Ingredients supplier AB Mauri has partnered with food tech firm Nutris to develop new bakery solutions from fava beans for the UK and Irish markets.
Founded by Zvonimir Sedlic in 2019, Croatia-based Nutris is said to be a pioneer in the use of fava beans as a plant-based protein source. Its innovative process gently fractionating the pulse into protein, starch, and fibre to help deliver clean label, functional ingredients for modern food applications that improve performance, nutrition, and sustainability.
The strategic technical and supply collaborative agreement between the ingredients division of Associated British Foods (ABF) and Nutris will help accelerate its work in creating new fava bean solutions at its €30m (£26m) facility in the Croatian village of Novi Senkovac, near the border with Hungary which has a processing capacity of 45,000 tonnes.
AB Mauri operates 52 manufacturing plants globally and has its UK headquarters in Peterborough with a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for bakery development in Corby, Northamptonshire.
“It is clear to AB Mauri that Nutris is an organisation not only extremely committed to sustainable practices, but one that has also designed a highly advanced technical process realising significant opportunities in fava-bean-based protein,” commented Jim Hawkridge, product development & technical director at AB Mauri.
“We are equally enthused about the forthcoming commercial and technical opportunities that can be realised with Zvonimir and the Nutris team as a result.”
The leveraging of talent and resources across both companies is said to enable the design of advanced fava bean-based ingredients for a number of product groups in the UK and Ireland.
“At Nutris, we believe fava beans are one of the most underutilised yet powerful crops for sustainable food systems,” expressed Nutris founder Sedlic. The partnership ”creates an exciting opportunity to bring the functional and clean-label benefits of fava to mainstream applications”, Sedlic added.
Another plant-based functional ingredient, Seafibrex, has completed successful application trials of its use in gluten-free bread.
The seaweed-derived substance, which was previously integrated into breads and muffins, had performance evaluations on its use in popular food formats conducted at the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre. These were made in collaboration with BioMara, the Edinburgh-based company behind the patent-pending ingredient, with the research iniative funded by Innovate UK.
“The primary focus of this work was to assess the functional properties of Seafibrex when incorporated into common food matrices and evaluate the impact it had on the moisture and oil retention, structure, texture and flavour of the products,” said Jessica Gray, food technologist at the University of Nottingham.
Seafibrex was found to deliver comparable or improved results in gluten-free bread versus commonly used hydrocolloids such as psyllium husk and carboxymethyl cellulose. Notably, pre-hydration of the ingredient was unnecessary as it did not positively impact the final loaf, helping to simplify processing. It also created a more open, sourdough-style crumb, which may be advantageous for certain gluten-free formulations.
“Seafibrex’s ability to create and maintain structure in gluten-free systems is particularly valuable given the challenges associated with clean-label gluten-free bakery reformulation,” noted Gray.
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