Nabati Foods Global, a plant-based food player, has completed the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Alberta, Canada. The new plant is five times larger than the pilot facility and comes following the completion of the company’s oversubscribed financing of US$7.7 million.

In addition, the facility will be able to simultaneously produce 1.2 million pounds of plant-based “cheeze” and one million pounds of plant-based meat with room to expand capacity further. 

With this new site, Nabati Foods positions itself to fulfill wholesale orders and support its growth in the US and market entry into the EU. 

“There has been enormous demand for our products from across North America from all of our customer categories including grocery, foodservice and industrial,” says Nabati CEO Ahmad Yehya.

“By significantly increasing our production capacity, we will be in a strong position to capitalize on growing customer demand.”

Continuous innovation
The extra square footage will enable Nabati Foods to house its full R&D department and expand its team 150 percent to 15 members with room to grow the team further.  

This additional R&D capacity will also give Nabati the ability to put additional resources into product development.

“Beyond just meeting demand, it is important to us to keep innovating, and this additional capacity will make that possible,” Yehya says. 

“Our product line is set to continue to expand with great innovations coming very soon. For example, we plan to begin production of Nabati Cheeze slices at the new facility by fall 2021, which for which we have a long waiting list for from foodservice clients.”

Nabati Foods products are served across North America. All Nabati products are gluten-free, kosher, vegan and non-GMO.

Vegan options take off 
Food and beverages taking alternative approaches to milk are on the rise, as recently spotlighted in an industry roundtable on dairy-free alternatives. 

Recently in the vegan space, Chr. Hansen launched Vega Culture Kit specifically developed for fermented plant bases.

Meanwhile, innovators such as the Vegan Cowboys are using microbial fermentation methods to produce caseins for vegan cheese to create a more sustainable product than conventional cheese with a similar profile.