A new product line PROPASTA™ from Nepra Foods has enjoyed remarkable success and the company has recently completed an oversubscribed IPO in Canada and entered the US market.
As part of its phased growth strategy, Nepra Foods signed a 10-year lease on a new 31,000 sq.ft facility, with major investment underway to increase manufacturing output and expedite the development of innovative new products.
The key members of Nepra Foods team had achieved success in the past for building the Udi’s Gluten Free Foods brand which was later sold to Conagra Brands Inc for US$125 million. Now the same team has created PROPASTA™ line of RTE foods in the form of spaghetti and meatballs. The product’s meatballs are a beef analogue made from Nepra Foods’ proprietary Textured Hemp Proteins (THP)™, while the high-protein pasta noodles also use hemp flour as the base.
Nepra Foods CEO David Wood said, “Our PROPASTA™ line is truly revolutionary. Not many frozen food brands are plant-based, gluten-free, allergen-free, high-protein, and low-carb. Spaghetti and meatballs is a universally beloved dish, so it was a natural choice for our introductory product. It also demonstrates the power of hemp protein to transform foods, as our meal’s taste and textures are uncompromised when reinventing the traditional meat-based, gluten-heavy spaghetti and meatballs.”
According to Nepra, Hemp is superior to other vegetable proteins, being both higher in protein and containing all 20 essential amino acids, while requiring no pesticides to grow, and being easier to digest and 100% allergen-free. It also has a neutral taste and color, allowing hemp to more closely mimic the foods it was designed to replace–like ground beef without the “off” flavor sometimes associated with other plant proteins.
Hence, because of its use of hemp protein, the PROPASTA™ product line becomes one of the only frozen meal options on the market that is plant-based, high-protein, gluten-free, and completely allergen-free, thus well positioning it to redefine the frozen food landscape.
Nepra’s R&D team has already produced a wide array of proprietary hemp-base proteins, that are included in their current consumer marketed plant-based meats, dairy alternatives, and baked snacks, and are also sold as B2B ingredients.
The new facility will allow for expansion within the other established B2B categories, including Essential Blends™, Essential Flours™, and Rheoflex®. Nepra is also targeting alternative sweeteners, alternative chocolates, and fermented foods for future development. Additional production facilities are also being constructed for a custom dry ingredient blending facility for existing B2B customers who use Nepra’s ingredients as well as blends for Nepra’s proprietary consumer branded products.
The plant-based meat alternatives market is projected to hit US$162 billion by 2030. Many players including Nepra Foods, Beyond Meat, Oatly, Kellogg Company and Conagra Brands, Inc. are unveiling new products to meet the rising demand.
