Page 9 - Food&Drink magazine July 2021

The secret ingredient
Former CSIRO scientists Dr James Petrie and Dr Ben Leita are on a mission to make animal-free fats and oils for alternative proteins tastier. Doris Prodanovic writes.
✷ FOUNDATIONS OF FERMENTATION
KEY GLOBAL INNOVATION AREA
In its 2020 State of the Industry Report, Fermentation: Meat, Eggs, and Dairy, the Good Food Institute (GFI) says: “Combining the indigenous wisdom of traditional food fermentation, the lessons of scale learned from biofuels, the precision pioneered by biopharmaceuticals, and the breakout success of the plant-based meat industry, fermentation has emerged as a powerful technological platform for taking alternative protein products to the next level.”
The three types of fermentation include:
• TRADITIONAL FERMENTATION – used for thousands of years and helps to make products such as bread and beer;
• BIOMASS FERMENTATION
– leveraging fast growth and high protein contact of microorganisms to produce large quantities of protein; and
• PRECISION FERMENTATION
– using specially designed microbial hosts as “cell factories” to produce specific ingredients that can improve sensory characteristics of plant-based or cell-based meat.
In 2020, fermentation companies raised almost $590 million in investment – more than double the amount raised in 2019 and represents 57 per cent of all-time sector funding.
GFI director of corporate engagement Caroline Bushnell says, “I believe fermentation will be central to the future of alternative proteins, and a lot of the industry growth over the next ten years will be the result of innovations in this segment.”
GFI’s report says there are 51 known companies dedicated to fermentation-enabled alternative proteins, and more than 30 others have a business line in alternative protein fermentation.
Companies including AB InBev, DuPont and Danone are making notable investments in the space, Bushnell adds.
In November 2020, the World Economic Forum flagged fermentation as a key global innovation area.
IN May this year, the alternative protein, not-for-profit Good Food Institute said fermentation was set to become the “third technological pillar” of the alternative protein sector.
Its 2020 State of the Industry Report, Fermentation: Meat, Eggs, and Dairy provides a snapshot of developments in this under-reported part of the alternative protein industry, looking at the companies, technologies and investments driving the sector. (See breakout box for more on the report.)
There are 16 countries that have at least one fermentation company operating. The majority are in the US (23) and Israel (nine). Australia has one – Nourish Ingredients.
Nourish Ingredients co- founder and CEO Dr James Petrie told Food & Drink Business that when it comes to alternative protein foods and plant-based meat “it’s all about the taste”.
“They have come a long way in the last decade, but for them to overtake the meat products they’re trying to replace – on taste alone – there’s still a lot of work to do,” he says.
Nourish Ingredients was founded in 2019 by former CSIRO scientists, Petrie and
Dr Ben Leita. They have pioneered a yeast fermentation process that allows it to mimic the molecular structure of animal fats. According to Petrie and Leita, this helps to create tastier, more sustainable, non-animal fats for plant-based and cell-based food products.
In the last year, the team of two has grown to 20 and raised $14.4 million in seed funding, co-led by Main Sequence Ventures – CSIRO’s investment fund – and US fund Horizons Ventures, which had also invested in Impossible Foods.
Leita told F&DB the funding is a reflection of the industry as a whole crying out for a solution in the alternative protein sector.
Petrie says many alternative protein producers are not happy with the fats they are using for their foods, with consistent messaging being “no one is satisfied with coconut oil”.
He says, “If you’re going to scale up coconut production to support the projections of where plant protein foods can go, that’s palm oil 2.0 right there.”
And this is where fermentation steps in.
“Creating the type of fats needed for alternative proteins with fermentation has such a strong sustainability message as well as the sustainability advantages inherent in this production method that it is really hard to take an overly critical view of the technology.
“It just so happens that the product tastes better too.”
Leita says this answers an industry-wide challenge.
“Investors are seeing the potential in what we’re doing and looking at how broadly it can be applied to solve an industry-wide pain point – that current alternative protein foods need to taste better, the consumer experience needs to be better, and in some cases need to be cheaper. That’s where we come in,” says Leita.
“We’re concentrating on a fairly narrow part of the supply chain and doubling down by saying we can be the best solution in this space for the whole industry. We want people to bite into these foods and be wowed. We want them to say, ‘Why would I not eat this? Why would I eat meat or dairy, when I can eat this because it’s just as good or better?’”
PURPOSE DRIVEN
Fermentation is not new technology, but its purposes are evolving. The outputs are different, says Leita, in that instead of brewing up yeast to
“ If you’re going to scale up coconut production to support the projections of where plant protein foods can go, that’s palm oil 2.0 right there.”
Founders of Nourish Ingredients Dr Ben Leita and Dr James Petrie.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | July 2021 | Food&Drink business | 9
RISING STAR
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