Just Inc., formerly Hampton Creek Foods, in December revealed it had acquired a 30,000-sq.-ft. facility and 40 acres of land in Appleton, Minn., to scale up the protein extraction process that is a building block of the company's analogue Just Egg consumer product.
The plant has been making food ingredients for more than 30 years as Del Dee Foods. Just, based in San Francisco, said it has already invested millions of dollars in processing equipment for the site and will continue to expand its footprint in Appleton. The facility’s workforce has doubled to nearly 40 employees.
Just Egg’s key ingredient is protein from the mung bean, a legume that has been cultivated for thousands of years and is a dietary staple in Asia. The product is cholesterol-free, dairy-free, non-GMO, Kosher certified and has as much protein as many other plant and animal proteins, including the egg.
The multi-story facility houses industrial food processing equipment, a quality assurance laboratory, warehousing and administrative offices. The western Minnesota factory is now responsible for a majority of Just's protein processing.
Just burst on the scene in 2013 with its mayonnaise substitute Just Mayo. Josh Tetrick garnered outsized attention and favorable reviews for his start-up food company Hampton Creek, but also some legal and regulatory woes, which we chronicled in great detail in a 2015 cover story.
