Terviva: Move over soy, pea, there's a new plant-based protein in town
Terviva – a California-based firm commercializing ingredients from low-input, high-yielding Pongamia trees – aims to have commercial quantities of 'golden buttery' oil available by mid-2022, with ‘highly soluble’ protein isolates to follow in 2023. (Pic credit: Terviva.)
The company, which recently teamed up with Danone to "introduce Pongamia oil and plant protein to a broad range of food and beverage applications,” has developed proprietary techniques that remove anti-nutritional components during processing, opening up new food and beverage market opportunities for the “incredibly robust” nitrogen-fixing crop.
The mid-oleic oil – which is semi-solid in the fridge – has a golden color and buttery flavor with nutty notes, with potential in a range of applications from culinary oils to salad dressings, mayo, and plant-based meat products.
The protein isolates are garnering interest because of their neutral taste, attractive PDCAAS score (.85) vs some other plant proteins, and high solubility, says the firm.