A fourth pulse processing company is setting up in Alberta

A company that claims to have enabled “a revolutionary technological breakthrough in plant proteins” has received $1 million in government funding for a $20 million pea processing pilot facility in Lethbridge.

And PIP International said it plans to begin construction of a $150 million processing plant later this year.

In a statement, the company said it worked with a French company to develop extraction technology that produces premium plant-based protein.

“Innovative technology has finally cracked the code on the poor taste, color, texture and compromised performance of pea protein,” the statement said.

He said PIP International has obtained “an exclusive master license agreement for the rights to use and sub-license transformative ‘coercion’ technology. Using a targeted reaction, under strict parameters, the process quickly but gently separates or “strains” proteins without damaging their functional properties.

The pilot plant was set up in a building that was a craft brewery but was converted into a pea processing and testing facility. The $1 million grant from the federal and provincial governments will be used for engineering work and the purchase of processing equipment, the province said in a statement. The money came from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

“These funds have been essential to meet the fall 2022 protein isolate shipments required by several multinational plant-based companies,” said Christine Lewington, CEO of PIP International.

The company will produce “large” volumes of its branded ingredient UP.P (which is short for Ultimate Pea Protein) by next year, she said.

“Once operational, the facility will create 100 new jobs, process approximately 126,000 tonnes of yellow peas annually and support more than $75 million in annual pea contracts for local and regional growers,” the company statement read. , which describes itself as “a Canadian-controlled private corporation.

The facility would be the fourth major pulse processing plant in Alberta. British company Lovingly Made Foods opened a facility in Calgary in 2021, More Than Protein Ingredients is building a $100 million facility in Bowden to open next year, and last month a Calgary company called Phyto Organix said it was about to begin construction on a $225 million fractionation plant in Strathmore.