The EU Commits €50 Million to Startups & Small Businesses in Precision Fermentation and Algae

It looks to support the development of viable alternatives that complement agriculture, and capable of producing foods rich in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, dietary fibres, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients by bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae in quantities that are comparable to, or even greater than, foods of traditional plant or animal origin. The approaches taken must be scalable based on a range of process parameters such as, but not limited to light, temperature. Pressure to allow custom modification of the final product to a range of operating environments including those with high, or even extreme, resource constraints without compromising the potential gains from a shift to food from precision fermentation and algae.

The backing, under the EIC’s Accelerator Challenge, aims to support the development of “viable alternatives that complement agriculture”, highlighting that these foods can be produced using existing agricultural sidestreams, with benefits including reduced pressure on natural resources such as land and water. Precision fermentation leverages microorganisms such as yeast to produce genuine animal proteins without the animal, such as whey. Casein , in a manner that notably reduces climate emissions while eliminating antibiotic use. © Fermify In Europe, a number of firms are making sizeable strides in the space.

Here are just a few notable examples: Formo (formerly known as LegenDairy Foods, based in Germany): Specializing in dairy products, Formo uses precision fermentation to produce animal-free dairy proteins. Better Dairy (UK): This London-based startup is working on creating dairy products using fermentation, focusing on cheese and other high-value dairy commodities. Onego Bio (Finland): This Helsinki-based food-biotech firm is producing animal-free egg proteins with precision fermentation.

Those Vegan Cowboys (Belgium): Founded by the creators of The Vegetarian Butcher, the business is working on producing dairy proteins such as casein through precision fermentation to create vegan cheese. Fermify (Austria): Founded by Eva Sommer and Christoph Herwig, Fermify developed a fully automated platform to produce precision fermentation-derived casein for creating animal-free cheese at scale.

The firm of late extended its seed round to accelerate the development of animal-free cheese and its trade entry. The meeting concluded that, in general, the food protection hazards of these NFPS are similar to those of conventional foods. Acacia Smith, Senior Policy Manager at Good Food Institute Europe , told reporters: “It’s excellent that the EIC has recognised precision fermentation’s game-changing potential to feed Europe’s growing population, improve public health and reduce our reliance on purchases abroad.

It’s also very welcome that this funding aims to develop new ways of scaling up production – tackling Europe’s lack of infrastructure – and to look at other critical areas such as consumer acceptance, regulatory approval and supporting the entry of these foods into the European trade.”