Merit Functional Foods’ Flex Production Plant

Merit Functional Foods is developing a 65,000ft² pea protein and canola protein production facility in the northern part of Centreport, Manitoba, Canada. It is claimed to be the world’s first commercial canola-protein manufacturing plant.

Merit Functional Foods is a joint venture (JV) between Burcon NutraScience and an investor group comprising Hemp Oil Canada founder Shaun Crew, former Manitoba Harvest COO Barry Tomiski and former Manitoba Harvest vice-president Ryan Bracken.

The JV company and Burcon signed a 20-year licensing agreement, which includes the production, sale and distribution of Burcon’s pulse proteins.

The plant will offer unique plant proteins directly to the North American market, as well as the rest of the world. Burcon is also in discussion with other consumer goods companies for product development.

The facility’s ground-breaking ceremony was held in September 2019, while operations are expected to commence in mid-2020. The plant is expected to employ more than 80 personnel for operations and is being constructed with an estimated investment of C$65m ($48.4m).

Merit Functional Foods’ flex production plant location details

Merit Functional Foods’ flex production plant is being constructed in the BrookPort business park in the Rosser municipality, Manitoba.

Spread over 80 acres, BrookPort is a fully-serviced industrial park being developed by Whiteland Developers.

The Centreport location enables the facility to be connected to the North End sewage treatment plant and was selected due to the plant’s requirement of more than 300,000l of water a day.

Merit Functional Foods’ flex production facility details

During its first phase, the flex production plant will have an annual processing capacity of approximately 20,000t of yellow field peas.

It will be able to produce nutritional plant protein combinations by mixing pea and canola proteins. The plant proteins will be of high quality in terms of solubility, purity and taste.

The facility is also expected to produce Burcon’s Peazazz^® and Peazac^® pea proteins and the Supertein^®, Puratein^® and Nutratein^® canola proteins. It will be designed to allow for expansion in the future.

Burcon carried out initial investigations with a few fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in order to provide protein ingredient samples. The investigations later advanced to product development projects, upon which Burcon estimated demand and pricing for the protein products produced at the new plant.

Burcon will help Merit Foods in carrying out research and development (R&D) activities such as shelf-life testing.

Financing

The investor group will provide C$16m of the JV’s required funding and own 60% of the JV.

Burcon will provide $8m of the JV’s required funding and hold 40% ownership of the JV.

Contractors involved

Excel Engineering is responsible for providing process design and coordination services for the new production plant. It is also responsible for commissioning the production plant.

Merit Foods selected Bird Construction for providing the engineering plans and drawings required for the construction of the building.

Marketing commentary on Burcon NutraScience

Founded in November 1998, Burcon NutraScience is a leader in producing plant-based proteins for food and beverage (F&B) industries. The consumer demand for the company’s high-quality plant-based proteins is increasing worldwide.

Burcon builds its products based on environmentally friendly, clean-label extraction and purification technologies.

Burcon’s product portfolio includes a plant-based dairy alternative named CLARISOY^® and neutral-tasting pea protein, Peazazz^®. It also includes canola proteins such as Supertein^® and Puratein^®.