The Almond Board of California found a timely solution to what to do with all those almond hulls. After working on the problem for 10 years, ABC demonstrated almond hull powder as a source of protein. There’s still a fair amount of protein in those hulls, plus loads of fiber, and after finely grinding them they can become an upcycled food product. One ounce of a prototype “Hullnola,” a demonstration granola fortified with the powder, delivered 11g of fiber and 4g of protein. Almond Board is looking for processors willing to use the powder.
While the protein craze has created a shortage of whey protein, Leprino Foods, the biggest mozzarella maker in the world, is pushing its ingredients division to the fore. Dairy ingredients always has been a side business, but Leprino Nutrition has raised its profile and was promoting its whey protein concentrates and caseinates in protein-fortified cookies, puddings, broccoli-cheddar soup, even a ready-to-drink coffee beverage.
In the Startup Pavilion, Standing Ovation, a French company, showed its Advanced Casein produced via precision fermentation. The company recently got funding from French dairies Bel Group and Danone Ventures, and hopes to have commercial products available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
A novel alternative to dairy proteins is rubisco, the protein found in leaves, and as a result called “most abundant protein on the planet.” Leaft Foods, among a small handful of companies extracting it at commercial scale, explained how rubisco compares to other proteins in egg-replacement, dairy fortification, bakery and beverage applications.
Natural color replacement was a recurring theme at IFT. California Natural Color is owned by Gallo Winery, so not surprisingly most of its colors derive from grape juice concentrates and grape seed extract, although it also uses carrot, radish, beet and other fruits and vegetables.