Project
Plant breeding for protein processing efficiency and functionality from agricultural side-streams
This project combines expertise in plant science and food science to breed for whole-biomass use crops that can be used to efficiently extract protein ingredients with optimal functionalities in food.
Many high volume protein-rich side streams are not yet being used. For example, sugar beet leaves contain proteins with unique functional properties for food. So far, breeding, cultivation, and further processing of sugar beets have been optimized for carbohydrate yield. This project brings together supply chain partners to optimize sugar beets and other crops for protein production, to increase yield, extraction efficiency, and the business case of proteins from agricultural residues like leaves.