Roquette has announced its investment in DAIZ, a Japanese food-tech startup that has developed technology combining the germination of plant seeds with an extrusion process to enhance texture, flavour and the nutritional profile for plant-based foods. This partnership will allow Roquette and DAIZ to continue realising their growth ambitions and meet rising global demand for innovative and sustainable plant-based ingredients offering great taste and nutritional value.
Plant proteins are one of the most promising answers to contribute to sustainability while providing healthy and tasty food. With DAIZ’s technology initially developed for soy and now applied to pea, Roquette has strengthened its position in plant innovation.
Partnering with DAIZ coincides with Roquette’s commitment towards innovation and long-term goal of creating a better and healthier tomorrow based on its plant-based solutions. The coming months will allow building a stronger collaboration to offer the best textured pea-based ingredients that will enable food innovators to create a variety of choices in meat alternatives that are delicious and healthy for consumers. Roquette and DAIZ will also explore technical collaborations to develop a new approach of selective plant-based protein extraction for future generations by leveraging seed germination. In addition to meat alternatives, they will explore joint development in other applications such as fish alternatives or dairy, and other food sectors. The launch of the first products on the market is expected in 2023.
Pierre Courduroux, CEO of Roquette, said: “Our objective is to be the best partner for our customers as they develop delicious products that will encourage more consumers to enjoy plant-based food more often. This investment in DAIZ reflects our commitment to developing plant-based ingredients to meet those expectations. This latest initiative comes a year after we opened the world’s largest pea protein plant in Canada and adds to our NUTRALYS plant protein range extension in organic pea and rice protein. We have also continued to build an impressive set of capabilities to co-develop with our customers and scale new plant protein ingredients.”
Tsuyoshi Ide, president and representative director of DAIZ, added: “We are very glad to partner with the Roquette group, the France-based worldwide leader in pea protein as well as in plant-based ingredients for food, nutrition and health markets. Pea protein is an indispensable ingredient for plant-based meat alternatives that are expanding in Europe and North America. Through the partnership, we anticipate that DAIZ’s germination technology (Ochiai Germination Method JP-5795679) would be able to contribute to the further enhancement of functionalities of pea protein to the market of plant-based meat alternatives and beyond. DAIZ’s goal is to expand Miracle Meat to the market of plant-based alternatives not only in Japan but also in Europe and North America. We are confident that the partnership with the Roquette group will represent a significant leap forward.”
