This week at the National Restaurant Show, commercial equipment provider Waring and Planit Protein debuted a new commercial fermentation system to create plant-based proteins in commercial kitchens. The new system, called the Planit POD Fermentation Chamber, uses single-ingredient bases provided by Planit Protein combined with a proprietary starter culture to create eight pounds of customizable protein base in 24 hours.
The origins of the Planit Pod and its development into a kitchen fermentation appliance date back 40 years when an inventor named Gunter Pfaff, along with his partner Joy DuPuis, began making homemade tempeh. Eventually, Pfaff designed an appliance constructed from plywood, which he perfected in 2015. He collaborated with a product development firm, the DuPuis Group, to finalize the U.S. patent. Although Pfaff passed away shortly after perfecting his appliance-powered fermentation process, the DuPuis Group continued to refine and test the appliance until they could ferment a variety of plant-based proteins from bases such as chickpea, lentils, and mushroom protein.
After working on the fermentation process and system, the team formed a separate company in Planit Protein and started to work on building a commercial system in partnership with Waring. Waring’s General Manager Dan DeBari recalled to The Spoon the day he got the call from the company to see if there was any interest in helping to develop the fermentation appliance.
“They had worked with (Pfaff), who had a patent on a small machine that was actually made of plywood, and they came to us and said this is something they knew they couldn’t manufacture themselves. They asked if we were interested. That was on a Wednesday, and I hopped on a plane to California the next day to go meet with them.”
DeBari explained that at the time, the company was looking for new and innovative new types of product concepts that would be differentiated in the marketplace.
“We were looking to sort of get away from the creation of the me-too products and go into some real innovation,” said DeBari.
The system, which will cost around $2 thousand when it ships in Q4 of this year, will give restaurant and food service chefs a turnkey fermentation appliance that enables them to make their own custom-built plant-based proteins in-house, something that, except for the most adventurous of chefs, doesn’t really exist today in the form of commercial kitchen system.
Initially, users of the Planit POD fermentation chamber will have three base options: a roasted chickpea base, hybrid lentils, and a “burger” blend—a proprietary mix of mushroom protein, pea protein, and chickpea. To start the process, chefs prepare the base, such as boiling chickpeas for 45 minutes until soft, adding the starter culture, and then placing them on a sheet that is inserted into the appliance. After 24 hours, they obtain a fermented base ready for making tempeh, koji, or plant-based meat.
I’m pretty intrigued by this system, especially since most chefs’ efforts to do on-premise fermentation usually involve Macgyver’d contraptions that can include fish tanks, water pumps, and humidifiers. As more restaurants look to put plant-based proteins on the menu, this type of system could help create a new appliance category and an associated protein-based supply chain that helps them turnkey the whole process.
And this says nothing of the potential for bringing this type of system into the home, something that Planit Protein already has on its product roadmap. According to Planet Protein, the “Planit Pod Home will be next and ideal for the foodie’s countertop at home.”
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