A Finnish food innovation: pulled oats

Problem

The mass production of meat is problematic with respect to land use, animal rights, water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. However, production continues to grow, as living standards continue to rise in many countries and more people that have traditionally favoured vegetarian diets choose to eat meat.

Solution: sustainable plant protein from oats and legumes

Pulled oats developed by Gold&Green Foods combine all the nutritionally important amino acids, and the product is made of sustainable raw materials: oats, beans and peas. The most nutritious parts of these plants are used. Growing the raw materials for pulled oats requires considerably less water than meat farming. For example, it has been estimated that the current production capacity of pulled oats could have saved seven billion litres of water annually were pulled oats to have been preferred to beef.

Revenue model and benefits for Gold&Green Foods

Gold&Green Foods is a technology company whose Finnish plant produces patented products for the Finnish market and for export. In addition, the company licenses their product’s manufacturing technology and brand of pulled oats to other producers, enabling its products to enter the markets faster without large export organisations or building more production plants. The company’s own production facility also enables continued product development.

Benefits to customers and end users

Distributors and large retail chains as customers gain an easy plant protein product that has become familiar to consumers and has been a great success since its initial launch. For consumers, pulled oats are an easy, fast and nutritious non-meat alternative, regardless of whether the choice was made for health or environmental reasons.