In what’s known as the ‘second moment of truth,’ consumers rarely buy products a second time if they don’t taste good the first time: https://observer.com/2023/06/an-agri-tech-ceo-explains-the-rise-and-fall-of-plant-based-alternatives/

Article: https://www.saiti.ca/success-stories

Here’s how one company uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to help farmers conserve water, while a pea protein producer taps an innovative method to create a more sustainable product.

Read More: https://www.foodbeverageinsider.com/sustainability/new-tech-innovations-drive-sustainability-agriculture-pea-protein

PIP International is making a significant contribution the world by promoting individual wellness in a way that is open to everyone:

https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/christine-lewington-always-choose-quality-over-anything-else-especially-for-food/article#ixzz7rthBKCgR

People around the world are increasingly searching for alternatives to animal-based proteins. Globally, the alternative protein market is projected to grow from 13 million metric tons of consumption per annum to 97 million metric tons by 2035, worth USD $290bn.

Many of those products will derive their protein from pulses such as beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils, which are packed with nutrients and cheap to produce.

As the world’s largest exporter of pulses, Canada has a natural leading role to play in this market.

People around the world are increasingly searching for alternatives to animal-based proteins. Globally, the alternative protein market is projected to grow from 13 million metric tons of consumption per annum to 97 million metric tons by 2035, worth USD $290bn.

Many of those products will derive their protein from pulses such as beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils, which are packed with nutrients and cheap to produce.

As the world’s largest exporter of pulses, Canada has a natural leading role to play in this market.

Yellow field peas have potential to become a hot commodity in the specialty crops world.

PIP International, an agricultural technology company in Alberta, has developed a new method of extraction of pea protein which CEO Christine Lewington believes will revolutionize plant-based proteins and result in more opportunities for farmers to market their yellow pea crop.

The company’s protein extraction process, which is significantly different from other protein extraction processes that other companies use, comes from the pharmaceutical industry, Lewington said. Her company used technology from the pharmaceutical industry, applied a “twist” on it and built its own equipment to extract the pea protein.

PIP International, which plans to contract for acreage with farmers in Saskatchewan and western North Dakota, has a $20 million pilot pea processing plant in Lethbridge, Alberta, which was in part funded by a $1 million grant from the Alberta government. PIP International plans to begin construction on a $150 million processing plant in the next few months.

The company has the ability to expand to process 126,000 metric tons of yellow peas per year which would be the highest capacity of any facility in the world.

The company’s unique process has caught the eye of 39 private food companies that are negotiating with PIP International for use of its product, the company said.

The company’s process to extract the protein results in a product that has a “good clean taste” that is unlike any other pea proteins, which aren’t always palatable, Lewington said.

“They smell bad. They taste bad. They look bad,” she said.

The pea protein will be highly functional for use across all sectors, including beverages, Lewington said.

“For farmers, I can now give them a long-term contract to grow my peas,” she said.

PIP International is in the process of negotiating contracts, which are well above the market price of $10.50 per bushel in Canadian currency, with North Dakota farmers.

Raising niche crops has potential to provide opportunities for small farmers to stay viable, Overby said.

He also believes it could provide young people, who want to grow their crops sustainably and connect with consumers a less costly way to get into farming.

“The opportunities are better now than I’ve seen in my 30 years of farming and I hope they continue in North Dakota,” Overby said.

To the meat lovers’ chagrin, the verdict is that – animal-based foods contribute twice as much to global greenhouse gas emissions as plant-based foods do. According to a study in Nature Food, 57% of total emissions result from animal-based food production.

Some types of production are more to blame than others. Beef production, for example, accounts for a quarter of all animal-based food-related emissions. Hence, navigating away from animal-based food production towards plant-based, seems a viable way to reduce the emissions from our overall food production industry.

Still, there are plenty of challenges on that road ahead. Rising costs of production and the negative public perception that plant-based alternatives seldomly taste as good as animal-based foods top the list of challenges needed to be solved by plant-based food manufacturers.

Christine Lewington is tackling these and other issues. As the founder and CEO ofPIP International, an Agri-tech company based in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, she has more than twenty years of experience in the industry. With her team at PIP International, she’s solving some of the biggest problems facing the plant-based protein industry.

“We chose to focus on yellow peas as they provide a near perfect amino-acid profile and have the best nutritional profile of legume options. Still, it’s not the king of everything. People don’t like it,” she explains. “And the driving reason for the dislike is the bad taste. If you’ve ever tasted pea protein, the harsh bitterness will stop you from coming back for more. I knew if we could solve the taste, the colour and not damage the protein when extracting it, then the major problems with pea protein would be gone, thereby creating limitless opportunity.”

The solution she found will revolutionize the plant-based protein world. Thanks to a novel extraction process developed by a European tech house, PIP International has managed to produce the world’s first tasteless, colourless and easiest to use yellow pea protein isolate.

“Our new extraction process leaves the protein undamaged so that we deliver our pea isolate to companies in a near-natural state,” Christine Lewington explains. “Our in-house product development team has easily created ice cream, fudge, biscuits, beverages, cheese spreads, coffee creamers and more. All of them taste great, because our protein has a neutral taste and is easy to use.”

PIP International’s breakthrough comes at a critical moment. With the world’s population reaching eight billion and, on its way to hitting the ten-billion mark in the next few decades, ramping up food production to keep the current consumption levels will be challenging. For protein specifically, the situation is even direr, as any increase in animal-based food production puts the world further off course from meeting greenhouse gas emission targets.

“The world is in already in protein crisis and we need significantly more,” says Christine Lewington. “The search for viable protein sources is crucial. We’re offering a protein isolate that won’t turn off customers after their first taste, as most current products do. Plant-based products need to taste great so they come back for more!”

Besides solving the taste issue, PIP International has also successfully created its pea protein isolate at a lower cost. Through a combination of cross-industry production processes, the company’s cost-saving methods allows it to offer their protein at lower than market pricing.

“Innovations have allowed us to reduce processing time, save significant energy costs, and produce a plant-protein with flexible attributes, thanks to new technologies,” Christine Lewington explains. “The result is a premium product without the premium price.”

PIP International has already been getting plenty of attention. In less than 12 months, the company has reached $7 million in orders and catapulted from being a PowerPoint presentation a $30 million production facility. The plan is to grow steady but aggressively – the demand is growing, the product is excellent, and investors and potential buyers have been flocking to the company. The company already has support from the Canadian government.
“We have a strong interest from Korea, too – their government is looking for alternatives to soy protein, and our pea protein product caught their eye,” Christine Lewington explains. “But that’s to be expected – the need for quality plant-based protein exists worldwide, so any company willing to rise to the challenge of producing it needs to think and act internationally.”

So far, Christine Lewington and PIP International have had their premium protein evaluated by dozens of companies, with all of them coming back to strike a deal. With the large-scale production facility on track to open in 2024, PIP International will be able to position itself as one of the leading actors in the market. The product is there, as is the low cost of production.

“We like to say that we’ve cracked the code with our pea protein and created something the world needs and at a price that doesn’t make it prohibitive to use” Christine Lewington. “By pairing the great taste with an affordability advantage, we are on the leading edge for our yellow pea protein isolate to revolutionize the plant-based food industry.”

Thanks to PIP (Protein Isolate Plant) International’s disruptive technology, it’s pea protein is set to be the market leader. The technology has finally cracked the code on pea protein’s poor taste, colour, texture and compromised performance. It aims to drive industry standards… Read More: Page 98