Tech Today: Finding the Right Mix for Plant-Based Alternatives

In 2021, Bob’s Red Mill’s recycling diversion rate, or rate of materials diverted from the landfi ll, was 90.8%; 4,201 tons of materials were recycled or upcycled. “While we would practice the food waste rescue and recycling programs regardless of ROI, the programs were able to generate net revenue in 2021,” explains Person. “This revenue fi gure is after waste disposal costs are subtracted.”

The company saw costs for manpower and waste disposal, but generated value for baled cardboard, baled plastic fi lm, reused pallets, recycled metal, and upcycled feed.

The project timeline was approximately two months to collect data from a variety of sources and an additional two months to onboard a new commodity recycler and feed upcycling company.

In addition, uncalculated savings for this program included reduced carbon emissions related to food waste not reaching the landfi ll or compost facility.

“In total with upcycling, reuse, and recycling e orts, we diverted 4,201 tons (8,402,599 lb) in 2021,” Person says. “Knowing that our local community needs nutritious food, we connected with non-profi ts to get our rescued food donated. In addition, in 2021, we examined our feed upcycling program and found opportunities for improvement by working with a new partner to ensure the maximum amount of feed is upcycled.”

With the start of its o cial sustainability program in 2021, Bob’s Red Mill measured its baseline and collected information on all materials fl ow. Person says having this data lets the company know what it is not yet diverting from the landfi ll and focus on improvements.

Bob’s Red Mill set up processes with machine operators to intercept product from the waste stream and trained the material handling team to identify donatable items. For scrap product going to the animal feed stream, Person recommends thoroughly vetting any sustainability partners to ensure that material fl ow is timely, and communication is strong.

THIRD PLACE PROGRAM CATEGORY Pizza Yield Improvement Project at Conagra Brands Comes With No Cost

Conagra Brands’ Troy, Ohio, team implemented a comprehensive continuous improvement program on the site’s bakery line when running pizza, and have set up new process and operating standards, organization, and line planning. Ongoing e orts are expected to deliver more than $325,000 in cost savings by reducing yield loss by 13.4% and eliminating 267,000 lb of meat, cheese, and breading waste.

“Every opportunity to manufacture food more e ciently will allow us to use water and energy resources [Scope 1 and 2 GHG] more e ciently,” says Kate Pitschka, director of supply chain sustainability. “However, they are not directly quantifi ed in this submission. Also, by eliminating food waste, we reduce the amount of Scope 3 GHG emissions [EPA WARM] that the food waste would create downstream.”

Meat toppings process and planning analysis took six months and concluded in August 2021; cheese process and planning improvements took fi ve months and concluded in November 2021; extra toppings and cheese reuse took one month to implement in September 2021; and over a two-month period, employees’ continuous improvement skills were developed, beginning in November 2021.

The reduction of the weight average per case is forecasted to deliver annualized savings of more than $325,000.

“Programs similar to this have been implemented at other Conagra facilities, but the Troy team is one of the most e ective,” Pitschka explains. “They have strong foundational knowledge on the Conagra Performance System principles and applied it to their bakery line, equipment, and sta ng circumstances.”

“Any manufacturing facility can implement the problem-solving tools used in our continuous improvement program, but it would take a long time to develop the continuous improvement culture like we have at the Troy facility,” says Plant Manager Je Erwin. “For example, it would take another facility with a less-developed culture many months instead of just the two months it took us,” he adds. The Troy facility demonstrated that it is worth investing in the development of all team members.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CONAGRA BRANDS

Conagra Brands’ Troy, Ohio, team has strong foundational knowledge on the Conagra Performance System principles and e ectively applied it to a pizza bakery line.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CONAGRA BRANDS

Sta at Conagra Brands’ Irapuato, Mexico, facility implemented a water and chemical savings project that saved the facility close to $50,000.

FIRST PLACE PROJECT CATEGORY Conagra Facility Saves Nearly 9 Million Gallons of Water

The main objective of the project at Conagra Brands’ Irapuato, Mexico, plant was the reduction of water consumption. In this project, two specifi c situations were considered: • Identifi cation of water leaks and improvements in the sweet corn process and canning process equipment. • Completing sanitation more e ciently on various lines to reduce the consumption of cleaning chemicals, resulting in greater production line availability. Also, some of the sweet corn equipment required a redesign to eliminate or make more e cient use of water.

Reducing water consumption is a benefi t for the entire community since the plant is located in an area with limited water availability. By improving the operating conditions of its wastewater treatment facility and discharge parameters, the water can be reused for farmland irrigation.

