Europe eyes top spot in the global protein fermentation domain

24 Jul 2023 --- Europe is poised to become the world leader in producing sustainable food through fermentation, currently hosting 47% of the global protein fermentation capacity. The Good Food Institute (GFI) and Integration Consulting’s latest report stresses the need for businesses and governments to scale up production to fulfill the global meat demand and reduce emissions.

“European companies have been pioneers in developing innovative fermentation-made products that can feed our growing population,” highlights Carlotte Lucas, senior corporate engagement manager at the Good Food Institute Europe. The report, “Fermentation – A Global Climate Solution,” delves into “how government and industry investment can unleash that potential.”

It also covers precision fermentation, which uses organisms such as yeast to produce real egg or dairy proteins and other ingredients. The process delivers flavors and textures similar to meat, eggs and cheese without using animals.   

A sustainable option
Replacing just 20% of the world’s beef with fermentation-made meat has the power to reduce global deforestation in half, reports a Nature study.  

Consumers want food that tastes as good and is as affordable and convenient as conventional meat (Image credit: Quorn).Fermentation enables sustainable protein companies to produce meat and seafood products with flavors and textures similar to animal products but made without farming animals.

For instance, Quorn uses a method similar to beer or yogurt production to grow large quantities of mycoproteins with a meaty texture. Its fermentation-made meat has a carbon footprint “70% lower than chicken.” 

The method also has the potential to offer farmers a promising revenue source by converting agricultural surplus to nutritious food, leading to lower waste production. 

Kim Decker, who has been writing about the food, beverage and nutrition industries from her base in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 20 years, tells Food Ingredients First that precision fermentation is a way to produce meat, egg, dairy and seafood with a “fraction of the environmental impact of conventional options.” 

“Perfect Day’s whey protein, for example, has up to 97% lower greenhouse gas emissions and uses up to 99% less freshwater than protein from cow’s milk,” she adds.

Fulfilling dynamic consumer demands
Consumers want food that tastes as good, and is as affordable and convenient as conventional meat.

Decker states that fermentation is an efficient process that has the potential to deliver delicious and sustainable food that can satisfy the needs of a growing population. Still, for this to happen, “we need to see governments and businesses invest in its potential.”

“A huge amount of work is taking place to develop fermentation-made meat that can hit these key metrics by scaling up and creating flavor innovations,” she says.

Overcoming the “valley of death”
Even though start-ups are eager to produce fermented meat products, a “lack of technical capabilities and production capacity” is pulling them back from scaling. Early-stage producers need more help to overcome the ‘valley of death’ – “the dangerous early period between initial venture capital investment and the transition toward commercialization.” 

The report found that 89 companies worldwide currently provide around “16 million liters” capacity to produce this food. However, GFI warns that the rising consumer demands “will stretch” the industry’s current manufacturing capacity regarding location, scale and technical capabilities over the local needs of the growing industry’s players. 

“Optimizing the feedstocks used to fuel the precision fermentation process – so the sugars that the yeast convert to the desired proteins – is another key area in need of more research and development,” underlines Decker.Optimizing the feedstocks used to fuel the precision fermentation process is another area in need of more research and development.

Acacia Smith, senior policy manager at GFI Europe, in a recent conversation with Food Ingredients First, highlighted the need for construction of large-scale facilities to ramp up production in the fermentation sector.

Breweries to the rescue
Companies can extend their production by “retrofitting existing sites such as breweries” since beer brewing uses equipment similar to those used in the protein fermentation industry. 

Facilities such as Ghent’s Bio Base Europe, a pilot plant successfully working with fermentation companies including ENOUGH, are “critical in accelerating the industry.”

The report indicates that businesses can invest in more fermentation capacity to capture a share of the emerging market. Developing existing industrial sites and equipment can “reduce upfront costs by as much as 70%” and cut lead times as short as six months.

Tapping into Europe’s soaring potential in the area is essential. The future of fermented meat in the region is bright and needs the right hand-holding from industry leaders, scientists and policymakers so that they can “scale up this sector as quickly as possible.”

By Insha Naureen