Scientists in China’s tea hub claim to have brewed cheaper and healthier alternative protein from green tea residue
- Finding at Fuzhou University’s Institute of Food Science and Technology is ‘significant’ as it expands the range of raw materials used for alternative protein production, associate professor who led the research says
- Overall cost of tea leaf protein production is almost 50 per cent cheaper than the cost of alternative protein production using soybean, associate professor says
A team of scientists from Fuzhou University in China’s southern Fujian province – one of the country’s biggest tea-growing areas – claims to have developed a solution to extract protein from green tea residue.
The scientists received US$300,000 in grant funding from the Good Food Institute (GFI), a global alternative protein think tank, last year to further develop and commercialise their research. Upon completion, the researchers hope to introduce their invention to the consumer market as early as next year.
“What makes the research significant is that we expanded the categories of raw materials used for alternative protein production,” said Zhang Chen, an associate professor from Fuzhou University’s Institute of Food Science and Technology who led the research.
The research is significant because it has the potential to diversify the alternative protein market, which widely uses soy or wheat as sources of proteins, for which Asia relies heavily on western imports, Zhang said. It is also more environmentally sustainable and economic as it elevates the value of millions of tonnes of tea waste that the world generates each year, he added.
According to Zhang, leaf proteins have been considered as an alternative source since the 1960s, but their wide application has so far been limited due to the low cost-efficiency of leaf protein production. Zhang, who has focused on leaf protein research since 2010, has developed a cost-effective way to extract protein from green tea leaves, by redefining the conditions of the alkaline used for protein extraction, and making it more eco-friendly by recycling the potassium salts generated throughout the process for use as fertiliser.