{"id":732813,"date":"2026-06-12T23:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732813\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:27:23","slug":"protein-powder-moves-beyond-shakes-and-gym-junkies-to-create-new-opportunities-for-food-manufacturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732813\/","title":{"rendered":"Protein powder moves beyond shakes and gym junkies to create new opportunities for food manufacturers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The protein craze sweeping the world is transforming Australia’s food industry, unlocking lucrative new opportunities for local food manufacturers.<\/p>\n

What started as a niche market for bodybuilders has burst out of the gym and into mainstream households.<\/p>\n

Today, supermarkets stock an astonishing range of protein-enhanced products, including yoghurt, pasta, bread, cereals, snacks, and even protein-infused water.<\/p>\n

How protein became big business<\/p>\n

Driving the trend are social media influencers and food marketers espousing the wellness and longevity benefits of protein.<\/p>\n

Their targets are fitness fans, the diet-conscious, menopausal women, and the over-60s trying to maintain muscle mass.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Josh Gadischke says protein remains one of the strongest trends in food manufacturing. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

In Kingaroy, three hours north-west of Brisbane, local cold-pressed nut oil processor Josh Gadischke has timed his entry into the market perfectly.<\/p>\n

The managing director of Plenty Foods opened a new $22 million high-protein peanut powder factory in February and is already capitalising on the booming market with sales here and overseas.<\/p>\n

He buys locally grown peanuts, classed as second grade due to blemishes and splits, and turns them into a low-fat, high-protein powder.<\/p>\n

\"Peanuts<\/p>\n

Blemished and split peanuts are being transformed into high-protein powder for food manufacturers. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

“Protein is a big trend in food,” Mr Gadischke said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a number of cycles through our time in manufacturing, and certainly protein is the one that’s here and now.<\/p>\n

“Every food manufacturer is trying to boost protein content in their products, and I don’t think that trend is going to go away anytime soon.”<\/p>\n

Turning peanuts into powder<\/p>\n

The defatting and powdering process is done by an expensive imported press, the only one in Australia.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen other manufacturers try to produce a powder, but it’s very difficult to get a fine texture like this and the high protein amount,” Mr Gadischke said.<\/p>\n

“So yes, the press is our secret recipe to producing a superfine nut powder.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Plenty Foods’s peanut powder contains 55 per cent protein. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

He believes his talc-like powder, which boasts a 55 per cent protein content, will compete strongly against traditional whey, soy and pea proteins, because it’s dairy and gluten free and has a pleasant taste.<\/p>\n

“Some of those other traditional proteins can leave a lingering bad taste in the back of your throat that’s difficult for food manufacturers to overcome or try to mask,” Mr Gadischke said.<\/p>\n

“The fineness of this is a real secret to the product because it gives it full dissolvability in beverages and sports nutrition drinks.”<\/p>\n

The factory has been built with ten years of growth and a more than doubling of staff from 40 to 100 in mind.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Deb Frecklington says local manufacturing gives peanut growers confidence there is a market for their product. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

Local member and Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the new factory had buoyed locals saddened by the decline of the local peanut industry.<\/p>\n

Kingaroy was once known as the peanut capital of Australia, but fierce competition from cheap imports and changing rainfall patterns saw growers exit the industry.<\/p>\n

“To have a value-adding manufacturing factory right here gives confidence back to those growers that there is an end use for their product,” Ms Frecklington said.<\/p>\n

New demand for an old crop<\/p>\n

Local peanut grower Trevor Campbell was excited that there was a new buyer for the hard-to-sell second-grade nuts.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Trevor Campbell says increased demand for peanut powder could improve returns for peanut growers. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

“It should push the price up somewhat, so for each and every farmer I think it can only be good because our peanut prices may increase,” Mr Campbell said.<\/p>\n

“This is a whole new ball game to us getting the peanut powder into the industry.”\"A<\/p>\n

High-protein foods and beverages have moved beyond the sports nutrition aisle into the mainstream. (ABC Landline: Curtis Rodda)<\/p>\n

As well as offering Australian food manufacturers a locally grown import replacement option, Mr Gadishke was targeting exports, especially to India.<\/p>\n

“There’s a high vegetarian population, and they’re quite protein-deficient, so a plant-based protein is ideal,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got one and a half billion people in India and a large young population coming through. With exposure to things like social media and those trends, they’re quite quickly picking up on it.”<\/p>\n

\"Silver<\/p>\n

Peanuts move through the processing system before becoming a fine powder. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)<\/p>\n

Local peanut farmers, roasters and shellers, the Crumpton family, sells peanuts to Plenty Foods and was confident it could increase supply if powder production increased.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got expansion plans, we’ve got extra capacity, and we’ve done a lot of improvements over the last couple of years to get more production done, so we can grow with Josh,” said Crumptons’ general manager Daniel Cook.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s very brave. When we look at the general trends in the industry, I think it’s a call that he’ll look back on in 10 years time and be glad he did it.”<\/p>\n

Watch ABC TV’s Landline at 12:30pm AEST on Sunday or stream anytime on ABC iview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The protein craze sweeping the world is transforming Australia’s food industry, unlocking lucrative new opportunities for local food…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,354464,354465,354463,94068,354461,94062,144114,354462,1543],"class_list":["post-732813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-crumptons","tag-deb-frecklington","tag-josh-gadischke","tag-peanut-industry","tag-peanut-powder","tag-peanuts","tag-plant-based-protein","tag-plenty-foods","tag-protein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}