CANADA — Above Food Corp, a first-of-its-kind, vertically integrated, plant-based food company, has opened a new gluten-free ingredient development, processing and packaging facility in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Known as the Above Food Ingredient Centre, the new facility is expected to serve as “the heart” of the company’s future product innovations and gluten-free ingredient processing.
It offers scaled technologies for various operations and delivers proprietary ingredient platforms to transform proteins into higher-value flours, fibers, starches and texturized ingredients.
Other notable features of the new Centre include purpose built high-capacity bulk handling of more than 100 million pounds per year, as well as high-velocity packaging capabilities for ingredient and consumer packaged goods customers.
It immediately elevates Above Food’s Specialty Ingredients division within the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry, while further differentiating the company’s CPG brands on grocery store shelves.
“Our center is world-class, representing what we at Above Food envision as the future of food,” said Mike Marshall, president of Above Food Specialty Ingredients.
“It bolsters our specialty ingredients capabilities and enables us to help customers accelerate ingredient innovation. This is a significant growth opportunity for Above Food to expand our customer reach and bring more value to all crops in regenerative agriculture rotations.”
Lionel Kambeitz, chief executive officer of Above Food, added, “ Our Specialty Ingredients division is immediately bolstered by the opening of the center, allowing us to handle products, ingredients and packaging of all sizes.”
Above Food has a complete chain of custody of plant proteins, enabled by scaled operations and infrastructure in primary agriculture and processing. it delivers food to businesses and consumers with unparalleled traceability, quantifiable sustainability, and superior nutrient density.
The company offers a range of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy alternatives under the consumer-facing Eat Up!, New Ocean and Culcherd brands. It also sells grains, seeds and legumes under the Farmer Direct Organic brand.
This is the most recent of Above Food’s investments to up its specialty ingredients division, private labeled products and branded CPG manufacturing.
Recently it acquired NorQuin, a vertically integrated producer of quinoa. This came just a few months after it acquired Sonic Milling Systems, a food technology company focused on developing disruptive processing techniques to sustainably create plant-based ingredients and products.
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