Fermentation revolutionizes the food industry with alternatives to animal protein

Agro production chains are facing the dilemma of containing global warming and accounting for the growing demand for food to feed the world's population. Scientists, in turn, are looking for solutions that can make protein-rich foods more accessible, cheaper, and sustainable.

The good news is that there are already several solutions. But we still face the challenge of making them scalable.

 Alternatives to meat made from plants have evolved in recent years, become more popular, part of restaurant menus, and entered the daily diet of many people. The demand for dairy products based on plant protein has also been growing.

Science has been advancing to obtain from plants or in the laboratory the texture, succulence, taste, and nutrients of animal products, without using animals.

The science of precision fermentation

The latest bet is fermentation. A process essential to making bread, cheese, and beer for centuries, fermentation has been used to produce alternatives to animal protein.

More specifically, precision fermentation has been enabling food scientists to grow ingredients found in animal products. That is, without the need for farms, corrals, slaughterhouses, etc. The result is eggs, milk, and meat biologically similar to animal products.

Unlike traditional microbial fermentation where microorganisms convert food into beer, yogurt, or other products, precision fermentation transforms microorganisms into mini-factories that produce specific enzymes or protein ingredients.

With this technology, they replicate, for example, the fatty acid that gives the characteristic taste to the meat to which we are accustomed. According to experts, this will make plant-based foods virtually indistinguishable in taste and texture from those made from animals. Add to that the supply of similar micronutrients.

In addition to the change in diet, products such as plant-based meat or laboratory-grown and fermentation-derived microbial protein (MP) are also an alternative to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock production. Produced in bioreactors, microbial protein can be made from fungi, algae, yeasts, or simple bacterial cell biomass in a fermentation process similar to that of beer and other products.

A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and published in the scientific journal Nature estimates the environmental benefits we would have from MP consumption in the coming decades. Projections show that replacing 20% of the world's per capita consumption of beef and other grazing animals with MP would halve deforestation (needed to expand the pasture area) and CO 2 emissions by 2050, and at the same time reduce methane emissions.

Is it economically viable?

If in laboratories the advances are promising, in the market view a doubt remains: is it possible to gain scale for these products to reach the shelves and the dish of consumers?

Startups involved in the development of microbial fermentation products received $1.7 billion in resources last year, nearly 300% more than the previous year. Although they are receiving significant investments, they still face several inefficiencies inherent to innovations.

Thus, fermentation-based animal protein foods are still a promising bet which may yield good fruit in the near future.