Merit, Burcon, and Nestlé enter into joint development agreement
The goal of the agreement is to develop and commercialize Merit’s novel plant protein ingredients for us in Nestlé’s plant-based foods and beverages.
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Merit Functional Foods (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) and its technology partner Burcon NutraScience (Vancouver, BC, Canada) have entered into a joint development agreement with Nestlé (Vevey, Switzerland) with the goal of developing and commercializing Merit’s novel plant protein ingredients for us in Nestlé’s plant-based foods and beverages. Merit is currently building its commercial-scale production facility, which should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020. This facility will produce various plant-based protein ingredients using Burcon’s proprietary and patented extraction and purification technology.
“Partnering with Nestlé – a global leader in food and nutrition – is a great milestone for Merit Functional Foods,” Merit co-CEO Ryan Bracken said in a press release. “Merit has already demonstrated the impact of our novel proteins in plant-based foods. This new partnership helps build on this, and it’s a major step in developing the next generation of nutritious and delicious plant-based products that draw on the benefits of our novel proteins.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Nestlé to optimize these already exciting novel plant proteins,” Burcon’s president and CEO Johann F. Tergesen added. “This collaboration among Burcon, Nestlé, and Merit is about strategically innovating for the future.”
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