Bioexx set to roll out ‘unique’ canola proteins isolates

07-Apr-2009 - Last updated on 08-Apr-2009 at 15:49 GMT

Canada’s Bioexx has announced the successful pilot plant production of a canola protein isolate and hydrolyzed protein concentrate for foods.

According to the company, the isolate compares favorably with both soy protein isolates and whey protein isolates, leaders in the vegetable protein market and the high end of the isolate market, respectively.

The isolate, known as Isolexx, and the hydrolysate, known as Vitalexx, can be used in a wide range of products including nutritional beverages, nutritional supplements, infant formulas, meat products and meat substitutes, baked goods, sauces and creams, confectionaries, milk and egg replacers.

“Although we still have work to do in regulatory matters and to optimize the product for selected applications, we now have a clear path to the delivery of these two unique, superior, and very high value products to our market,” said Chris Carl, BioExx CEO.

“The ability to produce superior quality Isolates and HPC’s from the same feedstock that at present is used primarily to produce oil and animal feeds represents a quantum leap in the food value obtained from a pre-exiting agricultural crop,” he added.

Patent-pending approach

According to the company, extraction of the isolates and hydrolysates is based on same technology as the low-temperature and patented BioExx oil extraction technology.

“To have proven that this is now viable at a pilot scale, with a commercial scale facility already in its initial stages represents a stage of development which only BioExx has been able to achieve,” said Carl.

A US patent is pending for the new approach. The company intends to produce both ingredients at all of its production facilities, beginning in early 2011, including its 40,000 MT per year Saskatoon facility.

“The patent-pending BioExx process was able to lower anti-nutrient levels to insignificant levels in our concentrates and to almost zero in the isolates,” Sean Kondra, Bioexx’s director of communications told FoodNavigator-USA.com.

Early production yield estimates from the company suggest production of 60 kg of CPI and 120 kg of HPC for each metric ton of canola seed processed.

Regulatory approval

The company confirmed that it will work towards GRAS standing with the US FDA, as well as equivalent approval by regulatory authorities in Canada and the EU.

“With regard to regulatory approval in the US and Canada (primarily FDA), we have identified and are in the process of retaining counsel to complete the self-affirmation process,” said Kondra. “We expect the compliance process to be completed by mid year 2010 and to have a self-affirmed GRAS at that time. We also expect a similar time line for EU approval.”

Characteristics

The protein isolate, which according to current market pricing will be between $6,000 and $8,000 per metric ton, has a reported purity of 92.8 percent, and a nutritional profile equivalent to soy and casein.

“Our pricing projects are based on relevant market pricing for soy protein products and depending on the application, are about 75-90 percent of the market pricing of whey isolates,” said Kondra. “We expect to have these proteins commercially available for sale as food ingredients by January 2011.”

According to Bioexx, the protein isolate has excellent solubility, and bio-availability, and is gluten-free, lactose-free, and non-allergenic. It also has a taste described by the company as clean or bland, with an absence of the odor often associated with vegetable proteins.

Production of the hydrolysate, which according to current market pricing will be between $4,000 and $6,000 per metric ton, has currently only been achieved on the lab scale with a purity of 88.8 percent. The ingredient has a reportedly high solubility across a wide pH range, with the company highlighting infant formula, and nutritional beverages as ideal applications.