On Wednesday the 12^th of December, The Protein Cluster organized it’s second acceleration session, this time together with the “Veldbonen keten praktijk innovatie project” (in English the “Fava beans practice chain innovation project”). During this meeting, the central question was how to bring fava beans back on the market, both for food and feed applications, in the Netherlands. It was discussed how the various initiatives that already exist in this area can reinforce each other, and an overview of the different stakeholders in the entire chain was made.

This Fava bean project is led by Jolijn Zwart van-Kessel from ZwartvanKessel Advies and […]

Now 1 year ago, The Protein Cluster clustered 13 Dutch SME’s with innovative plant protein ingredients, concepts and technologies in an Innovation Performance Contract (IPC) titled “Transition to Plant Proteins”. In a two year period, the companies will work in 5 sub-projects on vegetable ice-cream, spreads, sausages and other products based on algae, fava beans, seaweed, hemp and soy.

Last week, at the half of the project, the members of the IPC gathered at the Foodvalley NL office in Wageningen to share their progress during the first year. I was very pleased to hear that all sub-projects made a lot of […]

The consumption of plant-based proteins is growing rapidly. Pioneers in the field explained to the 250 participants of the Foodvalley Summit Proteins of the Future, on 10 October in Ede, that their growth is accelerating, and demands exceed production capacity. But there are still challenges to overcome.

Growing demand
Frank Giezen, CEO of Ojah, was one of the pioneers of green proteins. He started the company 10 years ago with 3 people. Now there are 45. Ojah develops and produces meat alternatives with long fibres, also called third generation meat alternatives. Giezen emphasizes the importance of co-creation. “That means that you […]