VTT Closes €3M Plant Ingredient Project With Oat Fibre Patent and Legume Flavour Treatment

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has completed the RETHINK project, a three-year co-innovation project with seven Finnish food and ingredient companies. The project resulted in a patented method for concentrating oat beta-glucan and a new pretreatment step for protein separation that reduces off-flavours in legume ingredients. The project, funded by Business Finland with €3 million, highlighted the importance of finding high-value uses for carbohydrate-rich fractions, beyond just the food sector, such as in cosmetics.

One of the key innovations from the project was a new way to add fiber to liquid products without altering their texture, allowing for the integration of oat dietary fiber, beta-glucan. The project also led to the development of a germinated faba bean protein granule for plant-based and hybrid meat applications by Viking Malt and Valio. Additionally, technology developed by VTT spin-off Happy Plant Protein, which separates protein from carbohydrates and texturises the protein in a single step, is now being utilized in industrial production projects in Latvia and the Netherlands after raising €1.8 million in funding.