New consortium to develop oat concentrates

A new consortium of Canadian SMEs is working together to provide new, innovative oat-based products.

Plant Veda Foods, Avena Foods, HPP Canada and Thirstea Beverages, with a co-investment from Protein Industries Canada, will develop and commercialize cost-effective oat concentrates. These new oat concentrates will then be used to make new plant-based food and beverage products.

Plant Veda and Avena Foods will work together to transform Avena’s specialty milled oat flours into oat concentrates, which will be supplied to Thirstea Beverages and other manufacturers. Plant Veda and HPP Canada will focus on extending the shelf life of the concentrates by using high pressures, without the use of preservatives or chemicals. The final concentrates can be used by food manufacturers looking to produce oat-based food and beverage products.

“Accelerating the development of oat concentrates for new, innovative plant-based food and beverage products will expand the healthy, sustainable food options available to Canadian and international consumers,” said Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel. “This consortium of SMEs is helping Canada achieve its goal of $25 billion in global plant-based food and ingredient sales by 2035, and is doing so by building on each others’ expertise.”

Plant Veda will apply these new oat concentrates to expand their product line with plant-based beverages, yogurts and frozen desserts. Thirstea Beverages will develop and commercialize new plant-based teas and beverages, swapping their dairy base with oat concentrates for Canadian and international markets.

“The signing of this co-operative initiative with Protein Industries Canada is a result of our firm’s track record in developing award-winning plant-based formulations,” said Sunny Gurnani, CEO of Plant Veda. “Innovation does not take place in isolation. True product innovation requires the meeting of minds from myriad perspectives. That philosophy is at the heart of this cooperative project. The opportunity to utilize our proven proprietary product development cycle for an oat-based dairy alternative and subsequent products is in perfect alignment with our expansion plans. We look forward to a successful development and product launch in early 2023.”

“We are excited to be launching this collaborative Canadian project with customers, farmers, employees, service providers, technical experts and Protein Industries Canada,” said Avena Foods CEO Gord Flaten. “Support from Protein Industries Canada is critical in transitioning Avena’s products from promising food ingredients to an innovative suite of clean-label, nutritious and functional ingredients for food manufacturers. This project will help open up and expand important markets for farmers and provide significant benefits to consumers.”

“The team members of HPP have years of background in product development,” said HPP Canada president Patricia Truter. “We understand the potential benefits and applications of HPP past the traditional use in food preservation. HPP Canada is excited to start working with Plant Veda, Thirstea, and Avena Foods to expand the utilization of HPP technology to develop innovative natural food products.”

This project is valued at $989,000, with Protein Industries Canada committing half and the consortium contributing the remaining half.