Müller’s Mühle, one of the leading suppliers of legume and rice flours, has invested €14.5 million in new refining technology for legume flours. With the help of a modern air separation plant, the company can now produce functional flours with a protein content of up to 65 per cent, enabling protein enrichment and nutritional optimisation of many foods. They are particularly suitable as a basis for plant-based alternatives such as meat, egg and milk substitutes, as well as for snacks, baked goods and pasta.

Müller’s Mühle uses different legume species as raw materials, and processes them gently to preserve their valuable nutrients. The flours are marketed under the “SMART Pulses Pro” brand. At source, they are naturally free of allergens and are also clean label.

With their high-quality nutritional and functional properties, “SMART Pulses Pro” ingredients enable the development of innovative product concepts in the plant-based segment.

From cheese, yoghurt and quark substitutes to plant-based drinks and desserts, the range of applications for milk alternatives is huge. In this area, lentil-based flours are particularly interesting thanks to their relatively neutral taste profile. From a sensory point of view, SMART ingredients also score in terms of texture: they impart appealing consistency and creaminess to products. Furthermore, their nutritional profile enables high-protein positioning and a desirable NutriScore.

Meat substitutes

Thanks to their protein content and structure-forming properties, “SMART Pulses Pro” concentrates can be further processed into high-quality texturates that serve as a basis for meat substitutes. In addition to purely vegan and vegetarian products, pulse-based texturates are also suitable for hybrid products in which the meat content is partially replaced.

Egg substitutes

Be it for baked goods, vegan mayonnaises or dressings: the emulsifying effect of the new concentrates makes it possible to replace eggs in a variety of recipes. But the legume flours are also the base for innovative egg substitutes, such as vegan scrambled eggs.

Sustainability

In addition to protein, Müller’s Mühle legume flours provide dietary fibre and minerals, B vitamins and trace elements and, in this respect, are far superior to protein isolates. In terms of sustainability, the flours are convincing due to their resource-saving cultivation: legumes do not require artificial nitrogen fertiliser, increase soil fertility and have a low water requirement. Legume-based products therefore meet the needs of environmentally-conscious consumers who are willing to pay a higher price for food that is produced as sustainably as possible.

”Vegan, high-protein, low carb, clean label, free-from – pulses serve several major food trends at once. Moreover, with their low carbon footprint and excellent nutritional profile, they are the ideal raw material for a sustainable diet,” said Uwe Walter, Managing Director at Müller’s Mühle. “We are therefore convinced that ingredients based on these superfoods will become increasingly important for contemporary food concepts. From new product development to reformulation, with our new functional variants, we can support food manufacturers better than ever.”

Müller’s Mühle is part of the GoodMills Deutschland GmbH group of companies. Its core competence lies in the procurement, processing and refinement of pulses; in addition, Müller’s Mühle is the largest rice refiner in Europe.

As a result of EU Regulation 2020/1322, new maximum levels for 3-MCPD and glycidol in olive oil and other vegetable oils have been in force since January 2021. Nutriswiss can minimise the presence of these process-related contaminants with the help of a special refining technology.

The Swiss speciality and organic edible oils expert uses a particularly gentle process that refines oils at low temperatures. In this way, oil producers can not only optimise the sensory profile of their products and increase their yield, but also meet the new legal requirements.

New regulations

On 1 January 2021, the European Commission Regulation set limits of 1250 μg of 3-MCPD and 1000 μg of glycidol per kg of edible oil. Even stricter regulations apply to infant and children’s food (15 μg/kg of 3-MCPD and 6.0 μg/kg of glycidol for liquid infant formula).

With a particular focus on refined olive oil, in which high process contaminant values are often seen, Nutriswiss subsequently set new standards for a wide range of products. After refining, laboratory analyses now show values that are close to the detection limit for both process contaminants and far below legal limits.

Nutriswiss can also refine heavily contaminated oils or those with a high acid value, such as olive pomace or lampante oils, using special processes, so that an organoleptically acceptable, edible and safe food is produced. The olive oil raffinate can then be mixed with virgin olive oils, for example, and marketed as a blend or supplied to the food industry for further processing. Oils that are difficult to refine and would otherwise be unmarketable now benefit from a new lease of life.

