Nutrition labelling goal posts are on the move P.6
New growth avenues
Rising global demand for plant proteins opens up new export markets for Canada P.10
Safe and tasty
A multi-tech approach helps preserve beverages P.13
Just’s plant-based egg brand is on a roll with several product launches P. 8
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FEATURES
8 Eat Just’s mission
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Vol. 1, No. 1 foodincanada.com
The company is disrupting the market with its plant-based ‘meat’ offerings
A multi-tech approach is key to preserving drinks 8 10 13
10 Exporting Canadian value-added pulses
Market demand for plant proteins is opening new growth avenues for pulse processors
13
Solving food safety challenges in beverages
DEPARTMENTS
NEWS
4 Protein Industries Canada announces a new project to enhance Canada’s plant-based cheese market, Above Food partners with Umiami to reproduce whole-cut ‘meat’ analogues, Roquette opens the world’s largest pea protein plant in Manitoba, McCain Foods acquires minority stake in Strong Roots, and more
REGULATORY AFFAIRS
6 Nutrition labelling goal posts are on the move
> Protein Industries Canada (PIC) announces a new project that will leverage the combined strengths of Lumi Foods, Winecrush Technology and Save-On-Foods to enhance Canada’s plant-based cheese market. This includes developing new products, as well as giving them a more prominent placement in grocery stores.
The project partners will use Lumi Foods’ cultured cheese-making methods to create a new line of plant-based
cheeses that are made from Canadian-grown crops, including oats, legumes and pulses.
Once developed, the plant-based cheeses will be sold in Save-On-Foods locations across Canada. To help ensure the plant-based cheeses are shelfstable for longer lengths of time, Winecrush Technology will test shelf-extending ingredients in the recipes, including dietary fibre and unsaturated fatty acids.
> Above Food Corp., a vertically integrated plant-based food company, is partnering with Umiami , a Francebased food technology company focusing on reproducing whole-cut ‘meat’ and ‘fish’, made from plants. Through this partnership, Above Food and Umiami will be collaborating on research and development featuring a variety of Above Food’s proprietary protein ingredients and scaling
production processes for the development of texturized whole-cut meat and fish analogues.
> Roquette opens the world’s largest pea protein plant in Portage la Prairie, Man. The new plant gives Roquette the largest pea protein supply in the world.
“We see this as a transformational event in our history and a boost to the global plant-based food sector,” said
Protein Industries Canada project seeks to enhance Canada’s plant-based cheese market.
Roquette opens the world’s largest pea protein plant in Manitoba.
Pierre Courduroux, CEO of Roquette. “Diets have changed considerably in recent years, and the desire for alternative proteins continues to grow. Our company is proud to bring this amazing new facility online to serve demand in North America and around the world.”
The 200,000-sf plant has the capacity to process 125,000 tons of yellow peas per year. When combined with Roquette’s plant in France, the company’s capacity now rises to 250,000 tons of peas per year.
> Strong Roots, a plant-based frozen food company and McCain Foods announce a strategic partnership, with McCain Foods investing USD55 million in Strong Roots to take a minority stake in the business.
> Lupin Platform, Inc., Hensall Co-op, Lumi Foods and Puris have come together to establish an integrated ecosystem to increase the production of, and processing of lupin, in Canada.
The $7.3-million project will develop a lupin supply and value chain.
The consortium, with each member representing a link in the value chain, will focus on identifying the lupin varieties that are best suited for Canadian growing conditions, developing and improving seed cleaning and processing technologies (Hensall Co-op), determining the value of lupin’s co-products, and creating new food formulations and products (Lumi Foods and Puris).
McCain Foods invests in Strong Roots. A $7.3-million seeks to increase the production and processing of lupin.
Strong Roots and McCain Foods will work together to leverage both companies’ complementary strengths to continue Strong Roots’ rapid growth and further its mission to “fix the freezer aisle” and provide plant-based, environmentally responsible, positive food choices, for everyone. Strong Roots will continue to operate in an independent capacity.
> Barentz has been appointed as the exclusive North American distributor for ACT Polyols (ACT), a Pakistan-based manufacturer of Non-GMO Project Verified and Certified Organic rice-derived sweeteners and proteins. Available in organic and conventional grades, ACT’s sweeteners and protein isolates can be found in a variety of products including beverages, desserts, confectionery, energy bars, baked goods and dietary supplements.
