Beneo Group’s food ingredient offering has previously fallen into three areas: Inulin and oligofructose from chicory (Beneo-Orafti), sugar replacers isomalt and palatinose (Beneo-Palatinate), and rice derivatives (Beneo-Remy).
The new product offering has been made possible by its parent company, Suedzucker, investing in two factories in Germany and Belgium that transform some 800,000 tonnes of wheat and 300,000 tonnes of sugar into bioethanol.
“All of a sudden we have access to a big amount of wheat derivatives,” Tim Van der Schraelen, marketing communication manager, told FoodNavigator.com.
He explained that the wheat is milled to a flour and mixed with water to make a dough, which is then washed out to remove all the fermentable compounds that can be used to make alcohol.
“What is left is protein, and if you dry it very carefully it keeps its technical benefits.”
Beneo’s new wheat protein is being offered to market as BeneoPro VWG, and it main application is in bakery products and pastry to bring elasticity to dough and enable manufacturers to manage volume. It is also helpful for standardising quality as the protein levels in wheat, which determine quality parameters, vary considerably depending on growing conditions.
Other uses are in batters and breadings to provide extra crispiness, in breakfast cereals to make flakes stronger and reduce risk of breakage, in pasta and noodles to strengthen the strands and protect from overcooking, and in meat as a binder and as a meat replacer.
A protein business
Van der Schraelen said the addition of BeneoPro VWG adds a fourth pillar to the Beneo Group, but he added that the company has always been strong in the bakery market and there are likely to be synergies with other products in its portfolio.
The company was already offering rice protein through Beneo-Remy, but he said: “It was just one. This builds protein into a bigger business. Until now Beneo Group was more focused on carbs.”