Fractionation

Faba Canada recently acquired an existing mill from the former Mountain Meadows Pea Butter facility near Legal, Alberta, just north of Edmonton. 

In addition to faba bean protein, the facility will continue producing a substitute for peanut butter, with the feedstock switched from peas to faba beans. 

Faba Canada has distribution control of a unique new variety of faba beans called Fabelles. This variety is healthier because an anti-nutritional property called vicine/convicine has been 99 per cent removed using traditional breeding methods. This type of faba bean has been rebranded by Faba Canada as “Polar Beans.”

Pulse proteins can have a strong, unpleasant aftertaste, and as a result, food companies often add strong taste modifying ingredients to mask the problem. Faba beans also have an aftertaste, and although milder, it is still apparent. 

Faba Canada owns a proprietary process to remove the aftertaste. The process is natural, does not include chemicals and is unique to the industry.

Over the past seven years, Faba Canada and its predecessor Goudy Ag Products has been one of the largest buyers and sellers of faba beans in Western Canada working with a few hundred producers to help them be successful. Domestic value added processing will add to producer profitability.
 
“Our first facility will draw faba beans from the parkland regions of both Alberta and Saskatchewan with more processing capacity on the drawing board,” says Goudy. “The area of faba beans in the two provinces is only about 100,000 acres, but we anticipate up to a million acres in the not-too-distant future.”