Protein Challenges? Here’s What to Do

The path to innovating with plant protein seldom leads in a straight line.

Creating something new means unexpected challenges. It can happen on the bench, when formulas don’t get results you were expecting. It can happen during scale-up, when the move to pilot or to full production means a change in processes and volumes.

If you’re working with NUTRALYS® products and you’re facing complications in your innovation process, what should you do next?

You call your collaborators, naturally.

“Our strategy is not just to sell the product, but to make long-term relationships with customers,” says Prateek Jain, product line manager for NUTRALYS®. “We want to be their partners.”

That means Roquette customers can often benefit from Roquette’s many years of plant-protein expertise.

“If there’s a problem,” Jain says, “we find out what’s going on.”

So how does getting help work? Sergio Machado, head of Customer Technical Services in the Americas, says Roquette customers will often start by reaching out to their salesperson or account lead.

That person can make a direct request for Roquette scientists to diagnose the problem.

Then, Roquette gets to work on solving it.

“When it comes to problem-solving, you have to put the science to work,” Machado says. “We do that, and we come back with a solution.”

He says the expertise of Roquette teams is often needed during scale-up when large volumes introduce new factors to production. “Our team is your team,” Machado says.

One common scale-up challenge is protein hydration – adding water to most NUTRALYS® products in the right way is critical to get good functionality. Extrusion can be tricky too, Machado says, if customers are working on meat-analog products. In both instances, achieving texture requires handling ingredients in the right way. Customers reach their team to get the help they need.

He understands just how they feel. Before his career brought him to Roquette, Machado worked for one of Roquette’s client companies.

“I remember everyone there talking about Roquette as the experts,” Machado says. “I’d have a problem, and they’d say ‘Don’t try to solve that yourself. Call Roquette.’”