Givaudan, a leading company in taste and wellbeing, and food processing solutions provider Bühler have announced the official opening of the APAC Protein Innovation Centre
Located at the Givaudan Woodlands site in Singapore, the centre is jointly run and supported by experts from both companies and is connected to a vast network of R&D innovation centres in Switzerland and key hubs across the region that enables agile plant-based product development on a global scale.
The centre in Singapore welcomes food processing companies, start-ups and university researchers from across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region keen to co-create plant-based food experiences that do good and feel good. The centre combines the pilot technology of Bühler’s extrusion and processing equipment with Givaudan’s new culinary facilities and its world-leading expertise in flavour, taste, ingredient, and product development.
Outfitted with a pilot-scale wet and dry extruder, a product development kitchen, storage facilities, meeting amenities and a viewing area where visitors may tour the 400-square-metre facility and view live demonstrations, the centre is constructed with an end-to-end process of plant-based protein production in mind. Businesses will also benefit from support throughout the co-creation process, from raw material selection to product development and research, to application, flavour science, extrusion, and consumer testing. At the Centre, customers can develop high-quality products suitable for Asian culinary applications at scale. The facility can produce up to 40 kilograms of plant proteins an hour and features dry extrusion, as well as a newer wet extrusion technology that delivers a fibrous structure more akin to muscle, and higher protein content as compared with dry extruded products.
Monila Kothari, APAC president, Givaudan taste and wellbeing, said, “Through the Protein Innovation Centre, we aim to create an ecosystem that supports start-ups and food businesses in an environment of co-creation. The centre will provide them access to the expertise, networks and technology required to create authentic plant-based protein alternatives that meet consumer needs and expectations. By bringing flavour solutions that are vegetarian, vegan, plant-based and natural, as well as technologies such as wet extrusion to Singapore and the region, we are helping to make plant-based foods more delicious, authentic, and accessible to business and consumers.”
Ian Roberts, chief technology officer at Bühler, said, “Great tasting and sustainable protein alternatives are an important contributor to feeding 10 billion people sustainably by 2050. The changes that need to happen to our protein value chains before that are so deep, they can only be achieved if the various partners of the food ecosystem start working together today. The Protein Innovation Centre that we open today with Givaudan at the core of Southeast Asia’s vibrant food ecosystem, is a step towards achieving our vision of a collaborative and sustainable future of food. The centre will not only enable the development of more plant-based protein products across Asia, but it will also ensure delicious products can be scaled to the production volumes required to create a positive environmental impact on our food chains.”