Nutrition labelling goal posts are on the move
Gary Gnirss
Canada’s first mandatory nutrition labelling regulations were registered in 2002. Companies were offered three- and five-year transition periods. The regulations come under federal authority via the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) and apply to all prepackaged food unless exemptions or alternative methods of providing nutrition information are relevant.
The term, “prepackaged,” includes both consumer and non-consumer packaged food. In 2016, Health Canada finalized amendments to FDR that would modernize nutrition labelling in Canada. A five-year transition period was given, which ended on December 14, 2021. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which governs and enforces food labelling, has extended the transition period until December 14, 2022, for “compliance education and promotion”.
CFIA may grant additional time, not exceeding December 14, 2023, for those who plan to bring labelling, including new ingredient labelling rules, into compliance after December 14, 2022. The extension is largely due to the pandemic. During the transition period Canadian consumers will observe labels with the new and former nutrition facts table (NFts).
NFt rules
Despite an NFt being a box of numbers, many rules govern the display of data. It is blueprinted with little room for discretion. This is intended to achieve uniformity among labelled prepackaged foods. It might be surprising to know that the manner in which nutrient values are acquired (i.e. chemical analysis and/or calculated via nutrient data) is not prescribed. Neither is accuracy since FDR does not prescribe tolerances for nutrient values. CFIA has developed a Nutrition Labelling Compliance Test to gauge assurance and compliance. Regardless of how the numbers are acquired, manufacturers will be responsible for demonstrating their accuracy.
Health Canada is planning to amend FDR in order to modernize food labelling in Canada.
Canadian rules on selecting an NFt can be complex. There are 34 NFt categories, and some have subcategories in the Directory of Nutrition Facts Table Formats, which is incorporated by reference (IbR) via FDR.
The former and new rules are both prescriptive in the case of a single-serving prepackaged food. The new rules are more streamlined. Packages less than 200 per cent of the applicable reference amount (RA) are deemed single serving. It is also possible to consider a package with 200 per cent or more of RA as single serving if the content can be reasonably consumed by an individual in one sitting.
Differences
However, the former and new rules differ when it comes to multiple-serving food. The former rules left the decision of what is reasonable to manufacturers. The new rules prescribe how to determine serving size and how to declare that in an NFt. As a result, the new rules bring even more uniformity to nutrition labelling. For example, all multiple-serving soda beverages will have a serving size of “1 1/ 2 cup (375 ml)”. All slice bread will be
Despite an NFt being a box of numbers, many rules govern the display of information.
two slices, regardless of the weight of a slice. Manufacturers must now find their food listing and reference amounts and how to declare the serving in the Table of Reference Amounts for Food. This is simple if the food is easily found, but sometimes there might be two or more possible categories, or it may not be on the list.
Once a manufacturer has recruited nutrient data, determined an eligible NFt format and figured out an applicable RA, they can start populating the NFt with accurate numbers. There are some complex and convoluted rounding rules to consider. For example, the amount of trans fat may not be rounded to zero when it is 0.049 g or more when the food based on its serving size and applicable RA is not free of trans fat. This also means the food is low in saturated fat. It’s not always easy rounding to zero in Canada. Certain nutrients like fat, sugars, fibre,
sodium, potassium, calcium and iron are required to declare a percent daily value (DV). The new rules have updated these values too. All DVs are now rounded to the nearest one per cent. In the case of vitamins and minerals other than sodium, a manufacturer must first round the quantitative amount before calculating the percent DV. Accuracy also means rounding values as required.
Beyond the current transition period, Health Canada is already consulting on modernizing the Table of Reference Amounts for Food to add food categories that were previously omitted (i.e. edible insects), and to add clarity on different formats of food, (i.e. amounts used to make RA). Heath Canada is also looking at updating DVs for sodium and potassium among different age groups. The proposed DV for potassium for individuals aged four and above is 3,400 mg, which is down from 4,700 mg. The plan is to have this completed and transitioned by December 14, 2023.
Gary Gnirss is a partner and president of Legal Suites Inc., specializing in regulatory software and services. Contact him at president@legalsuites.com.
Eat Just’s mission
The company is disrupting the market with its plant-based ‘meat’ offerings
By Nithya Caleb
Founded in 2011, Eat Just is a food technology company with a mission to build a healthier, safer, and more sustainable food system. It has created a plant-based egg brand, Just Egg, and Good Meat, the world’s first-to-market meat made from animal cells.
