Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GreenProtein (Revalorisation of vegetable processing industry remnants into high-value functional proteins and other food ingredients)

Teaser

The EU28 imports 77% of the protein it requires, for food or feed, representing an important vulnerability for our economy, risking our self-sufficiency and food security. Food waste is a top issue, representing losses costing €442/ton of produced food material, plus...

Summary

The EU28 imports 77% of the protein it requires, for food or feed, representing an important vulnerability for our economy, risking our self-sufficiency and food security. Food waste is a top issue, representing losses costing €442/ton of produced food material, plus environmental and ethical problems in EU.

GreenProtein aims at a major innovation for these two needs by producing high-added value, food-grade and fully functional proteins and other ingredients, out of vegetable residues from the packed salad processing. The main outcome will be the revalorization of 74 million kg of discards into a protein gel containing 12.5% of RuBisCO, ready to enter into food industry production chains as an alternative of the widely extended egg white preparations or whey protein. GreenProtein will achieve production of 128 Kg of gel protein, plus several other ingredients, per ton of residue at competitive price and constant year round production. We are the first team worldwide, covering the whole food chain, to design an extraction system of functional RuBisCO.

The gel protein has top valuable functionalities required in food industry, such as gelling, foaming or emulsifying. The outcomes have excellent market projection due to their application in growing consumer needs like high-protein foodstuff, vegan, halal, etc.

Establishing this DEMO plant will allow fine-tuning the extraction process at industrial scale in order to define the optimal conditions for industrial manufacture. It will be built in a marine container, costing €900K, ready to be “plugged” to a vegetable industry production line, an easily replicable system with a high spreading projection in whole EU.

Work performed

During this first period (M1 - M18) significant progress has been done.

Technical progress: The extraction process of fuctional RuBisCo has been validated in a continuous operation. The pilot plant has been installed and tested at industrial location. Furthermore, during this period, we have certified the quality and functionality of the protein.

Commercial progress: The consortium has gained valuable insight into the market of alternative plant proteins. Also, an EFSA procedure for the acceptance of RuBisCo for novel food has been initiated.

Communication progress: A full visual identity has been developed and put in place and a project website has been designed and launched (www.greenproteinproject.eu). A communication and exploitation plan has been developed. During these 18 months GreenProtein consortium members have attended to high level conferences and fairs to communicate project progress and preliminary results.

Final results

To date, the project has already significantly contributed to a better understanding of the RuBisCo extraction process. The optimisation of the chemical and physical process parameters has increased the Rubisco yield with more than 40%.
First larger model tests with Rubisco from vegetables by-product show excellent functionality at 50% lower protein concentration compared to current alternative ingredients.
In the coming months we will finalise the full design of the DEMO plant, this will be an unique industrial extraction process that provides a significant progress in the state of the art.
This project has the potential to significantly impact the European society since it acts in two areas.
European protein – GreenProtein will provide a new source of protein, decreasing the external dependency on non-EU imported proteins.
Vegetal protein – As a new source of non-animal protein, GreenProtein will contribute to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the production of animal protein.
Reduction of Food Waste and promotion of circular economy – The green discards which are used as raw material for our extraction process are currently a waste. Therefore, our project also contributes to decrease food waste and to promote the principles of circular economy.

Website & more info

More info: http://greenproteinproject.eu.