UK and Canada: Meatless Farm launches ingredients subsidiary and new protein plant

  • 17 March 2021
  • Plant-based
The $12 million facility will produce up to 14,500 tonnes of plant protein ingredients by 2023
Lovingly Made Ingredients plant Meatless Farms
The Lovingly Made Ingredients plant protein facility in Calgary

Yorkshire-headquartered plant-based meat company Meatless Farm has launched a plant protein ingredients subsidiary, Lovingly Made Ingredients, to provide its own supply of TPP (textured plant protein) and to supply other companies.

Lovingly Made Ingredients will operate from a new 30,000 square foot plant protein facility in Calgary, Canada. Meatless Farm has invested an initial US$12 million for the facility, which will produce up to 14,500 tonnes of plant protein ingredients by 2023. It will also produce customised plant proteins for external customers in the meat-alternatives, bakery, snacks, and cereals sector.  

The facility will use low amounts of water and energy and aims to be net zero on carbon emissions throughout the supply chain within the first year. The facility will support the business’s Farm to Fork programme which prioritises a secure and sustainable supply chain and aims to work directly with farmer collectives to source peas and guarantee quality, freshness and full traceability.

The company has completed two rounds of oversubscribed fundraising in the past year, with funds totalling $48 million. The business has 10 SKUs planned over the next six months and is also investing in plants for Europe and Asia to help shorten the supply chain in local markets.

Meatless Farm founder Morten Toft Bech said: “Meatless Farm started less than five years ago at my kitchen table so it’s amazing to see us open a facility of this size and scale and is testament to the growth and importance of this sector. The pace of global growth presents opportunities for how we can share our expertise and innovation with other partners and that is where Lovingly Made Ingredients comes in. Our mission to reduce global meat consumption looks beyond just our brand, we need to do more.

“Consumers are learning how big an impact reducing your meat consumption can have on cutting carbon emissions and that even small changes add up to help make a bigger difference – for example, in the UK, if we all had just one less meat meal per week we could see emissions reduce by around 8%. This is why we are focusing on making products that appeal to meat eaters, not just vegetarians and vegans and we want to support others in that mission too. A big part of that is having access to the best quality raw ingredients so that eating for the good of the environment doesn’t mean compromising on taste or nutrition.

“Canada is the pea-capital of the world so it makes sense to have a facility here which will give us the ability in future to grow, harvest, process and extract our pea protein all within one country. Bringing this under our own operations in Canada will have huge benefits for efficiency, quality, sustainability and innovation and enable us to offer that innovation and manufacturing expertise to other partners too.”