Wageningen, The Netherlands, December 1 2025 – Time-travelling Milkman (TTM), together with its consortium partners NIZO Food Research and Duynie, have received regional EFRO Oost funding to accelerate the development of sustainable and circular plant-based ingredients derived from sunflower seeds. The project aims to enable a new generation of versatile, clean-label, and climate-friendly food applications.
Sustainable innovation from sunflower seeds
The consortium will focus on producing and validating three innovative sunflower-based ingredients: OleoCream, OleoPowder, and SunPulp. These ingredients can be applied across multiple categories:
OleoCream adds creaminess to plant-based dairy alternatives.
OleoPowder functions as a natural texturizer in food formulations.
SunPulp provides emulsifying proteins for plant-based meat products.
Together, these innovations will make plant-based foods more appealing in taste, texture and nutrition, while reducing environmental impact.
Complementary expertise within the consortium
Each partner contributes specific expertise:
Time-travelling Milkman (TTM) develops and validates the technology to extract oleosomes from sunflower seeds, forming the foundation of the new ingredients.
NIZO Food Research optimizes production processes, validates biopurification technology to improve flavor, and conducts sensory analysis to ensure consumer acceptance.
Duynie focuses on valorising side-streams, further ingredient processing for both feed and biogas applications.
Towards scale and circularity
The ultimate goal is to scale the technology to further industrial readiness, with a design for a capacity of 10,000 tons per year of OleoCream. The project integratescircular principles, ensuring that all parts of the sunflower seed are valorized, while minimizing waste, water use, and carbon emissions.
Impact
The project will have ecological, economic, and social impact:
Ecological: solvent-free production, waste reduction, water savings, and lower CO₂ emissions.
Economic: greater efficiency and scalability, making sustainable plant-based alternatives more affordable.
Social: enabling healthier food choices and supporting sustainable business models in agriculture.
“We are proud to collaborate with NIZO and Duynie on this groundbreaking project. By combining science, technology, and circular economy principles, we are one step closer to making sustainable plant-based foods the new standard,” said Saskia Tersteeg, R&D Manager of Time-travelling Milkman.
About the funding
This initiative is co-financed by the European Union and supported by EFRO Oost, which stimulates innovation and strengthens regional economic growth in the eastern Netherlands.
