EU research project makes agro-food breakthrough
A European Union-funded research project has led to a major breakthrough for the agro-food industry. The Fralupro project has brought about the development of a high value protein ingredient, rubisco, which could replace costly imports into the Union. The Fralupro project started in 1997 with EU funding and six industrial partners. The EU provided 1.16 million euro of the 3.86 million euro cost of the project. Rubisco is produced by processing Lucerne, also called alfalfa, through extraction technology owned by one of the commercial partners in the project, Swedish company Alfa-Laval. It has a high nutritional value (equivalent to cow's milk and superior to soya) and could be used in a variety of applications, from food to pharmaceuticals. It is cheap to produce and it is envisaged that production at France Luzerne's plant (another partner in the Fralupro project) could reach 1,200 tonnes a year. The breakthrough's impact is likely to be significant. Production of lucerne/alfalfa, is actively encouraged in the EU as it can provide competition for imported soya used for animal feed (usually coming from the US, Argentina or Brazil). EU producers currently receive a 40 per cent subsidy for production.