Today, we're proud to announce that Happy Plant Protein has been named “Food Replacement Innovation of the Year” in the 2026 AgTech Breakthrough Awards, recognising the potential of our patented dry extrusion technology to change how plant protein ingredients are produced.
The annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards recognise innovative companies, technologies and products transforming the agricultural and food technology industries worldwide. This year, thousands of nominations were submitted from around the world, with Happy Plant Protein selected as the winner in the Food Replacement Innovation category.
Producing high-quality plant protein ingredients has traditionally required complex, multi-step processes, significant amounts of energy and water, and in many cases chemical extraction.
Happy Plant Protein's patented one-step dry extrusion technology takes a different approach.
The technology converts whole legume and cereal flours, including pea, oats, lentil and faba bean, into high-quality plant protein ingredients using standard extrusion equipment already widely used across the food industry.
By working with existing infrastructure, manufacturers can produce plant protein without the need for dedicated protein-isolate facilities or entirely new production lines. This can significantly reduce the complexity and cost of protein production while opening up opportunities for more local manufacturing.
More than 5,000 extrusion lines are already operating worldwide, creating an extensive infrastructure base that could support the production of plant protein ingredients.
For Happy Plant Protein, this is a key part of the technology's potential.
Rather than requiring manufacturers to invest in new, highly specialised facilities, the technology can be integrated into existing food production infrastructure. This enables producers to work with regional crops and manufacture protein closer to where raw materials are grown and where ingredients are needed.
The technology is designed to work with a range of legume and cereal raw materials, giving manufacturers flexibility to develop plant proteins based on available crops and specific food applications.
The resulting ingredients have a mild taste, fibrous, meat-like structure and strong water-binding properties. This makes them suitable for applications, especially meat alternatives and hybrid products.
The approach also supports the development of protein ingredients from locally grown crops such as peas, lentils and faba beans — helping create new opportunities for regional agricultural value chains.
The AgTech Breakthrough judging panel highlighted the potential of Happy Plant Protein's technology to address one of the key challenges in the plant protein industry: making high-quality protein more affordable and accessible to producers.
“Our judges look for innovation that changes the economics of an entire category, not just a single product, and Happy Plant Protein was a standout on that measure,” says Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough. “By turning equipment the food industry already owns into a route to affordable, high-quality plant protein, the company earned its place as our 2026 Food Replacement Innovation of the Year.”
With thousands of nominations from around the world, the competition was strong, and Happy Plant Protein is proud to be recognised alongside leading innovators across the agricultural and food technology industries.
The recognition comes at an important time for Happy Plant Protein as the company continues moving its technology toward commercial deployment.
Following the start of industrial-scale production with Crespel & Deiters and ECP B.V. in Helmond, the Netherlands, Happy Plant Protein is now focused on working with manufacturing partners and producers to enable wider adoption of its technology.
Through an economical and ecological licensing model, the company aims to make its patented process available to food manufacturers worldwide — enabling them to produce high-quality plant protein locally using infrastructure that already exists.
For Happy Plant Protein, the goal is not simply to create another plant protein ingredient.
It is to make a better way of producing plant protein possible at scale — using local crops, existing infrastructure and a simpler production process.
This award is an important recognition of that ambition.
And we're just getting started.