Partnership
drives our business

We exist to serve our '6 Ps'

Planters
Those who grow our food (farmers)

Producers
Those who make our food (food manufacturers)

People
We who eat the food (consumers)

Planet
The world we share

Partners
The people who work for
and with us

Patrons
The investors who allow us to deliver

Partnering with leading institutions in the field

Within the "Brotein" project, NAPIC – through its leadership and research capability at The James Hutton Institute – is playing a pivotal role in advancing broccoli biomass side streams as a viable, nutritious and sustainable protein source. The NAPIC team is supporting the optimisation of protein extraction processes from underutilised broccoli biomass, applying advanced plant and food chemistry, analytical science and life-cycle assessment to improve yield, functionality and environmental performance. This work is generating robust scientific evidence likely to lead to published papers, sustainability metrics and comparative data against established protein sources such as soy and pea, while simultaneously feeding into UPP's intellectual property development and roadmap for commercialisation.

What makes this collaboration unique is the way NAPIC’s deep scientific and sustainability expertise is tightly integrated with UPP’s decentralised harvesting and processing platform. Rather than treating alternative protein as a purely laboratory or factory-based innovation, Brotein combines NAPIC’s capability in protein quality, functionality and lifecycle assessment with UPP’s patented whole-crop harvesting and processing model. This creates a rare end-to-end system that captures value directly from existing food production, retains it within rural communities, and delivers credible, scalable alternative proteins with proven environmental benefits. The result is a distinctive, highly differentiated approach that exemplifies NAPIC’s mission: translating world-class science into commercially viable, sustainable protein solutions at scale.

The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) is the UK’s flagship capability for accelerating the development, scale-up and adoption of alternative proteins. Bringing together world-leading academic expertise, industrial partners and translational infrastructure, NAPIC is designed to bridge the gap between discovery science and commercial deployment. Its Produce pillar, led by internationally recognised researchers, focuses on unlocking high-quality, functional and nutritious proteins from plants and other natural feedstocks, with sustainability, circularity and real-world impact at its core. NAPIC’s strength lies not only in scientific excellence, but in its ability to co-create solutions with industry that are aligned to market needs and food system transformation

The James Hutton Institute is internationally recognised for its excellence in crop science, food systems and sustainable agriculture, bringing decades of applied research experience to some of the most pressing challenges facing farming and food production. Its strengths span crop quality, plant biochemistry, protein functionality, nutrition and environmental sustainability, underpinned by world-class laboratory infrastructure and translational expertise. The Institute has led and supported numerous UK and EU programmes focused on improving the value, resilience and sustainability of agricultural systems, with a proven track record of turning fundamental science into deployable, real-world solutions.

Within the InnovateUK-funded "SusProt" project, The James Hutton Institute played a central technical role in unlocking food-grade protein and valuable co-products from previously unharvested broccoli biomass. The team supported the development and optimisation of protein extraction processes, drawing on deep expertise in crop valorisation, food chemistry and nutritional assessment. This included designing scalable extraction and purification routes, characterising protein functionality and quality, and identifying additional high-value co-products such as fibres, sugars and phytochemicals. Crucially, the Institute’s work ensured that the extracted ingredients met food-industry requirements while maintaining strong sustainability credentials, supported by rigorous scientific validation.

What made this collaboration special is the way The James Hutton Institute’s scientific depth is integrated directly into UPP’s on-farm, pre-farmgate production model. Rather than treating protein extraction as a downstream, centralised process, the partnership combines advanced crop science and bioprocessing with mobile, farm-based systems that retain value at source. This creates a rare end-to-end capability: from crop and biomass understanding, through extraction science and sustainability assessment, to practical deployment within commercial farming operations. The result is a genuinely differentiated approach that delivers scientific rigour, commercial relevance and environmental performance together — something that is exceptionally difficult to achieve without the combined capabilities of UPP and The James Hutton Institute working as one.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is a scale-up and industrialisation partner that helped UPP turn pioneering field robotics into manufacturable, certifiable, deployable equipment. In the AgriScale Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Programme, MTC applied its robotics and scale-up expertise to accelerate commercialisation - specifically supporting UPP with design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) for its automated broccoli harvesting platform, so the technology can transition to a repeatable build and sustained real-world deployment, strengthening UK food supply chains through smarter, scalable solutions.

This project brought together MTC and UPP under Innovate UK’s AgriScale Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Programme, to fast-track this automation breakthrough for UK horticulture. The focus is on UPPs automated broccoli harvester which is designed to capture more of the plant (including nutritious stalk that is typically left in-field) during automated harvest — reducing labour intensity and unlocking additional value by allowing the recovered biomass to be converted into hypoallergenic plant-based protein and fibre ingredients. More details can be found here.

Partner with us!

We are a system-level ingredient company that converts underutilised crop side-streams into specification-grade ingredients at scale.

By optimising the entire chain from harvest through processing, we unlock feedstocks others cannot economically use and convert natural variability into margin through multi-SKU outputs and defined blending pathways.

Rather than betting on capital-intensive monolithic production facilities, we will scale by replicating proven, standardised modules, reducing risk, shortening commissioning time, and improving capital efficiency.

With safety certification imminent and active commercial shipments, we are 'built to win' on system-level cost, regulatory simplicity, reliability, flexibility and optionality across ingredient applications.