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Rootiful

Rootiful is a Nottingham based manufacturer of plant based textured vegetable proteins (TVP), with a focus on producing sustainable and healthy food ingredients. The use of upcycled co-products and locally grown ingredients is key, as well as developing great texture and flavour. In order to expand their pipeline and offer a diverse range of plant-based TVPs, they are now working on creating a TVP from rapeseed press cake, a co-product from the production of rapeseed oil.  

 

 
Project brief

•       Investigate methods of treating the raw material in order to improve extrusion efficiency to produce successful rapeseed TVP.

• Research processes that are commonly used for the treatment of rapeseed cake, or potentially transferable processes from other oilseed cakes. 
• Focus on solutions that are easy to implement for the company at their production site, or at least be scalable.

The response

• A report was written that reviewed literature on processing techniques that could be applicable for rapeseed meal/press cake.

• Recommendations for the optimal conditions and materials were made, with some suggestions on where appropriate equipment and materials might be found.

• Suggestions were made on which processes would be the easiest to implement, considering the cost, safety, and ease of access of equipment and materials.. 

Benefit to the business

The company were provided with a comprehensive overview of possible techniques focused on addressing current challenges in production, which they can investigate and implement to produce a high-quality TVP product. This will allow them to create a profitable and innovative product from material which would otherwise go to waste or feedstock.