It’s easy enough to identify pea protein in nutritional powders and shakes in grocery store aisles. But if you look closely at product labels, you’re also likely to find pea protein as the main ingredient in many plant-based meats (including the Beyond Burger®), as well as energy bars and snacks.
The pea protein market is projected to more than double in size between now and 2028. Most of that growth will likely come from the nutritional supplements industry, but rising consumer interest in alternative meats will also create new opportunities for pea protein. Hoping to appeal to plant-based meat manufacturers, food tech companies are working to optimize the ingredient at every stage of production—from the peas grown in the field to the technology for extracting the protein.
Benson Hill, a Missouri-based company, is working on pea protein improvement at the most fundamental level. Last month, the company launched a new yellow pea breeding and commercialization program to develop plants that produce better peas. They’re focused on improving two key attributes: nutritional density and flavor.
“The element people care about most in plant-based protein ingredients is the actual protein,” said company CEO Matt Crisp in a phone interview with The Spoon. Current protein extraction processes are water and energy-intensive. By upping the protein content in a raw yellow pea, the company hopes to eliminate some of those processing steps—which could in turn help to reduce production costs.
More protein-rich yellow pea plants could also make farming more efficient in terms of land use. “If we can take a yellow pea that normally yields 21-23% protein content, and create a yellow pea that has 31-33% protein content,” said Crisp, “then we won’t need to produce as much crop to get the same protein production output.”
According to Crisp, today’s yellow pea protein is held back by undesirable taste characteristics. The yellow pea strains currently grown in fields contain “some pretty nasty flavor compounds that folks have to mask in the formulations for foods that they’re making, so that’s why you’ll see them use some additives, masking agents, or sodium,” he said. If Benson Hill can breed a better-tasting yellow pea, they could help food manufacturers to produce consumer products with shorter, cleaner ingredients lists.
Benson Hill uses a machine learning and AI-powered platform to guide its crop improvement efforts. The company’s software simulates the outcomes of different breeding programs, and then its plant scientists execute the programs with the best-simulated outcomes. The technology helps the company to optimize existing plant genetics through highly efficient breeding, rather than veering into gene editing or genetic modification territory, which might repel consumers.
After yellow peas are harvested, they need to be unshelled and then ground and milled into powder. Then fibers and starches are removed, leaving behind pea protein.
Merit Functional Foods opened a 94,000 square foot plant to process pea and canola protein this year. Merit uses a proprietary manufacturing process that’s more expensive than the industry standard. The process requires more equipment and more filtration but results in a higher-purity end product with improved taste and texture.
In a recent phone interview, CEO Ryan Bracken told us that the company is working on developing pea protein ingredients with differentiated taste, texture, and other attributes.
“We believe that there’s a need for higher quality, higher functionality, and improved sensory characteristics associated with plant-based proteins,” said Bracken. By delivering better protein ingredients, Bracken hopes to help food manufacturers create “the best consumer outcomes in terms of their experience with new products, whether they be dairy alternatives, meat alternatives, or lifestyle nutrition products like ready-to-mix powders.”
For example, the company might take a closer look at a protein that shows strong gelation properties—making it a potential replacement for methyl cellulose, a thickening and emulsifying agent commonly found in plant-based meats. “So we’d say, how can we add more gelation,” said Bracken, “so that an alternative meat brand can use less protein and reduce the cost of making a burger, and then pass on the lower costs to the consumer?”
Other extraction companies are also investing in pea protein. Early this year, ingredients giant Roquette began operations at its brand-new pea protein plant in Manitoba, the largest of its kind in the world.
Pea protein isn’t the only plant-based protein powder that’s on the rise. Market forecasts signal a bright future for plant proteins from the ubiquitous soy to spirulina. As these spaces become more competitive, we’re likely to see further investment in new crop and extraction technologies that will optimize the ingredients for use in different end products.
