Using collaboration to sustainably step into a new market

Griffith Foods has been in the agri-food business for a long time. Over the past century, the company has been using innovative, scientific solutions to help their food industry clients take their products to the next level.

One area the company has only recently stepped into, however, is the flexitarian market. While Griffith Foods has been a player in the plant-based protein market for several years, it wasn’t until the initiation of their partnership with Persall Fine Foods and k2MILLING that the company delved into working on plant-protein ingredients that could be incorporated within meat processing infrastructure.

“Alternative protein is a key strategic goal for us as we move into a future of increasing pressure to feed the growing population,” Griffith Foods Director of Product and Process Innovation Joachim Baur said. “We are already a player within the alternative proteins market, but more from a flavouring and mouth-feel perspective with our seasoning, binding and yield management technologies. With the development and delivery of key texturized protein blends, we will be able to provide a complete solution to the industry.”

Griffith Foods’ partnership with Persall Fine Foods and k2MILLING was announced in August 2020, as part of a $1.2 million co-investment with Protein Industries Canada. Work on the project is underway, with Griffith Foods planning to use Persall Fine Foods’ oil seed meal cakes and k2MILLING’s milling process to create ingredients that will help protein processors enter the growing flexitarian market. The whole process, while innovative for the three partners and the meat sector, also provides a new market option for plant-protein processors.

“Both Persall and k2MILLING provide us with an opportunity to valorize a co-product stream currently diverted to the animal feed sector,” Baur said. “This resonates with our sustainability platform and our purpose to Blend Care and Creativity to Nourish the World.”

This valorization is the aspect the company is most looking forward to. The reason, Baur explained, is that it will allow the valorized co-products to stream into functional and nutritious food ingredients, helping the company deliver to the Health and Nutrition market segments. Additionally, it will provide a new opportunity for one of Griffith Foods’ well-established client base—the meat processing sector—to convert part of their production cycle into the growing flexitarian market.

Not that this won’t come with its challenges. Baur said the biggest we anticipate will be delivering texturized plant protein that delivers all around performance, processing simplicity and efficiency, excellence in application characteristics – flavour, texture, appearance, and solid nutritional content. Baur described this as a “lofty goal, but well worth the challenge.”

In the end, Baur explained, this challenge and any others Griffith Foods comes across throughout the project will only help it further achieve its ultimate goal as a company: “Strengthening our sustainability focus and working with the agricultural supply chain to help deliver nutrition solutions from field to fork. This is living our purpose!”