The company’s expertise, from functionalizing plant proteins to culturing animal cells, is powered by a team of scientists and chefs spanning more than a dozen research disciplines. The company has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies,” Entrepreneur’s “100 Brilliant Companies,” CNBC’s “Disruptor 50” and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.
Just Egg, which was launched in Canada in 2021, has been named among Popular Science’s “100
Greatest Innovations” and Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas”, and the history-making debut of
Good Meat was heralded as one of 2020’s top scientific breakthroughs by The Guardian, Vox, and WIRED.
I spoke to the Matt Riley, SVP Global Partnerships, Eat Just, Inc., about Just Egg and the company’s future plans.
When was Eat Just started?
MR: Eat Just, Inc., was founded in 2011. After years of research and development, it commercialized its first-of-a-kind plant-based egg products and brought them to market across the U.S. in 2019. Just Egg’s toaster-ready folded product officially launched in Canada in March 2021, and was followed by the debut of its pourable version in October 2021.
What products do you sell and where?
MR: Pourable Just Egg and Just Egg Folded are available in the U.S. and Canada. Just Sous Vide Egg
Matt Riley
Photos
Bites is sold in the U.S. only. Eat Just also has Just Egg sales and distribution in China, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Africa and is expanding rapidly around the world, including in Europe and the Middle East.
How
is Just Egg different from other liquid egg products in the
market?
MR: Just Egg is made from plants, not chickens. Our products are packed with clean and sustainable protein and are non-GMO Project verified, cholesterol-free and made without artificial flavours. Just Egg products are made with a short list of ingredients, including mung protein.
Just Egg’s functional ingredients allow for omelets, quiches, frittatas, veggie stir-fries, French toast, waffles, crêpes, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches and much more. The folded version is toaster-ready, and convenient to heat and eat in minutes.
What ingredients are used in Just Egg?
Just Egg products. Learn more here: https://vimeo. com/322941061.
What are the company’s future plans?
Where is your processing plant?
MR: Just Egg’s North American protein processing facility is in Appleton, Minnesota, and its finished products are manufactured by several partners including EggSolutions near Toronto.
Please briefly describe the processing method.
MR: Eat Just mills mung beans into flour and uses a proprietary process to separate the functional protein from the starch. The protein is then used to make
MR: Water, mung bean protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, less than two per cent of dehydrated onion, gellan gum, natural carrot extractives (colour), natural flavours, natural turmeric extractives (colour), potassium citrate, salt, soy lecithin, sugar, tapioca syrup, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, transglutaminase, nisin (preservative). It contains soy.
MR: Canada continues to be one of the most requested and strongest market launches for Just Egg products. Sales of pourable Just Egg has already achieved sales velocities that took more than a year to hit in the U.S. market.
We know plant-based eating is gaining popularity in many other countries and there is pent-up demand for our products, so we look forward to further expansion in Asia, Europe and elsewhere.
They are many ways to use eggs and Eat Just can bring different products to the market. We have other CPG partners and branded companies using Just Egg product in pre-made sandwiches, wraps and breakfast burritos. There is ample opportunity for product integration in the ready-to-eat, frozen breakfast and meal kit verticals. Just Egg is launching in Canada foodservice as well. Restaurants like Montreal-based Copper Branch already have Just Egg’s folded format on their menus. Pourable Just Egg is available from foodservice distributors as well.
Just Egg is a plant-based egg brand from Eat Just.
Exporting Canadian value-added pulses
Market demand for plant proteins is opening new growth avenues for pulse processors
By Mark Juhasz
According to the Global Pulse Confederation, pulses are experiencing billions of dollars’ worth of growth in annual demand. Domestically, Pulse Canada plans to develop new markets for 25 per cent of Canadian pulse production by 2025, which includes some 1.1 million tonnes of peas and 625,000 tonnes of lentils.
Promising market
The demand for plant-based meat alternatives is fuelling the growth in pulses. An Ernst & Young study for Protein Industries Canada (PIC) sees the business of meat substitutes growing to a $250-billion market annually by 2035.
In China, a market that already consumes about $10-billion worth of these products, demand could easily grow by another 50 to 100 per cent. For Canadian processors, significant population growth in Asia, the Middle East and Africa provide target markets for pulse products.
