Textured Fava Bean (Vicia faba): Manufactured at Scale for Nutrition, Quality and Sustainability

Fava bean (_Vicia faba_) is an established UK crop that improves soil fertility and helps lock in carbon. With the increase in flexitarian and vegan diets, plus the encouragement of more legumes in the diet, a fava based alternative to animal proteins would be advantageous across the UK supply chain and for the consumer. To achieve the textures expected for a meat analogue or extender from fava bean protein was challenging, but this challenge has been met. By using unusual and combinations of already established food processing techniques and innovative conditions a product has been made that compares well with other textured plant proteins. Major food producers and retailers consider, from their kitchen concept work, that the fava texturant showed excellent results. The challenge now is to use our technologies, developed for producing 25kg a month in a research facility, to build and equip a new factory making 5000 tonnes per year. Success for textured fava depends on it becoming an affordable everyday food and therefore requires manufacturing at scale. As volume production occurs, not only is there concern for the product's textural quality, but also that the process embraces high environmental standards, such as low inputs (energy/water, minimal waste) and appropriate use of co-streams. Textured fava must have clean label status, be safe in terms of anti-nutrients and retain the nutritional aspects associated with fava.

This project's team are those that originally carried out the ground-breaking steps to create texture from fava. ABMauri, to start scaling production, are building a 1st phase test market facility. Over the project's 9 months the SMEs will use this and other amenities to carry out a series of trials to establish which capital equipment can make, at scale, the textured fava. Potential equipment, destined for a new factory, can then be compared against operational requirements and other criteria. These criteria embrace our starting priorities of quality textured product, sustainability and nutritional excellence. To keep these factors at the forefront of decision making there will be independent advisors, paid for by the project, whose expertise include process efficiency, fava agronomy and legume nutrition. Another feature of the proposal is amassing a dissemination group, many with specialised knowledge, thereby achieving field-to-fork visibility, management of expectations and advising our decisions. Although not all know-how from this project may be shared, many aspects can be publicised and should encourage eating of affordable UK sourced plant proteins.