CANADA – Plant-based ingredient solutions provider, Ingredion Inc. has cut ribbon to its new production facility for flours and concentrates at its Canadian manufacturing assets in Vanscoy, Saskatchewan.
The pulse-based protein facility which was acquired from Verdient Foods in November 2020, currently produces flours and concentrates from pulses such as peas, lentils and fava beans that are sustainably sourced from North American farms.
The added capacity, which includes a new production line with proprietary processing technology, will enable food and beverage brands to answer consumer demand for sustainable, plant-based proteins in more of their branded products.
“Ingredion’s innovation team has worked hard to develop a new processing technology that will highly differentiate our products.
“We are thrilled to share this new capability with our customers to help them captivate consumers and pets with delicious products,” said Matthew Bennett, global director of strategic marketing at Ingredion.
Products will become available in the fourth quarter of 2021, reports Food Business News.
The facility expansion was supported through investments made by the Protein Industries Canada innovation supercluster, a member of the Ingredion group of companies.
Obtained as part of the November 2020 Verdient acquisition, Ingredion’s Vanscoy expansion builds upon its position in plant proteins, including pea protein isolates and starches produced in its South Sioux City, Nebraska facility.
Both the facilities have a food safety management system that is certified against the Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000) scheme.
Ingredion and S&W Seed company enter supply agreement for US stevia production
Meanwhile, Ingredion has entered into an exclusive US stevia pilot production supply agreement with S&W Seed Company, a global integrated agricultural seed technology company.
Under the terms of the agreement, S&W will leverage its proprietary stevia plant portfolio and production techniques to supply Ingredion and its PureCircle by Ingredion group of companies, with high-quality, U.S.-sourced stevia plants.
Stevia is a zero-calorie, plant-based sweetener of natural origin, up to 350 times sweeter than sugar, and found in more than 30,000 food and beverage products globally.
The size of the global stevia market is estimated to grow to $1.6B by 2028 according to LEK and Ingredion’s internal analysis.
Currently, due to historical constraints with climate and harvesting techniques, the vast majority of stevia is produced outside the United States.
This agreement represents the third major development to Ingredion’s stevia business in the last 14 months.
Last July, Ingredion acquired a controlling stake in PureCircle (now PureCircle by Ingredion), and earlier this year the company announced a joint venture with Amyris to exclusively offer Fermented Sugarcane Reb M as part of its expanded stevia portfolio.
PureCircle by Ingredion is the only stevia ingredient supplier to offer all major stevia production technologies (stevia from extraction, fermentation and bioconversion).
Ingredion continues to invest in the future of sugar reduction innovation, inclusive of its stevia sweeteners and flavor modifiers.
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