Canada has long been a major exporter of pulse commodities. In 2019, it
ranked fifth in global commodity exports, and 11 th in food exports. The lower status of Canada’s actual food exports is the impetus for change. In 2019, 78.5 per cent of Canada’s food exports went to the U.S., but Canada is also now in free-trade agreements with many of the world’s largest and fastest-growing importers, such as Japan, the EU and South Korea. For example,
Pulses are experiencing billions of dollars’ worth of growth in annual demand.
Saskatchewan produces more than a million hectares of peas, and has been a top exporter of lentils to critical markets in Asia including India.
Capacity building
To build Canadian capacity for exporting and promoting quality pulse products, Pulse Canada, the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and the American
The demand for plant protein like pea flour is fueling growth for Canadian pulse exports.
Pulse Association created in 2017 the Pulse Research Database for ongoing research into the nutrition, health, quality, functionality, processing and applications in pulses.
In August 2021, PIC announced the Food Convergence Innovation (FCI) Canada – Food and Beverage Supply Chain Project. The project is focused on enhancing connectivity to help strengthen Canadian food supply chains, as well as diversifying Canada’s plant-based food and ingredient offerings. PIC, launched in 2018 by the federal government, is partnering with several food and beverage organizations for the $2.7-million project.
PIC then said, “This will lead to the development of new plant-based protein ingredients and products, providing consumers around the world with more choices that align with their values, lifestyles and nutrition needs.” Together with industry, PIC has committed more than $377 million to the Canadian plant-based sector.
All of the above stats indicate the value-added plant and pulses market is in strong demand. According to ReportLinker in Yahoo Finance, in August 2021, the global pea processed ingredients market is projected to reach nearly USD $5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 10.1 per cent. Led by Saskatchewan-based AGT Foods and Ingredients, industry leaders in the Canadian pulse sector are actively pursuing this opportunity.
Investments
Significant financing is also underway. In 2018, French company Roquette began construction of a $600-million facility in Portage la Prairie, Man.
The large pea-processing plant took its first shipments of peas in November 2020. According to Roquette, the facility is the largest of its kind in the world, and will produce pea protein for food and sports nutrition products, along with food-grade starches and components like pea cream for animal feed.
The new plant manager at Roquette said one of the reasons to build a plant in Manitoba was “to bring the processor to the peas, rather than shipping the product to a distant processor [which is the case now]. Our main customer is North America. It’s very strategic because Canada is a [leading] producer of peas; that’s why it’s very nice to be here.”
The Roquette facility expects to process 125,000 metric tons of peas annually once it reaches full operation later this year.
In 2019, Ingredion, a leading ingredients supplier, formed a partnership with Saskatchewan-based Verdient Foods to produce protein concentrates and flours from lentils, fava beans and peas. In Manitoba, Merit Functional Foods has a new 94,000-ft plant where it processes pea protein under the brand names of Peazazz and Peazac. Merit’s canola proteins (Puratein C and Puratein HS) “have low water binding capacity, and will not pull water from the syrups used in plant-based protein bar formulations, thereby allowing bars to stay more pliable and softer in texture. Merit’s blend of pea and canola protein is unparalleled in terms of nutritional quality,” according to Jeff Casper, director of research and development at Merit. The MeritPro customized pea blend works in dairy alternatives, snack bars and ready-to-mix beverages.
A recent development out of Alberta’s growing agri- and food- innovation ecosystem is the launch of Phyto Organix Foods. The company plans to be
Pulse Canada plans to develop new markets for 25 per cent of Canadian pulse production by 2025, which includes some 1.1 million tonnes of peas and 625,000 tonnes of lentils.
Alberta’s first state-of-the-art plant-protein facility using wet plant protein fractionation. The planned facility intends to process peas, and use temperature, pressure and water to break dehulled peas into protein, fibre and starch. Phyto intends to work with farmers using regenerative agricultural practices to source organic peas.
As ambition to export more value-added products grows domestically, it is worth mentioning global trends. Reporting in the Economic Times mentions that only in the spring of 2021 did India lift a three-year restriction on the import of some pulse categories. As the world’s largest consumer of pulses, traders and importers welcomed the move, while Indian millers expressed surprise at the decision. In U.S., under the Biden Administration, a continuation of some ‘buy American’ initiatives remain. In Brazil, the EU and Israel, several companies and partnerships are bringing innovative thinking and novel technologies to the development of pulse products, writes the Good Food Institute. Initiatives as diverse as the Brazil-based Institute of Beans and Pulses, Europe’s Smart Protein, or Israel’s Innovopro and ChicP are garnering global attention. Canadian value-added pulse product companies will face intense competition.
