RiceBran Technologies to Launch Rice Bran Protein Ingredients

25 Mar 2013 --- RiceBran Technologies, a global leader in the production and marketing of value added products derived from rice bran, a highly sustainable rice milling byproduct, today announced plans to launch a new family of ingredients based on rice bran protein under the trademark PRORYZA.

Over the past two years, RiceBran Technologies has co-developed technologies to extract and concentrate high value vegetable protein from rice bran. The PRORYZA rice bran protein ingredients will be produced using methods that require minimal processing and without the use of solvents, acids or bases thereby providing customers with natural ingredients.

"The rice bran protein is derived from stabilized rice bran using enzymatic treatment technology which maintains the 'all-natural' status. 'All-natural' is increasingly important for whole foods as well as specialty foods such as glutenfree, sports nutrition, high-moisture extruded meatfree, diabetic T2 and sarcopenia prevention. Another emerging market is soy protein replacement in premium whole muscle meats, especially pastrami and roasted beef," says Henk Hoogenkamp, a spokesperon for RiceBran Technologies.
 
Products to be commercialized under the PRORYZA brand will be natural, gluten-free, non-GMO, and hypoallergenic premium proteins. These rice bran protein ingredients will be produced at the company's Dillon, Montana Stage 2 manufacturing facility.
 
"As we continually strive to expand the company's offering of rice bran ingredients and derivatives, we are excited to introduce our new line of rice bran protein products under the PRORYZA name," said, Robert Smith PhD, SVP - Business Development at RiceBran Technologies. "Our rice bran protein products provide natural, allergen-free options for enriching foods and beverages with a high quality vegetable protein with superior flavor and nutritional profiles."
 
First to market in the PRORYZA portfolio of rice bran protein products will be PRORYZA P-35, a 35% water-dispersible rice bran protein extract suitable for beverage applications. This will be followed by PRORYZA PF-20/50, a 20% rice bran protein and 50% insoluble rice bran dietary fiber product that will initially be targeted to the natural health food industry as a premium rice bran protein and fiber ingredient.
 
RiceBran Technologies is a human food ingredient and animal nutrition company focused on the procurement, bio-refining and marketing of numerous products derived from rice bran. Rice Bran Technologies has proprietary and patented intellectual property that allows us to convert rice bran, one of the world's most underutilized food sources, into a number of highly nutritious human food ingredient and animal nutrition products. Our target markets are human food ingredients and animal nutrition manufacturers and retailers, as well as natural food, functional food and nutraceutical supplement manufacturers and retailers, both domestically and internationally.

"There is lots of interest, especially the US and Canada companies targeting whole foods, GMfree, specialty nutrition including cereals. The main reason is the hypoallergenicity of the rice protein and its preferred flavor profile which eliminates the need to using masking flavors such as often is the case when other types of vegetable proteins are used," Hoogenkamp states.

Last week it emerged that RiceBran Technologies and Royal DSM completed the Joint Research and Development Agreement initiated in November 2011.

Under the terms of the agreement, DSM and RiceBran Technologies havedeveloped new technology which can be used to produce first generation protein products from rice bran.

Pursuant to the completion of the JRDA, each party holds the right to further develop and commercialize the resulting first generationtechnology for its own benefit.