Equinom, Peterson Farms Seed partner to propagate next-generation yellow pea for ultra-high-protein ingredients

Pictured (L to R): Carl Peterson, president of Peterson Farms Seed, and Rick Swenson, agronomy lead, are pictured monitoring a field of pea crops growing in flowering stage. Image Credit: Peterson Farms Seed

Equinom (Indianapolis, IN), which uses AI technology to optimize non-GMO plant-based ingredients, announced a new long-term partnership with seed propagator Peterson Farms Seed Inc. (Hardwood, ND). Peterson Farms Seed will propagate Equinom’s patent-protected, high-protein non-GMO yellow pea seeds. This is the next step in Equinom’s plans to scale up and commercialize its innovative yellow pea proteins.

Equinom created its ultra-high-protein yellow peas seeds to “eliminate the need for the heavy processing typically required to produce food-grade pea proteins,” the company explains in a press release. The resulting optimized yellow pea protein “does not require the typical heavy and energy-intensive processing that limits supply and increases costs.”

“The Equinom pea varieties will be the foundation of minimally processed pea protein ingredients sold by ingredient processors and used in food applications that have typically relied primarily on isolates,” it adds.

The product is the result of Equinom’s Manna technology, which uses AI and an extensive seed vault—and absent any genetic engineering—to “identify desirable traits for food applications and predict the best cross-breeding matches.” The company then breeds new seed crops optimized for taste, nutrition, and farming efficiency.

Equinom expects demand for its next-generation product to only grow. Says the company in its press release: “The pea protein market is expected to hit $2.9 billion by 2027 amidst increasing popularity and demand for plant-based foods. However, demand is projected to outpace supply due to the large investment needed to build the capital-intensive isolate processing facilities required to extract food-grade pea protein from commodity crops.” Thanks to its collaboration with Peterson Farms Seed, the firm says, “This partnership will connect two important ends of the value chain to solve the root cause of the supply and quality gap.”

Peterson Farms Seed will use its “network of experienced seed producers to ultimately commercialize Equinom pea varieties,” the press release says. The companies say that the first Peterson Farms Seed harvest of the Equinom yellow pea varieties will take place in early fall.

“This is the first time this kind of end-to-end, identity-preserved supply chain has been formed for yellow pea,” added Oron Gar, Equinom’s COO, in the press release.