Solving food safety challenges in beverages
A multi-tech approach is key to preserve drinks
By John Menton
To consumers, much like the perceived interchangeability of best before and use-by dates, quality and shelf life are synonymous with safety. The industry has historically been challenged to protect beverage quality and extend shelf life without using preservatives or high energy processes that slow down the supply chain. After certain cold-filled and heat-treated beverages are opened, there can sometimes be a gap in food safety hurdles to protect the beverage and its consumer from issues in the event of contamination or from natural spoilage.
Beverage safety has been a concern of consumers for many years. In fact, fruit juice, according to ingredient solutions provider Kerry’s recent proprietary research, is the number two menu item (behind meat) flagged by the public as a food safety worry. The reality is that keeping a beverage protected over its shelf life has never been a simple task. And now, given the availability of new plant protein beverages—amid rising consumer demand for familiar-sounding preservative ingredients in foods and beverages without compromising flavour—the challenge can be particularly complex.
Ensuring the safety of plant-based beverages can be challenging due to rising consumer demands for familiar-sounding preservative ingredients.
Given the situation, when thinking about food and beverage processing “preservation,” it might be helpful to use the term “protection” instead, as the latter also encompasses the maintenance of taste, texture and colour while addressing consumer health demands. Today, the task requires a
broader view, along with a high degree of reliability—in short, a multi-technology systems approach to beverage preservation/protection and safety. Adding to this beverage-preservation challenge is a strong desire by consumers to reduce sugar intake: while positive for public health, removing
sugar can adversely impact a beverage’s shelf life and taste, as sugar acts as a natural preservative by lowering water activity within the beverage.
The following discussion identifies some of the key hurdles facing plantbased beverage processors seeking to improve their current products (or develop new options) to meet emerging consumer demands for healthier beverages offering cleaner labels.
Added functionality and safety
In the functional beverage category, process stability of key ingredients (e.g. protein) is vital.
Heat treatment, the most commonly used method for ensuring optimal shelf life of pH-neutral beverages, is necessary to ensure microbial safety of ready-to-drink beverages. Unfortunately, by inducing protein denaturation, heat can have a negative impact on protein stability in the finished
beverage, and in turn, adversely impact taste.
23%
According to 2020 Innova research data, 23 per cent of new global beverage launches have a “no additives/ preservatives” claim on their labels.
Some strategies are available to alleviate the problem of protein denaturation during heat-based preservation treatments. One, using hydrolysed proteins (dairy and plant), results in proteins that are generally more heat-stable than their “intact” counterparts. Second, protein ingredients that are left intact can overcome instability issues through a careful adjustment of processing parameters—temperature, duration and process technologies—to ensure minimal denaturation.
Clean label
According to 2020 Innova research data, 23 per cent of new global beverage launches have a “no additives/ preservatives” claim on their labels, a trend due to wholesale consumer re-
jection of “chemically sounding” ingredients. However, maintaining a consumer-friendly label can be formidable: if preservatives are not used, a product is likely to have a shorter shelf life.
Natural solutions to this problem are already available. The key lies in using consumer-friendly, “food cupboard” solutions that will keep beverages fresh, safe and appealing while protecting quality over the duration of shelf life.
Lemon juice and vinegar, to name two, are part of a range of natural ingredients that have a time-honoured history of at-home use to preserve fruits and vegetables. Now, similar solutions are being applied at scale in the commercial manufacture of beverages and other consumer products.
Utilising these and other preservation ingredients brings together the
very best of two worlds: expertise in preservation and innovation in food taste protection. Great taste can then be locked into beverages at the same time as lasting shelf-life advantages are unlocked.
These types of proven solutions can help processors meet and exceed the goals being embraced by consumers. Further, since there is a call for natural ingredients on beverage labels — real juice, natural flavours, naturally sourced colours, etc. — along with recognisable ingredient sources, these preservation and protection ingredients translate perfectly for labelling purposes. In the pursuit of better, more natural ways to formulate beverages, investigating these clean advances may turn up some surprising benefits.
John Menton is applied health and nutrition lead in North America for Kerry. He can be reached at john.menton@kerry.com.
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