Teagasc is working on developing value-added opportunities for protein crops, including peas and beans, grown in Ireland.
The success of the Irish dairy industry is largely due to its ability to take milk and a whole host of products that later form the building blocks of other food products.
But, are there opportunities for the tillage sector to achieve similar results?
As part of the U-Protein project, Teagasc researchers are identifying and refining the key technologies used in the dairy industry, along with developing new practices, to achieve similar results in the plant protein space.
Prof. Mark Fenelon, head of the Food Programme at Teagasc, is involved with U-Protein (Unlocking Protein Resource Opportunities To Evolve Ireland’s Nutrition).
This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Teagasc, University College Cork (UCC), NUI Maynooth, University of Galway, University of Limerick (UL) and Queen’s University Belfast, as well as food industry partners.
He has highlighted the investments that have been made in the Teagasc research centres of Ashtown and Moorepark to allow for the separation of protein from crops.
Currently, Irish protein crops are predominately used in the animal feed and specialist fresh/frozen spaces.
“However, there is an opportunity to unlock potential markets through the production of protein flour for use in baked products,” he said.
“We have developed a new process at Moorepark and Ashtown, where we can fractionate different plants.
“We have looked at optimising this and the effect of the process and the functionality of the ingredients,” he said.
Protein
According to Fenelon, this process has allowed for the development of a nutritional base that food businesses can rehydrate and later build a product on.
Faba beans have already been fractionated to produce a high protein isolate, which can be used in high-end value nutritional products.
The U-Protein project has also led to the development of a nutritional beverage that has been produced using fava, lupin and pea protein isolate, with functionality testing completed.
This work also encompassed the establishment of rapid testing methods for isolated and finished product testing, while a new drying system was tested for the drying of plant-based residual biomass after protein extraction.