As novel foods move toward industrial-scale production, specialized producers are supplying specific ingredients. This is helping to streamline supply chains, ensure reliable access to raw materials and ingredients in bulk quantities, and standardize quality across large-scale operations.
Alternative proteins, for example, are often used in cell-cultured products to mimic taste, flavor, and/or structure of meat products. Often derived or replicated from animal sources, they include muscle proteins, dairy proteins, egg proteins, fat tissue, collagen and gelatin.
These alternative proteins are produced by precision fermentation. The process instructs the yeast or bacteria to make animal protein by introducing a piece of DNA code into the cell. Biotechnology also enables the production of entirely new or optimized proteins.
Some companies specialize in alternative proteins such as myoglobin, for example, a building block that can be added to plant-based meat alternatives to make meat and fish alternatives taste, smell and look more like those from farmed animals.
Other companies are doing innovative work creating supplements that improve nutrition in novel foods or for direct human consumption. For example, feeding a few fish cells healthy and sustainable ingredients in bioreactors can yield high volumes of Omega 3 fatty acids.
From concept to scalable reality
Supplement producers are also major contributors to driving the transition from concept to scalable reality. By supplying some of the raw materials, they enable innovation, reduce costs, and enhance the functionality and sustainability of cellular products.
One of the is scalability challenges is cost, with growth media one of the most significant factors. Supplement producers supply key components, such as:
- Amino Acids: The building blocks for protein synthesis in cells.
- Vitamins and Minerals: Essential for cell metabolism and growth.
- Sugars and Carbohydrates: Serve as energy sources for cellular growth.
- Growth Factors and Cytokines: Stimulate cell proliferation and differentiation (e.g., insulin-like growth factors, transforming growth factor-beta).
This allows the companies creating alternative proteins and cell cultured foods to create specialized formulations that optimize cell growth, proliferation, and productivity in bioreactors. For example, by improving the efficiency of fermentation processes, supplements lower the production costs of alternative dairy and egg proteins. Precision fermentation systems are used to produce proteins like casein, whey, or ovalbumin.
Breakthroughs but daunting challenges
Researchers are constantly making breakthroughs in this promising field. However, daunting challenges remain. The largest of these is scalability. Transitioning from lab-scale to industrial-scale production is difficult due to a number of factors.
These include the complexities of maintaining sterile environments and precise nutrient delivery. Cultivating proteins in bioreactors also can be energy-intensive, especially if renewable energy sources are not used.
Other challenges include a complex regulatory environment, acceptance by the end-consumer, energy costs, cost for culture media, development of performant cell lines, the feed conversion rate and technology that can produce structured meat products that mimic the real thing.
Process-based, business-based engineering
For all of these reasons, taking your discoveries to the next level means facilities must be designed by people who have a thorough knowledge of the process and all of the variables in equipment and everything else that can affect energy efficiency, production efficiency and yield. Your facility must also be designed with enough flexibility to adapt to advances in production technology.
We always base our facility designs on a thorough understanding of our clients’ processes and an equally thorough understanding of applicable regulations. We also align our proposals to the requirements of our clients’ growth plans.
The result is always an efficient facility that is the right size at the right time for the business case. And it is always based on a practical, streamlined process that includes everything that is essential and nothing that isn’t.