The Fabafood project, led by the Catalan company Fitó, has successfully developed and industrially validated a new generation of vegetable protein ingredients based on the fava bean. These new components are positioned as a more sustainable alternative with higher protein content than currently used ingredients like soy and peas.
The initiative received financial support from ACCIÓ, the business growth agency of the Department of Business and Labour, which contributed 250,000 euros through the subsidy line for business R&D projects. This boost was crucial for the project's research and development over its three-year duration.
According to Juan Jesús Narváez, Operational Excellence & Sustainability Manager at Fitó, the growing interest in plant-based foods drives the search for new protein sources that combine nutritional quality, sustainability, and industrial viability. The fava bean, a traditional Mediterranean crop, offers significant advantages over soy and peas, such as cultivation proximity and greater agronomic resilience.
The project consortium, comprising Fitó, Alifarma, and BDF Ingredients, addressed the entire value chain. Fitó focused on varietal selection of fava beans, identifying those with high protein content and low levels of anti-nutritional factors. Meanwhile, BDF Ingredients and Alifarma developed the industrial processes to transform fava beans into protein concentrates with properties comparable to soy and peas, suitable for formulating products like meat and fish analogues, sweets, egg substitutes, or plant-based drinks.
The results indicate that fava beans are a more sustainable and resilient alternative, with a comparable nutritional profile and a high protein content exceeding 30%. These properties, along with their organoleptic characteristics, make them attractive to the food industry.
To facilitate market entry, the project partners have established a new company, Favana Foods. This company will drive the production and commercialization of fava bean protein concentrates and their applications. The consortium anticipates an annual production capacity of 6.2 million kilograms of fava bean protein, strengthening Catalonia's position as an agri-food innovation ecosystem and reducing reliance on imported raw materials.
Fitó, with over 145 years of history, specializes in horticultural and arable seeds. Alifarma is dedicated to distributing high-value-added ingredients, while BDF Ingredients is a biotechnology company focused on functional ingredients for the food and health sectors.
