Ingredion Incorporated, a leading global provider of specialty ingredient solutions to the food and beverage manufacturing industry, has been named the Best Plant-Based Sustainability winner of The World Plant-Based Awards at the 2022 Plant Based World Expo in New York.
Started in 2019, The World Plant-Based Awards, in association with Plant Based World Expo, celebrate innovation and excellence across the plant-based food and drink industry. The 2022 competition included 140 entries across 17 award categories with awards submitted from 20 different countries.
“At Ingredion, we’re committed to helping our customers build purpose driven brands by delivering the product features and benefits that consumers value most, and sustainability is at the top of the list. This award distinguishes us and highlights our proprietary innovations as a leading global supplier in the plant-based protein space,” said Michael Natale, Global Leader, Plant Based Proteins at Ingredion. “We are honored that our Ulta Performance line has been recognized for its achievements in product excellence and sustainability at this year’s Plant Based World Expo.”
To meet consumers’ evolving nutrition, health, wellness and sustainability needs, the Ultra Performance line helps empower food and beverage manufacturers to increase protein in grams due to the ingredient’s delivery of up to 60% plant protein content (on dry basis), while offering an improved sensory experience and clean flavor profiles in comparison to those found in conventional dry-milled ingredients like faba and pea concentrates and flours.
Ingredion’s Ultra Performance line helps food manufacturers overcome many taste and texture barriers — which remain hurdles to product adoption — and enables the creation of plant-based food and beverages using pea protein without the raw plant flavor, bitter taste or uncontrolled microbial levels inherent in dry milling pulse products.
The products in Ingredion’s Ultra Performance line do not generate any wastewater during processing, highlighting the line’s ability to address several plant-based product adoption barriers, including taste and sustainable sourcing. The Ultra Performance line is made at the company’s Vanscoy facility, located in Saskatchewan, Canada, using a proprietary physical process that does not use chemicals or additives whileconsuming significantly less water (0.2%) and energy (5.5%) in comparison to traditional pea protein production.