Drying Pea protein -- FarmnewssNOW

By Alice McFarlane - farmnewsNOW

Plant Proteins

Plant-based food products good for agriculture

Jan 23, 2020 | 2:16 PM

SASKATOON –– The new trends in plant proteins could benefit prairie farmers.

Dalhousie University professor in food distribution and policy, Sylvain Charlebois, discussed the opportunities at the Cropsphere Conference in Saskatoon on January 14..

Charlebois said less than two per cent of the population are vegans and more people are choosing to eat less meat.

“We are expecting that by 2025, 10 million Canadians would have decided to either reduce the amount of meat they consume, or they would have decided to get rid of meat altogether from their diets,” he said. “You can see that is a huge trend

Charlebois said those numbers are staggering but the trend should not be feared by beef and pork producers.

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“You can’t compare beef with lentils. They are a plant-based product, they’re unique, they’re different,” he said. “The more choice you give to the marketplace you increase the likelihood to purchase, eventually. From an economics perspective, providing more choice makes sense for everyone, not just pulse crops. This is something that producers will need to understand,” he said.

Major food processing companies are paying more attention to plant-based protein. But, Charlebois said so are consumers who want to make sure what they eat is both healthy and sustainable.

“I expect the marketplace to become more sophisticated and will require and expect more evidence. That’s why Beyond Meat is looking at building a plant in Canada because there’s a lot of ingredients here Beyond Meat can procure. But there’s also some startups in Canada that are really interesting that are using fewer ingredients that are more natural. And, of course, by using Canadian ingredients you can provide a product that is much more sustainable.”

Charlebois said that may mean processing facilities built closer to where the crops are grown would be positive news for Western Canada.

“Especially with discussions on the carbon tax, you can actually develop a business model today which may not become viable tomorrow. That’s why companies are absolutely careful when they think about investing in starting up a new plant,” he said.