Givaudan and Bühler Open Protein Innovation Center

The new Protein Innovation Center in Singapore will allow companies, start-ups and researchers to create plant-based food experiences.
The new Protein Innovation Center in Singapore will allow companies, start-ups and researchers to create plant-based food experiences.

Givaudan and Bühler have announced the opening of the APAC Protein Innovation Center in the Givaudan Woodlands site in Singapore.

Related: Givaudan Debuts Sourcing4Good Program

The Protein Innovation Center is jointly run by both companies and is connected to a vast network of R&D Innovation Centers in Switzerland that enables plant-based product development on a global scale.

The Protein Innovation Center in Singapore welcomes food processing companies, start-ups and university researchers from across the Asia Pacific region keen to co-create plant-based food experiences that do good and feel good. The center combines the pilot technology of Bühler’s extrusion and processing equipment with Givaudan’s new culinary facilities and expertise in flavor, taste, ingredient and product development.

Outfitted with a pilot scale wet and dry extruder, a state-of-the-art product development kitchen, storage facilities, meeting amenities and a viewing area where visitors may tour the 400 sqm facility and view live demonstrations, the center is constructed with the end-to-end process of plant-based protein production in mind.

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Businesses will also benefit from support throughout the co-creation process, from raw material selection to product development and research, to application, flavor science, extrusion and consumer testing. At the center, 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 & Wellbeing said, “We are proud to be part of a partnership that will contribute towards a sustainable food future for Singapore and the APAC region. Through the Protein Innovation Centre, we aim to create an eco-system that supports start-ups and food businesses in an environment of co-creation. The center 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 flavor 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. We are excited to open our Centre in Singapore, a country that is a hot bed for FoodTech Innovation.”

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 prior to that are so deep, they can only be achieved if the various partners of the food ecosystem start working together today. The Protein Innovation Center 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 Protein Innovation Center will not only enable the development of more plant-based protein products across Asia, it will also ensure delicious products can be scaled to the production volumes required to create a positive environmental impact on our food chains.”

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