The Emlichheim-headquartered Emsland Group has announced a cooperative partnership with JUST (Eat JUST, Inc.). The San Francisco, California-based company specializes in cutting-edge science and technology that creates ingredients for healthier, more sustainable foods such as the plant-based JUST Egg. Its pre-baked folded version was the Best New Frozen Product winner in Expo West’s 2020 NEXTY competition, as well as victorious in Delicious Living’s “Best Bite Awards” contest.
In the spirit of its corporate philosophy “Using nature to create,” the Emsland Group uses renewable raw materials such as potatoes and peas to produce high-quality products. Each year the company, which is a major supplier to the frozen food industry, processes more than two million tons of these crops across seven locations in Germany, where it ranks as the nation’s largest producer of potato starch.
As well as its technical work, Emsland particularly focuses on food applications. In addition to starches, starch derivatives, potato flakes and granules, proteins and fibers play a significant role. Potatoes and peas are the base material. As part of a new process, the company also uses mung beans to derive starches and proteins. This takes place in an external factory in Kyritz.
“During this newly developed process, the protein is extracted from the mung beans, leaving behind the starch-fiber proportion,” explained Andre Heilemann, project leader for process engineering. “We are beginning to further separate this blend of starches and fibers to create high-quality starches and fibers.”
Thanks to its special composition, the mung bean starch which is produced has many applications beyond use in Asian noodles. Thus, in addition to derivatization, new clean label concepts can be realized in food production.
Heidrun Lambers, head of food application technology, holds the view that the special gel and textural qualities of mung bean starch offer promising prospects for further developments. In addition to use in foods, applications in the technical field are being considered.
In the partnership with JUST, the focus is on processing mung bean protein. The protein is the main ingredient in JUST Egg and will contribute to ensuring that it has a reliable, efficient, and expandable production infrastructure.
The Emsland Group also sees the cooperation with JUST Egg as a promising alliance to expand the product portfolio and to create additional sales opportunities in the food industry.
