VTT develops plant ingredient processing routes

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and seven Finnish food companies have completed a three-year programme aimed at making plant-based ingredient production more commercially viable. The €3 million RETHINK project has produced processing methods, product concepts and business-model work intended to extract more value from oats, legumes and the side streams created when plant raw materials are fractionated.

The Business Finland-funded programme ran from June 2023 to August 2026 and involved VTT alongside Anora, Apetit, Fazer, Helsingin Mylly, Raisio, Valio and Viking Malt. Rather than concentrating only on protein yield, the project examined how several fractions from the same raw material could be directed towards higher-value uses while matching processing technology more closely to ingredient and market requirements.

That approach addresses a persistent weakness in plant-protein economics. Peas, beans and cereals may be processed primarily for protein, but carbohydrates, fibre and other fractions account for much of the original material. When those co-products are sold into low-value outlets, the main ingredient still has to carry a large share of the plant’s capital, energy and operating costs.

RETHINK therefore focused on processes that improve the value or functionality of multiple fractions. VTT developed enzyme-assisted methods intended to reduce chemical use and modify ingredient performance, alongside a pretreatment technique designed to limit the off-flavours associated with legume proteins. Lowering those sensory barriers could widen the applications available to pea, bean and other legume ingredients without relying as heavily on masking systems.

The programme also produced a patented method for concentrating and applying oat beta-glucan. The work is intended to allow dietary fibre to be incorporated into liquid products while retaining the fibre and keeping the product pourable rather than creating a paste-like texture. That is a practical processing problem because higher fibre levels can raise viscosity and complicate pumping, mixing, heat treatment and filling.

Valio and Viking Malt used the programme to develop a germinated faba-bean protein granule aimed at plant-based and hybrid meat products. Germination is familiar to the malting sector, but applying that knowledge to pulses offers a way to modify raw-material functionality before final formulation. The collaboration combines crop and process expertise with the product-development requirements of a large food manufacturer.

Another strand supported the development of Happy Plant Protein, a VTT spin-off commercialising a process that separates protein from carbohydrates and texturises the protein in a single process step. VTT says the technology has progressed towards commercial readiness and is being used in industrial production projects in Latvia and the Netherlands. Combining separation and texturisation is intended to reduce process complexity compared with routes that treat the operations separately.

The engineering question behind these developments is how much processing is needed to make a plant ingredient commercially useful. Highly refined isolates can provide concentrated protein, but each additional separation, washing, drying or texturisation stage adds equipment, energy, water and yield losses. A process that preserves functionality with fewer stages, or generates saleable co-products alongside the main ingredient, can improve plant economics without depending entirely on a higher protein price.

Raw-material geography adds another constraint. Finland has established oat production, pulse cultivation and a significant food-processing base, but local ingredient production still needs predictable crop volumes, consistent specifications and dependable markets. RETHINK’s business work treated farming, ingredient manufacture, food production, investment and demand as parts of the same system rather than assuming that a technically successful fractionation process would automatically support an investable plant.

The application mix is also widening. Plant-derived ingredients are no longer confined to products marketed as direct meat or dairy substitutes. Protein, fibre and carbohydrate fractions can be used in hybrid meat products, beverages, bakery, snacks and conventional foods where manufacturers want specific nutritional or functional properties. That increases the number of possible outlets for fractions that previously had limited value.

The programme does not turn every development into an immediate production line. Several methods will still require scale-up, customer validation and investment before they reach broad commercial use, while the economics will vary by raw material, plant design and target product. The value of the programme lies in connecting those technical choices with the commercial requirement to use more of each incoming crop.

RETHINK leaves a defined set of development routes rather than a general call for more plant-protein capacity: an oat beta-glucan process, legume flavour pretreatment, a germinated faba-bean application, a simplified separation and texturisation route, and business-model work built around fuller use of raw materials. Their next test will be whether those routes can deliver repeatable specifications and sufficient product value at industrial throughput.