On Nov. 30, WISHH Latin America will present a two-hour, virtual trade team event entitled, Meat Analogs and Extenders - Trends and Production with U.S. Soy. The event, funded by USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Market Access Program and the Michigan Soybean Committee, will provide the 65 invited food and beverage industry executives with the technical insights they need to consider when innovating with the leading plant-based food protein. The invited participants represent companies from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama.

Jim Isley (center) and his son Jake, of Sunrise Farm, Palmyra, Michigan, evaluate their soybean crop for disease and insect pressures. Photo Credit: Michigan QSSB Summer Legacy and Sustainability Video

Luis Arturo Bolaños, a food engineer with 25 years of leading R&D in the vegetable protein applications in the meat alternatives sector, will lead the training session. Bolaños will introduce the expansive scope of utilizing soy protein ingredients as the primary ingredient in meat alternative applications that range from chorizos to canned fish and offer the food engineering benefits of formulating with soy protein ingredients.  The event will also feature the Michigan Soybean Committee “Summer Legacy and Sustainability - Tending the Crop” video, which describes the “why” behind some the sustainable soybean production practices three Michigan farm families rely on in their operations. WISHH’s work in the food sector in Latin America is key to WISHH’s new market development strategy in the region as a growing middle class seeks new, high-quality protein products.