disease and drought, efforts that instead emphasize the content and functionality of ingredients, especially proteins, significantly advanced the plant-based meat, egg and dairy categories in 2021.

Industrial animal agriculture is among the top two to three most significant contributors to the world’s most pressing environmental issues, according to GFI. The process uses 75% of agricultural land, yet provides only 33% of the global protein supply.

“We believe that an answer to these many issues is to make meat, eggs and dairy products that people love in a more sustainable and efficient way. With alternative proteins, we can make those directly from plants with fermentation technology or by using animal cell culture,” said Karen Formanski, corporate engagement research and analysis manager for GFI.

In December, soybean processing company Benson Hill finalized the first commercial harvest of its new non-GMO ultra-high protein soybean. According to a press release, the harvested soybeans will “source the company’s portfolio of nutritious and sustainable ingredients designed to serve the alternative plant-based meat” market.

Additionally, crop genetics company NuCicer also announced plans to develop an ultra-high protein chickpea crop variety.

“If successful, these new high-protein varieties will be really unique, commercially available soybeans and chickpeas that could effectively and efficiently bypass some traditional infractionation steps,” said panelist Dr. Priera Panescu, a senior scientist and plant-based specialist.

2021 also brought with it notable progress in molecular farming, the process through which crops are bred to express non-native proteins to plants, including essential animal proteins such as casein–the protein that gives cheese its taste and texture.

In July, San Francisco-based Nobell Foods secured $75 million in funding to scale the production of its plant-based cheese products made with casein, cultivated from genetically modified soybeans.

According to GFI, in addition to breeding crop sources for optimal traits, novel crop sources can also be explored for desirable traits. Last year, several companies worked to commercialize novel crops or expand the commercial uptake of specialty crops with promising attributes for alternative protein applications.

United States-based startup Terviva, which commercializes oil and protein from Pongamia tree beans, partnered with Danone with plans to open a production facility in the U.S. in 2022, while Nutriati focused on releasing new chickpea ingredients, including a texturized chickpea and pea protein blend.

Additionally, Scrum Ventures and Green Boy Group are developing protein ingredients from novel sources such as amaranth, hemp seeds, mung beans, fava beans and chickpeas, while other companies like St. Louis-based EverGrain are creating an upcycled highly-soluble protein that contains 85% protein from upcycled barley and rice.

Products obtained from byproducts through upcycling can reduce food waste and food production costs.

Mechanical Innovations in Whole Muscle-Products

While many new technologies are emerging, extrusion remains the predominant method companies use for achieving whole muscle texturization.

Although still a long way from overcoming the engineering challenges needed for extrusion to become a major solution, the industry saw a number of advances in both wet and dry extrusion technology in 2021. For example, Givaudan teamed up with Buhler Group to open a plant-based innovation center in Singapore that uses wet and dry extrusion technologies to produce 40 kilograms of plant protein per hour, according to GFI.

Buhler also partnered with the German Institute of Food Technologies to unveil a new center for proteins in Germany, which will reportedly provide state-of-the-art research testing and production infrastructure for extruded plant proteins.

Although extrusion remains an efficient process for restructuring products like plant-based burgers and sausages, its capacity to form long fibers that are found in animal meat is limited and companies have therefore begun searching for novel methods of texturization, including 3D printing.

Last year, companies like Savor Meat and Redefine Meat began developing or launching 3D-printed plant-based products. For example, Redefine Meat launched five new 3-D printed meat products in Israeli restaurants in 2021.

“3D printing can improve manipulating precision and flexibility, enabling the fabrication of really sophisticated products that mimic whole cut muscle meats,” explained Panescu.

Looking Ahead

As a whole, investment in alternative proteins reached $5 billion last year, nearly doubling investments to date and bringing total investments to $11 billion. According to GFI, the United States accounted for 99% percent of investments in 2015, while in 2021 it only accounted for 56% percent of investments, marking an important shift in geographic diversification.

“[This] really demonstrates the central position that alternative proteins hold for investors when they’re considering the future of food,” said Sharyn Murray, GFI’s senior investment engagement specialist.

Murray added that it is important to remember that alternative proteins remain a minuscule fraction of the trillions of dollars that have been invested globally in climate technology companies. For example, private capital in earlier-stage electric transportation companies was six times greater than investments in alternative proteins, according to GFI.

Looking ahead, the biggest opportunities in the plant-based food category lie in taste and price improvement. Plant-based food products are currently at a premium compared to animal-based products and, on average, plant-based meat is twice as expensive per pound as its traditional counterpart, according to GFI.

The total number of total households purchasing plant-based foods in the U.S. rose from 60.7% in 2020 to 61.5% percent in 2021. Additionally, 54 million U.S. households now purchase plant-based milk, according to GFI. Lowering costs and improving upon taste would likely accelerate further consumer growth for the alternative protein industry.