cReal, which Lindéngruppen became the largest shareholder of in October, is ready to revolutionise the food industry with innovative plant-based ingredients.
The company is ramping up its production of oat-based ingredients for a wide variety of foods. A new production facility in Bjuv, Sweden, is under construction and will begin supplying the food industry with more sustainable plant-based ingredients in the spring of 2025.
We spoke with Christian Hjortholm, CEO of cReal, about the role cReal can play in the food industry and what being part of Lindéngruppen means to the company.
What role can cReal play in shaping a more sustainable food industry?
In a world with a growing population and unsustainable food industry practices, plant-based solutions are an essential part of creating a more sustainable future. Our goal is to make plant-based foods mainstream by creating ingredients that taste great and are affordable, while also being more sustainable and nutritious than conventional ingredients. We can play a meaningful role in the many different foods that use conventional milk powder today.
How are cReal ingredients more sustainable?
Compared with conventional milk powder, the production of our ingredients generates 78 per cent less greenhouse gases. Additionally, we have a no waste philosophy. By fully utilising all the oat kernel, we can ensure 100 per cent of the raw material goes into creating great tasting foods.
How does this translate into healthier ingredients?
Our gentle and innovative processing technique helps to preserve the nutrients in our ingredients. This means they provide healthy oat proteins and insoluble probiotic fibre that is good for your gut while the active beta glucan can help to lower cholesterol.
Tell us about the growth journey cReal is on
As our ingredients can help big food companies become more sustainable across many different food categories, we will have significant growth opportunities once we ramp up production during 2025. We will start with ice cream, before going into yoghurts, chocolate, and in time we imagine delivering functional solutions for better health as well.
What does being part of Lindéngruppen mean for cReal?
As part of the Lindéngruppen community, we benefit from a larger resource base as well as a wealth of experience and expertise across different industries. Lindéngruppen’s sustainability and value creation ambitions for its Group companies strengthen our commitment to have a positive role in the world.
