The new plant - one of a handful of new pea protein manufacturing facilities coming online in 2019, with Roquette, ADM and PURIS/Cargill all adding new capacity - features technology that provides “unprecedented control over the processing environment,” claimed Farbest’s president and chairman Daniel M. Meloro, who said this would enable Farbest to meet demand for cleaner tasting protein.
“The new plant gives us significantly more volume to meet any customer demand.”
Michael Sutich, senior product manager for pea protein at Farbest Brands, told FoodNavigator-USA: “Globally speaking pea protein supply and demand are in balance; however, Farbest has been seeing the market move to higher quality pea protein which is in tight supply, particularly clean tasting pea protein with low allergen claims from soy and gluten.”
He added: “Farbest has been working with Jianyuan to augment their supply of this top grade pea protein, the launch of their second production site is the result of this collaboration. This second factory easily allows Farbest to satisfy the demand for higher quality product for the next few years.”
Asked about flavor in the pea protein market, he said: “Farbest customers have said they still prefer the clean flavor of the Jianyuan pea protein over competitors products, even as the industry has improved flavor and eliminated off-notes. New technologies available at the second facility, will allow Farbest to further tailor product to customers’ applications and tastes.”
Right now, the most popular applications for pea protein include nutritional beverages (ready to drink and powdered), nutrition bars, cereals and snacks, dairy, bakery and meat analogs, he said.
“Farbest is part of development work in several new confidential categories with product launches planned in 2019.”
