An Ontario-based company has developed a technology to produce soy protein for the plant-based food and ingredients sector.
New Protein Global’s proprietary and trademarked extraction process, BioPur, uses a 100 per cent bio-based solvent to press oil from soybeans, replacing a widely used compound called hexane.
Why it matters: The food industry has been seeking an alternative to hexane, a byproduct of gasoline refining used to separate oil from protein during processing.
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“As consumers are looking upstream and asking what is in their food and their supply chain, they are becoming aware of this compound and there’s not been a real alternative for it until now,” says Graham Markham, chief development officer with New Protein Global.
“It’s everywhere in the soy protein industry, and we have developed this clean, green technology that will help meet consumer demand for healthy, sustainable plant-based foods and ingredients.”
New Protein Global expects to soon bring a demonstration-scale processing facility online, where it will test, refine and optimize BioPur, which incorporates CO2 extraction and bio-based solvents.
BioPur uses a cold press oil extraction technology that keeps the protein in its native form and removes more oil than traditional pressing. The company says this offers purer soy protein concentrates and isolates with better functionality, neutral flavours and odours.
Working with partners Huron Commodities and Hensall Co-op, the initial focus will be on identity preserved soybeans, which represent about one million of Ontario’s approximately four million acres of production.
“This will be the first site that features our technology and we’ll be taking raw Ontario soybeans and producing a number of intermediate products, specifically dehulled and split soybeans, full fat soy flakes, and defatted soy flour and meal,” Markham says.
“By co-locating with an upstream soybean supplier who works directly with Ontario growers, we have made the distance from soybean to finished product as short as possible and 100 per cent traceable.”
According to the Grain Farmers of Ontario, over half of Ontario’s soybeans are exported and the increase in local processing capacity will offer growers new domestic market opportunities. It may also offer the food industry a shorter, more stable supply chain.
New Protein Global received a $2.2 million contribution to the project from Protein Industries Canada, a supercluster supported by the federal government. More recently, Natural Products Canada has provided funds to support an innovation lab that will focus on developing and testing soybean varieties for new applications.
“Imagine a soybean that has higher protein levels or a more neutral profile to be used in things like baby formula or alternative meat supplements – this will be attractive to food formulators,” notes Markham.
The company says it will also be able to fashion products specifically aligned to the needs of major consumer packaged goods companies, like more gelation, greater viscosity or with different water-holding capacity, for example.
Long-term, the vision is to build Canada’s first soy protein manufacturing plant, a larger scale version of the demonstration facility, that will encompass the entire production process from bean to soy protein isolate product.
Although still a few years away, site selection, engineering and preparatory work has already been done. And with the global soy protein market expected to grow to a US$13.7 billion per year industry by 2028, a Canadian facility would help keep some value at home.
“This will be an absolute game changer for the industry in Ontario and Canada. Nobody produces soy protein in Ontario today and we import 100 per cent of our needs, so this will be a meaningful new domestic market for us,” Markham says, adding that soy alone represents more than half of Canada’s plant-based protein market.
“Soy is loved by food formulators and right now, the United States and China are major suppliers.”
Although the new demonstration-scale facility processes soybeans, the technology has application for other oilseed crops like canola, hemp, sunflower or flax, and the company may explore research and collaborations with partners in those industries.