Distillation technology

Unlike traditional vegetable oil refining, Nutriswiss doesn’t use time-consuming or high-temperature processes to remove pesticides and mineral oil residues (MOSH/MOAH). Heat promotes the formation of potentially harmful glycidyl fatty acid esters and chlorine-fatty acid esters such as 3-MCPD. Instead, the company relies on physical neutralisation using modern distillation technology and subsequent mild deodorisation. In this way, no process contaminants are formed. At the same time, valuable ingredients are protected, off-flavours are removed and pesticides, MOSH/MOAH, polycyclic hydrocarbons (PAH) and plasticisers such as DEHP are significantly reduced.

Michel Burla, Managing Director of Nutriswiss, said: “Manufacturers of vegetable oils face increasingly stringent legal requirements, such as stricter limits for pollutants. With our state-of-the-art technologies, we can comprehensively meet their needs and support our customers. This applies not only to olive oil, but to a wide range of vegetable and animal oils, such as rapeseed, linseed, fish, algae or hemp oil.”

Swiss Bühler Group and Hosokawa Alpine Group from Germany have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to accelerate and strengthen the production of healthier and sustainable plant protein solutions. Together, the companies will provide customers with the most efficient value chain for pulses being processed into protein ingredients.

As the leading solution provider in pulses processing, Bühler offers solutions for the intake, cleaning, dehulling and grinding of pulses, and further food processing with its extrusion technology, which texturizes plant-based proteins into products with fibrous texture similar to meat. Hosokawa Alpine complements the production process by adding its leading technology for the dry separation of pulses’ protein: fine grinding and air classification. The combination of Bühler’s upstream pulses process and Hosokawa’s process for size reduction and classification produces the highest yields of high value protein concentrates. Ultimately, with this partnership the companies will be able to offer customers process technology and expertise along the complete field-to-fork pulses protein chain.

“Hosokawa Alpine will be our preferred partner for integrated solutions for our customers that are processing sustainable proteins. Thanks to their vast expertise in protein extraction, we can now cover the entire value chain for plant-based protein – from any kind of pulses to dry extrudates ready for consumption,” said Johannes Wick, CEO Bühler Grains & Food.

This statement is echoed by Dr. Antonio Fernández, chairman of the executive board at Hosokawa Alpine: “By working with Bühler, we can fully realize the potential of the value chain. With our combined technologies, we meet the market requirements in the best possible way and drive developments in the process chain forward.”

Seamless customer experience

 The strategic partnership will strengthen the innovation and development capacities of both companies. The market for sustainable proteins has been growing significantly over the last years, fuelled by consumers demanding more sustainable proteins.

“With this cooperation, we can address customer needs from the harvest to the final product. We operate in an integrated and collaborative way to ensure a seamless experience for our customers. This starts with our application centres in Uzwil Switzerland, and the brand-new Food Application Center in Minneapolis, US, created to develop new methods of transforming pulses and grains into tasty new food solutions. They are complemented by Hosokawa Alpine’s facilities in Augsburg, Germany, all of them being available for customer trials. Our collaboration goes through to commissioning and services ensuring high-quality outputs for our customers,” said Andreas Risch, Head of Special Grains & Pulses at Bühler.

Besides this latest collaboration agreement, Bühler and Hosokawa Alpine have been working together on different projects and industries since the 1980s. This led the two partners to the conclusion that their strong customer focus and innovation power make for a strong fit for the sustainable protein sector.

Apart from this cooperation agreement, both companies will continue to market their solutions independently through their own existing distribution channels.

The power of pulses

Peas, lentils, chickpeas, and many other dry beans are high in protein, vitamins, and minerals, which makes them an excellent meat substitute. Pulses sit at the top of the list when it comes to providing a growing world population with plant protein. Their cultivation is more resource efficient than most animal protein sources, with a positive impact on sustainability.