Upcycling ingredients: Cano-ela’s tech poised to extract oil, protein and fiber from rapeseed

04 Aug 2023 --- Dutch food tech company Cano-ela’s latest extraction technique allows food innovators to draw out three ingredients from rapeseed while helping “eliminate waste streams” and enabling producers to develop food products. It can improve the taste, texture and sustainability of plant-based foods as well as meat or dairy alternatives.

The technique can extract the oil, protein and fiber from rapeseed, also known as canola.

In a conversation with Food Ingredients First, Juliana Romero, founder and CEO of Cano-ela, states the reason behind the focus on rapeseed, “There is a worldwide availability, which means that the raw material is already there and many people know how to grow it. Moreover, the nutritional profile of the crop is very good.”

The technique can extract the oil, protein and fiber from rapeseed, also known as canola.High on nutrition
“The seed is densely nutritious, rich in oil, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals,” remarks Romero. 

She points toward the good fats and protein profile in rapeseed, “The ratio of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids is very healthy, comparable to olive oil. It is one of the few proteins from plant origin with a complete amino-acid profile."

“Canola seed has long been used to produce oil. The resulting by-products end up as waste or animal feed. In total, this makes it the largest protein-rich waste stream in the world,” she says.

She deems this a “terrible waste” because it may not be the best way to process the seed.  She adds, "You can extract many other healthy ingredients from it."

Getting the right push
To help propel Cano-ela’s “rapeseed innovation,” Vroegefasefinanciering (VFF) Gelderland - which is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency - provides funding, while StartLife and Oost NL are backing the Dutch-based food tech start-up’s efforts.

Romero discusses this development: “The funding enables us to conduct extensive research into the match between product and market. This includes conducting trials with potential customers in different phases.”

“StartLife and Oost NL are valuable partners who also help us focus on the business case."

With the cash injection, Cano-ela is now “working toward a pilot plant” to scale up production.The Cano-ela team.(Image credit: Cano-ela).

“It has been difficult to keep providing ingredients to our prospects with a good speed because we do not have our factory. By owning our facility, we can keep the continuous optimization of our ingredients at a relevant scale,” she underlines.

VFF Gelderland’s Early Stage Funding program aims to support ambitious entrepreneurs in developing their proof-of-concept phase, which Cano-ela is now in.

“The validation phase coming up now is exciting, but Cano-ela has a strong plan and a driven team. It is great that we can support Cano-ela from VFF Gelderland to make their technology market-ready,” states Lise van den Bosch, investment manager of food at Oost NL.

“Cano-ela’s technology fits well with the increasing demand for alternative proteins and sustainable food products with a clean label – a product without unnatural food additives,” she underscores.

Gentle fractionation to retain properties
Romero notes that the extraction technique has few processing steps. 

The process extracts not only the oil from the seed, but also “proteins and carbohydrates.”

“Everything starts by soaking the seeds, and then they go through mild processing steps; we fractionate the whole seed into three different ingredients.”Cano-ela has used the ingredients to develop vegan bakery products, dressings, and meat and dairy alternatives.(Image credit: Cano-ela).

She describes the technique as a “gentle process” that preserves good properties from the seed.

These properties are valuable and can “improve the taste, texture and sustainability” of plant-based foods and meat or dairy alternatives.

Innovation at the right time
Romero affirms that the consumers of alternative proteins care a lot about health, and various alternatives are currently evolving to “check” this aspect, especially with initiatives like “Nutri-score” that make it easier for consumers to track this factor.

“We believe that having ingredients that can enable clean label food production, sustainability and healthiness is definitely in line with the consumer demands, and therefore, we believe that it is the perfect time for solutions like ours to support innovation in the space.”

“Food companies can use the ingredients to create emulsions, foams, increase viscosity, improve mouthfeel and much more.”

Cano-ela has used the ingredients to develop vegan bakery products, dressings and meat and dairy alternatives and has received "positive feedback" from companies.

According to Innova Market Insights, 50% of consumers say they pay attention to the environmental labels on packaging.

“We want to redefine circular food systems in practice. It is not only about using all the natural resources but also about allocating them to the best use, using the full potential of the seed.” 

Instead of using a part of the crop as feed, the company “ensures” that the proteins and carbohydrates can enter the food supply chain directly.

VFF Gelderland funds start-ups to help them investigate the extent to which their technical concept matches interest in the market. The Proof-of-concept fund VFF Gelderland focuses on entrepreneurs who contribute to solutions for social issues. 

Oost NL manages the fund, collaborating with local initiatives for start-ups within their sectors, with StartLife, which is based on Wageningen University & Research campus, focused on the agri-food tech  sector.

The preserved properties  of canola seeds can “improve the taste, texture and sustainability” of plant-based meat.Last year, Food Ingredients First reported a high-quality canola protein isolate developed after ten years of R&D.

Leveraging upcycled ingredients
Companies are tapping into the growing potential to transform food that would previously have gone to waste. It’s an attractive concept that rescues ingredients that have historically been discarded.

Upcycling has come to the fore in recent years as companies seek to become more sustainable, meet their green targets, while at the same time reduce food waste and tap into potential income sidestreams.

Earlier this year, we spoke with a range of manufacturers about “going from side stream to mainstream.”

According to Innova Market Insights, 50% of consumers say they pay attention to the environmental labels on packaging. Furthermore, products with upcycling claims saw an increase of 62% CAGR between the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2022, according to the market researcher.

By Insha Naureen