SUSTAINABLE PLANET’S NEW ALT PROTEIN ‘TICKS EVERY BOX’ FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainable Planet, an award-winning UK-based agritech start-up has unveiled new technology to use desert, or otherwise infertile land, to grow a new superfood – duckweed, or water lentils – that it claims offers the solutions to meet the multiple challenges of our global food and protein supply system.

According to the company, water lentils are one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, are the most protein-dense plant on the planet, and produce an abundance of essential micronutrients. Two of these micronutrients are the inflammation-fighting antioxidants zeaxanthin and lutein.

Water lentils are also a superfood, the company claims, and 100% of the plant is edible. Its sustainable footprint, is many times better than any other plant, as it is also one of the fastest-growing flowering plants on our planet, the company says. The plant has around 45% protein, all essential amino acids, vitamin B, omega 3 and other vital nutrients.

It is thought that these lentils could be used to produce all sorts of products – as protein powder in shakes and supplements, for starch in the bakery sector, and to substitute meat, fish and eggs.

Sustainable Planet has the exclusive global license agreement with WUR on their patent to extract the RuBisCo protein isolate from water lentils. The unique protein extraction method can generate thousands of tons of high-end proteins which are very much needed.

The agritech firm is working with the leading water lentil research centre in the world, Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands (WUR), to ensure the success of the project. It says it has the exclusive global license agreement with WUR on their patent to extract the RuBisCo protein isolate from water lentils. The unique protein extraction method can generate thousands of tons of high-end proteins which are very much needed. The patent is called protein based on patented method Europe, USA and Canada (WO2014/104880).

Sustainable Planet claims to support whole regions of undernourished people in both supplying foodstuff and employment, potentially trebling local annual incomes.

Talking to another news source, Sustainable Planet COO, Susan Payne said the plant ‘ticks every box worth ticking’, and that it ‘hits every sweet spot’ in terms of its sustainability and nutritional credentials.

In that interview, she commented: “We are in Africa and the Middle East because we found we can access very large amounts of non-arable land on which to grow the plant protein and our business model revolves around growing plant protein with very little water.”

“We can hit scale in the counties we are focusing on because there are thousands of desertified land that need to have some kind of food grown.”

Some benefits in a nutshell:

• Grows on non-arable land
• No deforestation involved
• Doubles in biomass daily
• It’s a superfood containing Omega 3, vitamin B12, and all essential amino acids
• 100% organic
• Sizeable climate mitigation effect with millions of tons of oxygen
• Only CO2-positive plant apart from algae
• 45% protein – double that of soybeans

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