Portfolio company Nandi Proteins has appointed David Flower as Chief Executive Officer. David is the former Managing Director, Europe, for Singha beer maker the Boon Rawd Brewery Company. He was previously Managing Director Home Baking for Kerry Foods.
David joins Nandi at an important stage. The Company is scaling up its first commercial products to create a wide range of customised ingredients based on vegetable and animal proteins. These functional proteins can be used to replace undesirable ingredients, such as fat, gluten and E-number additives in processed foods, or those that people do not want to consume — for example, replacing animal proteins with vegetable proteins.
The Company has gained significant industrial traction and is collaborating with major companies on several applications, including:
- vegetable proteins to replace egg whites and xanthan gum in gluten-free products to improve their taste and texture. Nandi is leading a project in collaboration with one of the world’s biggest ingredient companies, AB Mauri, and Origin Enterprises, part of Agrii to develop this technology
- vegetable proteins to replace egg whites in mycoprotein-based meat alternatives, turning vegetarian products into vegan products
- vegetable proteins to replace chemical binders in plant-based alternative meats
- proteins to replace chemical emulsifiers in baked products
- animal proteins to replace fat in processed meats
The technology is a suite of novel processes and process control technology to control very precisely the way proteins denature, consisting of hardware to sit in food manufacturing lines and software.
David has also been a Managing Director at Noon Foods and Commercial Director for Dairy Crest.
He is a non-executive director at Jack & Bry, which is developing jackfruit-based meat-free pepperoni pizza toppings, burgers and sausages.
In September last year, Nandi announced it had successfully raised £720,000 in a convertible loan, including £360,000 investment from the UK government’s Future Fund, matched by £320,000 from Frontier IP and £40,000 from Shackleton Finance Limited.
I am delighted to be taking this leadership role for Nandi Proteins at such crucial time in the Company’s development. Against a backdrop of increasing consumer awareness of how important a healthy diet is and of the role of proteins within it, the Nandi offering is very relevant. Be it gluten replacements, fat substitutes, or others, Nandi’s technology will become part of the functional protein landscape.
Nandi Proteins Chief Executive Officer David Flower
Nandi’s exciting technology has the potential to help solve some of the pressing problems facing the food industry. We are delighted that David, with his long and broad experience in the food industry, has decided to join the Company to oversee its future success.
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive Officer, Frontier IP