“The corn/cannery production improvements were completed over seven months, fi nishing in September 2022, and the sanitation improvements were completed from April 2021 to May 2021,” says Fernando Alcántar Gómez, EHS manager. “Both projects resulted in an 8% reduction in water use per production year over year, with ROI in less than a month.”

The project returned more than 10 times its cost, saved nearly 9 million gal of water, and reduced chemical usage by 2,680 gal.

“With a cross-functional team and advice from prior facility projects, the Irapuato site was able to implement these projects with ease and maintain the quality of our food products,” states Alcántar.

SECOND PLACE PROJECT CATEGORY Switch to Plastic Combos at Smith eld Foods Is an Environmental Winner

Early in 2021, Smithfi eld Foods’ Milan, Mo., plant started sending out hams for further processing, transporting them in cardboard combos. The facility quickly realized it could save money and reduce cardboard usage by using reusable plastic combos.

Less than 30 days into the project, the plant ordered 720 plastic reusable combos. On average, the Milan facility ships 100 combos of hams per day. “Although 720 plastic combos are not enough to replace every cardboard combo we ship, it will reward us with a 50% reduction in cardboard usage,” says Wes Maulsby, wastewater operator at the Milan facility.

The combo project’s goal included: • Reducing GHG emissions—Cardboard savings can be directly related to the release of methane, a GHG, as it breaks down in a landfi ll. Per ton released, methane will contribute to global warming at a pace more than that of carbon dioxide. • Reducing water usage—Using less cardboard creates less demand and reduces manufacturing water usage. • Reducing energy—Fuel sources to manufacture cardboard are no longer needed. • Reducing global warming—Deforestation is a huge contributor to global warming. The facility can save 17 trees per ton of corrugated cardboard savings, and every eight pallets saved will yield one saved tree.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SMITHFIELD FOODS

At Smithfi eld Foods’ Milan, Mo., facility, the switch from cardboard to reusable plastic combos is expected to save $1.3 million over the next fi ve years.

• Reducing landfi ll—For every ton of cardboard savings, landfi ll area can be cut by 9 yd3 .

The project was completed in the fi rst quarter of 2021, when the Milan plant shipped the fi rst hams for further processing. In February 2021, the facility received its fi rst load of plastic reusable combos and, in March 2021, shipped the fi rst load of hams in reusable combos.

The Milan facility expects to save more than $1.3 million over the next fi ve years employing reusable combos. “We use this mindset of reusable combos vs. cardboard combos whenever applicable,” explains Maulsby.

But not all applications will accommodate the conversion to plastic combos. “When it can be used, it is very cost-e ective for this company and benefi cial to our environment,” Maulsby states.

Pitfalls may include logistics, he adds. “We have more than enough combos to ship all of our product on a seven-day rotation, if we receive our plastic combos back within seven days. Logistics is key to keeping our plastic combos in circulation. If we can receive all combos back within a timely manner, we can easily increase cardboard savings.”

THIRD PLACE PROJECT CATEGORY Conagra Brands’ Blast Cell Air Optimization Project Reaches ROI in Less Than a Year

Degradation of freezer blast cells was resulting in improper airfl ow and ine ciency of the blast cell function at Conagra Brands’ Marshall, Mo., facility. Repairs were made to air segregation, and ba e design was changed to reduce potential damage from the forklift loading process.

Meet the Winners at PACK EXPO Las Vegas

The 2021 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award winners will present more details on their projects at a special session during PACK EXPO International in Chicago. Join us Sunday, Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. at the Processing Innovation Stage at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center Building Concourse near Starbucks in booth LU-7130.

Register now at www.packexpointernational.com.

ProFood World wants to hear about your current sustainability projects. The submission deadline and eligibility requirements for the 2022 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards will be announced this fall at pfwgo.to/sema.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CONAGRA BRANDS

The sta at Conagra Brands’ Marshall, Mo., plant discovered and repaired sources of signifi cant energy waste in the freezing operation.

“Ba es were added at the back of each rack column in the blast cells to force the airfl ow through the product pallets to improve the heat transfer of the freezer,” explains Scottie McKenzie, plant engineering manager. “This reduces the freeze time, lowers electricity consumption, and increases plant capacity.”

The project will reduce the plant’s electricity consumption by 5.7% and reduce the plant’s Scope 2 GHG footprint by almost 1,300 metric tons. “E ciency projects like this will be an important piece of the entire company’s science-based target,” he adds.

