Pea protein maker Puris launches first industrial product in plant-based egg

Puris Holdings has spent a lot of the final decade quietly evolving into the biggest provider of pea protein in North America to CPGs that incorporate it into their meals and drinks. Now, the Minnesota-based firm is boosting its public picture by launching its first plant-based egg model that may extra intently join it to a special viewers: the buyer.

“Our core has all the time been that we’re a meals firm and never simply an elements firm,” Nicole Atchison, CEO of family-owned Puris Holdings, mentioned in an interview. “It’s all the time been behind our thoughts that we needed to get nearer to the buyer. That’s what we’re doing with the AcreMade product.”

AcreMade is a plant-based egg model that makes use of yellow discipline peas as its predominant protein supply. The debut product, Egg Substitute, is a powder that’s nutritionally just like a conventional egg with every serving containing 5 grams of protein and no ldl cholesterol. It’s additionally gluten-free, licensed Kosher and non-GMO.

A case of eight, 4.9 oz baggage (96 whole servings) will promote on-line for $54.99 — bringing the price of every serving roughly in line with how a lot customers pay for cage-free eggs, in response to the corporate. Puris is in talks with retailers to hold AcreMade on their cabinets, mentioned Atchison. It’s additionally open to having AcreMade included by different corporations into different meals they’re making like quiches and egg patties.

Gross sales of vegan eggs are rising quickly. The class is anticipated to increase right into a $3.3 billion market by 2031, in response to information from Truth.MR offered by Puris.

AcreMade joins a abruptly crowded class for animal-free egg and egg elements.

Hodo Foods has been making a tofu model of scrambled eggs and in April launched a brand new Egg Scramble in 1,500 shops. A month later, Ginkgo Bioworks partnered with Evo Foods to create and scale animal-free egg proteins via precision fermentation. 

The Each Firm has scaled animal-free egg proteins sufficient to supply them as elements. And Eat Simply, which makes its eggs from mung bean protein and different elements, reportedly is in 2 million households and dominates the plant-based egg market within the U.S. with a 99% share. 

Atchison mentioned AcreMade is totally different from different plant-based egg choices in the marketplace. Its Egg Substitute is allergen-free — most egg substitutes have some kind of allergic ingredient, she famous — and has an extended shelf lifetime of two years. AcreMade additionally has extra protein than different plant-based choices which have a decrease quantity as a result of it could possibly intervene with issues like style, texture and product high quality.

Puris is not any stranger to pea protein, having first began promoting the ingredient in 2014 to be used in meals and drinks. 

In 2019, Puris obtained investments from agribusiness big Cargill topping $100 million to construct a second 200,000-square-foot processing plant in Dawson, Minnesota, doubling its ingredient output. The ability permits Puris to higher capitalize on the demand from CPGs searching for elements for his or her plant-based milks, yogurts, meats and different merchandise. It additionally gave the corporate the pliability to discover ventures like AcreMade.

In creating the brand new plant-based egg, AcreMade builds upon Puris’ prior work growing purposeful protein with a impartial style profile. AcreMade already had a deep understanding of the pea’s genetics, and the way it was grown, processed and formulated. It then mixed that perception with what it knew about different elements to create an egg it claims appears, cooks, tastes and has the dietary equal of an animal-based one.

“Having that basis, that partnership with Puris Proteins gave us a head begin,” Atchison mentioned. “Whereas we’re new at AcreMade, we’re a legacy plant-based meals firm and have been growing plant-based meals in several iterations for a really very long time.”