Entering the texturized wheat protein space
05 Mar 2019 | Beneo
Beneo has inaugurated its new Belgium-based BioWanze plant for texturized wheat protein (TWP), in cooperation with fellow Südzucker Group subsidiary CropEnergies. The move follows an investment of €4.3 million. BioWanze is a daughter company of CropEnergies and is the largest producer of bio-ethanol in Belgium. When running at full capacity, the plant will be capable of producing enough TWP to create 1 million vegetarian burger patties per day.
This is Rob Wires in Wans in Belgium, and I'm here with Christoph Boudge from Benio.
Christoph, you, you've officially inaugurated a new textured wheat protein facility today.
What, what, what exactly is, is this plant that you're having and how does it fit within your strategy?
Yeah, thank you.
We are pleased to announce today the inauguration, of an, installation of a plant, for textured wheat protein.
It's the first of its kind for Suzuku root for Beneo.
We have installed this new facility, at the premises of our sister company Crop Energies, in Vans.
To avoid, long transportation of raw material, and to be close to the raw material, with the process.
Texturized wheat protein is a very nice and interesting, extension of our portfolio, in the domain of functionalized pro , functional proteins.
By, texturizing, wheat protein, we make it even more, useful, for the consumers, or for the customers, especially in the arena of, meat substitutes.
This is obviously a very growing area and there's a huge rise in these so-called flexitarians.
You see, you see this really as a market for the future.
We see a strong growth in the, in the market for plant-based proteins.
Consumers are getting more and more aware of alternatives towards meat protein.
If you take, for example, countries like UK or Germany, in the last 5 years, the number of people using, , vegetable proteins, has doubled.
If you go to other countries, there are even growth rates, for, 2/3 or 3/4 of the population.
How important is this pillar for, for proteins going to become for Benio and how do you see that kind of evolving because you really Have several years ago, you really evolved from the so-called purely functional carbohydrate, supplier to, to looking a little bit more holistically through the gluten space and now, and now we're really within wheat proteins as.
Yeah, next to our functional carbohydrates and our functional fibers, we have the range of of, of rice ingredients and the range of functional proteins, where we started, some years ago, by wheat protein.
In the meantime, with this, installation here, we have, we are able to add, even more, texture to the protein, than in the past, which means, the technical applicability, is even improved.
And, Which, which type of applications do you see particular potential for it?
The product is very interesting for, all kinds of meat substitutes, especially sausages, burgers, or even, bolognese like, meat preparations.
OK, so many, many different options there to target this, the so-called flexitarian.
A lot, a lot of different options, and we see a huge interest in the market for these options and a much higher readiness of consumers compared to the past to enter into these alternatives.
Christoph, thank you very much.