In September 2021, a freezer evaluation uncovered ine ciencies in the blast cells. Contractors installed ba es inside the blast cells in November 2021, and performance monitoring occurred in December 2021. The project paid for itself in less than one year.

At the Marshall facility, product requiring freezing is estimated at 500,000 lb/day. Now the plant has seen a 10% reduction in freeze time, a 5.7% total site electricity reduction, and an overall reduction in kWh/lb usage. The result is a yearly savings of more than $200,000.

“This project would be worth looking into for any cold storage facility, specifi cally where blast cells are loaded using forklifts,” says McKenzie. Identifying potential damage could be a way to uncover sources of signifi cant energy waste. “Training to specifi cally not damage the entryway would be something that could be avoided at other facilities,” he adds.

AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Finding the Right Mix forPLANT-BASED ALTERNATIVES

Both ingredient suppliers and CPGs are trying to discover the right proteins for the job as they play with plant-based formulations to get the taste, texture, mouthfeel—and scalability—they’re looking for.

THOUGH IT’S A VERY SMALL percentage of people that label themselves as vegan or even vegetarian, there’s no mistaking the tsunami of support from consumers to move in the general direction of plant-based diets. “There’s a shift away from the animal-derived system we’re dealing with now,” says Christian Flinn of the Plant Based Foods Association. “This is related to health as well as planetary and environmental concerns.”

The plant-based market has grown 54% since 2018, Flinn notes, and grew 28% in 2020 alone. Plant-based milks are seen as the growth engine for the entire plant-based industry, he adds, with 42% of households purchasing plant-based milks in 2021.

The numbers aren’t nearly as high for plant-based meat alternatives—only 19% of households purchased meat analogues in 2021, up slightly from 15% in 2019, Flinn notes. Shoppers are trying to align purchases with values, and align themselves with choices that are healthier for both them and the environment.

But if they can’t align those purchases with their bottom line, it’s going to continue to be a di cult sell. Price parity will be key for the plant-based protein sector to really take o . Optimizing production systems, throughput, and energy will be vital to getting costs more in line with traditional o erings.

Environmental or economic sustainability?

It is somewhat unclear how much importance plantbased food manufacturers put on sustainability. According to a survey-based analysis of the market by CRB presented at the most recent Process Expo, manufacturers seem to be able to get by on the idea that plant-based foods are a sustainable choice in themselves. “The industry is counting on the plantbased claim to communicate sustainability,” says Tony Moses, director of product innovation at CRB. “Sustainability really is at the core, but we think the industry is missing opportunities to produce sustainably.”

For plant-based production, equipment tends to be the key cost driver, CRB’s report showed, and energy and water consumption were the lowest cost driver. But this is not a reason for celebration, Moses notes. “It concerns us that it isn’t driving development work,” he says.

But it’s not only higher throughput from the production equipment that would help to bring costs

The plant-based industry has progressed from burgers to imitating whole cuts of meat. This chicken breast analogue is made through extrusion.

s PHOTO COURTESY OF CLEXTRAL

PLANT-BASED ALTERNATIVES

down. Saving energy and water in the manufacturing process would go a long way to meeting those goals as well.

Consumer food producers might have room to reach high-value niche markets. But in the commodity-driven space of food and feed, ingredient manufacturers have little control over price. “So the only way that they can ensure economic sustainability, and therefore their profi t margins, they have to focus on their cost of operation, which is where value engineering and optimizing their manufacturing processes system is critical,” says Greg See Hoye, market manager for the plant-based protein industry for Dedert. “And that’s where their equipment manufacturers can come in.”

Drying the protein

Throughput isn’t the only way to bring costs down, See Hoye emphasizes, pointing to energy costs and water consumption as signifi cant pain points. In this direction, Dedert has been working on various protein drying technologies as alternatives to the typical spray dryer.

Wet fractionation is well established for yielding high purity rates from proteins. But it also creates a need for drying the protein again at the back end. Thermal drying is very energy-intensive, and spray drying—creating a liquid product to then bring it all the way down to a powder—leads to high costs of operation.

At this year’s Plant-Based Foods & Proteins Summit in Chicago, See Hoye presented some alternatives, including a ring dryer that would reduce the cost of drying by 30 to 40%.

