It's been 10 years since the first cultured meat burger was introduced. If we look back, we can see that this technology has undergone a great change, leaving behind its status as a futuristic concept to become a promising alternative to global challenges related to sustainability and safety in the food system.
With increasing demand for sustainable food production, fermentation has emerged as a promising solution for producing new proteins. During ftalks Food Summit 2023, we received opinions from industry experts such as Isabella Iglesias-Musachio (Bosque Foods), Eugene Wang (Sophie's Bionutrients) and Sunil Mathani (DACSA Group), who explored the advantages, obstacles and possible solutions on the path to the use of fermentation for food production.
Fermentation is recognized as one of the most sustainable methods for producing food. Biomass fermentation companies such as Bosque Foods have taken advantage of this process to recycle waste streams from the agri-food industry, converting them into mycelium: a high-value product that has the potential to be the base ingredient for creating alternative meat and fish products with realistic textures, promising a new generation of meat and fish substitutes that can meet consumer expectations.
Fermentation could also be a solution for producing local, climate-friendly foods, which could make a difference for import-dependent countries such as Singapore, which aims to produce 30% of their nutritional needs locally by 2030. With almost 90% of its food imported and more than 5 million inhabitants, this ambitious goal would only be attainable with fermentation, according to Eugene Wang.
In addition, fermentation is a promising solution in terms of production costs: once companies manage to scale, they could create new proteins at a low cost and achieve price parity with the animal and vegetable protein industry, which is incredibly important for these new proteins to be rapidly adopted by the market and consumers. Therefore, there is a clear need for fermentation companies to quickly achieve scalability, but it's not that easy.
Although fermentation is not a new process, the new fermentation (in English: novel fermentation) in food it presents several challenges to overcome. The main challenge is to find suitable facilities and equipment for large scale production. Most of the fermentation infrastructures of OFC (contract manufacturing organizations) (Translated from CMOs: contract manufacturing organizations) were designed around the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, and bioreactors are not adapted for the food sector, which represents a barrier to scaling up. Companies in the sector have two options left: to have a more aggressive strategy to be the ones who have access to those facilities and to be able to develop their product; or to build the installation on their own, which represents a huge investment.
This brings us to another challenge: fermentation-based start-ups, especially in Europe, have difficulty getting funding. Eugene Wang speaks of a “death valley” for investment: most startups are at a point where their product is too developed to have access to pre-seed funding, but not enough to be able to work with Venture Capitals, limiting the growth and development of this field.
In addition, the regulatory landscape can be a major obstacle to developing new protein sources, especially in Europe. These new protein production processes can be referred to as “novel food”, so they undergo a rigorous safety evaluation and labeling process before being authorized in the market. But obtaining authorizations and complying with European regulations can be time-consuming and costly. According to Isabella Iglesias-Musachio, Europe risks losing its pioneers by putting regulatory pressure on emerging companies, pushing them to seek opportunities in other regions, such as the United States, to accelerate commercialization.
But the obstacles along the way are normal: the fermentation of new proteins is a process of recent development. Startups are barely scratching the surface of the possibilities that fermentation can offer, but one thing remains clear: it has significant potential and stands as a promising technology that could revolutionize the new protein sector. The key question now is: how to overcome those obstacles?
According to Sunil Mathani, the keys to this transition are patience, collaboration and creativity. In the food industry, nothing happens overnight: it takes time to create a product that is truly worthwhile for the market. But at the same time, the food market is subject to great competition, which makes it necessary collaboration between all actors in the supply chain to accelerate the development of fermentation-based products. Industry players need to use creativity and innovation as tools to overcome market limitations. Therefore, when consumers are at the center of every decision, collaborations will be successful and it will be possible to build a sustainable future in which fermentation will play a key role.
In conclusion, fermentation in food production may in the near future offer a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. Although there are challenges, as the industry continues to evolve, collaboration and creativity can promote the adoption of fermentation as a revolutionary technology in the food sector.
