Fuji Oil to open first European R&D center to drive plant-based protein transition

03 Aug 2021 --- Fuji Oil Holdings, headquartered in Osaka, Japan, has established its fourth R&D center, which is also the first to be based in Europe. The move further enhances the company’s plans to enhance its R&D capabilities in plant-based innovation and expand its global ecosystem.

Dr. Liz Kamei, currently director of open innovation and external partnerships at Fuji Europe Africa, has been appointed as the head of the new center, based on the Wageningen Campus in the heart of the Dutch Food Valley.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Kamei says the company can play a part in solving social issues through supporting the “protein transition” through plant-based food ingredients. 

“Our aim is two-fold. We want to be in a position to partner with companies that can provide us with complementary technologies. We want to identify opportunities where the oils, fats and protein technologies that we have developed in our home markets provide plant-based food solutions to food industry partners.”

GIVE will operate an open innovation approach to R&D.Spotlight on Dutch Food Valley region
By having a base in the Dutch Food Valley region, Fuji Oil we will have increased access to the technical trends and innovations that are impacting global food systems. 

“In particular, we will be able to highlight the innovations that are driving the protein transition and growth in the plant-based food market,” says Kamei. 

Fuji Oil’s Global Innovation Center Europe (GICE) was established on April 1 and made preparations to open its office in the Plus Ultra II building, a development from Kadans Science Partner, in late September 2021. 

“The Dutch Food Valley region and Wageningen University are at the leading edge of technology developments in mild, sustainable processing and plant-based foods, which will be the main focus of GICE,” Kamei outlines. 

Innovating with soy
The company has over 50 years of experience working with soy protein and understands its functionality and breadth of applications. 

According to Kamei, soy is “an excellent ingredient and not easy to replace by other proteins.”

She believes that the experience gained working with soy and innovating both technologies and products for this material gives Fuji Oil the tools that can be applied to other plant proteins of interest. 

“Further, we can work with partners with common ambitions and complementary technologies to expand the range of plant protein solutions that are available,” she adds. 

“Although the globalization of our R&D organization has been planned for some time, the rapid pace of innovation in plant-based foods and ingredients makes it an exciting time for us to locate in Europe. It will also make it easier for the scientists at our European-based clients to interact with the group’s R&D. Through such interactions, we will initiate more collaboration and co-creation.”

A European hub Fuji Oil Group is a B2B manufacturer of food ingredients.From the start, Fuji Oil envisioned the center to open the door for innovation and external partnering. 

“The concept is to build a small agile team and a strong ecosystem of potential partners in Europe so that we are in a position to identify and evaluate opportunities for sustainable and mild processing and other technologies that will have a positive impact on the food industry,” explains Kamei. 

“Being located on the Wageningen Campus will speed up this process enormously. In addition, we don’t intend to have extensive lab facilities for the first few years as we believe we can best utilize what is already available in the Food Valley region.”

“Until now, we have been in a preparatory phase. Now our physical location on the Wageningen Campus has been decided, we can bring the team together on one site,” she adds. 

“Further, being located here means that we are better able to understand the needs of European customers and consumers and integrate their needs into our innovation activities.”

Experts at GICE will work with partners from academia and industry in consortia or one-to-one projects to identify, evaluate and speed up the deployment of new technologies that align with the group’s ambitions to contribute to resolving social issues. 

By Elizabeth Green