“The technology that I’m proposing with ring drying is already well established for over 20 to 30 years in the wheat industry. Wheat gluten is a very,

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEPEX An alternative to spray drying, which requires the protein to be in liquid form, Bepex’s PCX Flash Dryer is a dispersion-type dryer that accepts wet cakes, pastes, or slurries. very di cult protein to dry. And in that time period, we’ve gone through many iterations of that technology until it’s gotten to the point it is at today— where we started small scale, then bigger industrial scale, and now super industrial scale,” See Hoye explains. “I want to take that same technology and apply it to pea protein. Why wouldn’t it work? It’s just a di erent crop source.” Dedert is also proposing improvements to the spray dryer itself, including using a rotary atomizer instead of a nozzle atomizer. “A nozzle atomizer requires a high-pressure pump, which has a holdup capacity, and therefore is di cult to clean,” See

PHOTO COURTESY OF CLEXTRAL

As a typical bottleneck, wet extrusion is seen as a key place to make improvements in plant-based throughput. Hoye says. “So for food safety and food-grade specifications, maintenance might be a challenge.” The rotary dryer, conversely, is easy to use and maintain, he adds.

Bepex has a di erent approach. “We have a drying technology that can take a material with less water in it that a spray dryer can’t really—a viscous paste—and dry it down to a final form,” says Jack Keeney, executive director of sales and marketing for Bepex. “This allows our customers to get the same product they’re looking for but at a fraction of the operating costs. It’s a smaller footprint, less emissions, and less water.”

Bepex’s PCX Flash Dryer is a dispersion-type dryer that accepts wet cakes, pastes, or slurries and dries them to a fine powder or small granules. The PCX is able to dry dewatered, non-pumpable wet cakes, significantly reducing the size and operating cost of the overall system.

Spray dryers work by atomizing the protein material to then feed it into the dryer. The protein needs to be highly diluted so that it can be fed through a high-pressure spray nozzle to atomize it into a mist.

Within the plant-based realm, Bepex’s flash dryers are used for drying proteins, as well as byproducts such as starches and fibers, from a wide variety of plants, including soy, pea, fava beans, pulses, and lentils. “To get high-quality proteins, there’s a lot of separation, a lot of water, and you separate fiber and starch from that as well,” Keeney says. “Any mechanical separation our customers can do upstream of our dryer is only going to make their process more economical because it usually costs less to mechanically separate instead of putting thermal natural gas BTUs in use as we are. If you can squeeze the moisture out, it’s going to cost a lot less than using hot air to remove it.”

Taking advantage of existing equipment

In many ways, there’s no need for plant-based food producers to reinvent the wheel. “Proteins have been being dried for decades,” Keeney says. “We’re just trying to dry it in similar ways to traditional methods.” Bepex’s roots, for example, go back to the grain industry of the early 1900s. The plantbased protein industry can look to traditional vegetable or grain processing, for example. “Manufacturers’ requirements, overall, are the same as all food processing requirements: consistent quality product, reliability, flexibility to manage multiple SKUs such as ingredient variation and machine configuration, food safety concerns being addressed by hygienically designed equipment, smart technology, and higher capacities,” comments John Barber, USA/Canada sales manager for Clextral USA.

Other equipment suppliers make similar assertions. At the Plant-Based Summit, both Flottweg and GEA discussed the suitability of their existing equipment lines for plant-based processing.

GEA’s Mission 26, presented in the latter part of 2021, is a five-year financial plan that focuses in part on sustainability, innovations, and new foods such as plant-based, cell-based, and insect-based proteins. “We’ve combined all product lines to specifically focus on plant proteins,” Mark Braun, international business development manager for GEA, told the plant-based industry audience. “We’ve combined all our product lines to specifically focus on plant proteins. A whole division was created to support you guys. We’re taking all our expertise and applying it to your specific needs.” GEA’s range of spray drying, evaporators, decanters, separators, extruders, and more cover 80% of the required process equipment for the industry, he adds.

Focused on wet fractionation, Flottweg provides decanters, centrifuges, and other parts of the line for a wide variety and ever-growing lineup of crops, notes Mathias Aschenbrenner, sales engineer for Flottweg.

Where plant-based protein manufacturers often need extra help, however, is the fact that many of them are small start-up companies that might not have the funds or expertise to ramp up production.

Zeppelin makes a range of equipment for both the ingredient manufacturers and food producers—bulk handling systems, rehydration equipment, blending systems—giving it a view on the industry as a whole. “A lot of these companies are very small, so they kind of need start-up systems, so that’s what we’re providing them: Here’s your first phase, get the bulk ingredients that you use the most of and get those automated, and then here’s your phase two and phase three approach,” says Lisa Arato, sales