“A universal ingredient”: Biotech start-up Enifer begins large-scale mycoprotein factory construction

15 Jan 2024 --- Having just received €12 million (US$13.2 million) in funding from the EU NextGenerationEU recovery instrument, Finnish biotech start-up Enifer can build the factory to produce its proprietary Pekilo mycoprotein. Nutrition Insight catches up with the company’s COO and co-founder, Joosu Kuivanen, who describes the unique fungal strain used, the streamlined fungal fermentation process, how the mycelial biomass is harvested and its future plans.

In addition to meat analogs, Pekilo can be blended with plant proteins for pasta, bread, sweet baking and dairy alternatives and improves the amino acid composition, adding healthy fiber to these applications.

“We envision dry mycoprotein powder will be a universal protein ingredient in many food products in the future — a bit like soy protein today,” Kuivanen tells us. “We aim to build more factories outside Finland. This factory will have a capacity of 3,000 (metric) tons a year.” 

“Due to the economies of scale, with a larger factory size such as 10,000 (metric) tons per year, we could push the production costs further down. I think too high prices have been one of the bottlenecks against getting the alternative proteins more widely adopted.”

The fundamental principles of Pekilo fermentation differ from typical mycoprotein fermentation, for example, in Quorn. “In Quorn and many other mycoprotein fermentations, the filamentous structure of the fungus, typically Fusarium venenatum, is harnessed to create the fibrous structure of the final product that is typically a wet mycoprotein to be delivered in a cold chain,” explains Kuivanen.

“In Pekilo’s process, the filamentous structure of our proprietary strain — belonging to the fungus Paecilomyces variotii — is harnessed in extremely efficient continuous harvesting of the mycelial biomass from the process, which is then broken down and dried into dry powdery mycoprotein ingredient that doesn’t need the cold chain.”

Legacy fermentation process
NextGenerationEU will support building first-of-its-kind industrial facilities promoting the reuse and recycling of industrial by-products and waste streams, aligning with the EU’s circular economy action plan and the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland.

The Pekilo fermentation process has a long legacy and was initially developed by Finnish forest industry engineers in the 1970s — the world’s first commercial mycoprotein production process that converted forest industry by-products into sustainable feed protein. 

The process has been refined to create the current food-grade ingredient based on Pekilo technology. The original Pekilo plants, operated between 1975 and 1991, used sulfite liquor, a liquid side stream from sulfite pulp mills. Only a few of these pulp mills are still in operation. 

The product is a protein- and fiber-rich powder with a neutral taste and color that can be used in the same way plant-based proteins are used in the food industry. Enifer expects to file for regulatory approval in the coming six months.

“Our Pekilo fungus is thermophilic — meaning the process is run at a higher temperature (37°C) — compared to most other mycoproteins. This means less energy is needed to cool the process,” says Kuivanen.Enifer is currently coducting engineering evaluations for the construction of its Uusimaa factory (Credit: Iiro Muttilainen).

“In contrast to using pure sugars as feedstock like in typical mycoprotein processes, Pekilo fungus has a very versatile capacity to utilize different carbon sources while very dilute by-products can be used as feedstock in the continuous bioprocess.” 

As a result, Enifer can use low-value by-products that are difficult to valorize in different ways. “Instead of optimizing the structure of the end product, the Pekilo process was designed to optimize the production efficiency and nutritional value in terms of digestibility and amino acid content due to the historical usage as land animal feed ingredient. This also means that the production cost of Pekilo is relatively low.”

Any non-solid by-product that contains at least 2% carbon sources, such as residual sugars, glycerol or organic acids that the Pekilo fungus can eat, could work in the fermentation process. Enifer has optimized the process, for example, distillation residues from bioethanol production — vinasse and thin stillage.

Enifer can use lactose-containing permeates available as dairy industry by-products and liquid food industry by-products.

Dry powder mycoprotein
The facility, which will be built in the Uusimaa region, will cost around €30 million (US$32.9 million) to construct and will be completed next year, with production ramp-up to take place in 2026. Enifer is currently undertaking basic engineering of the facility in conjunction with Afry. 

The commercial-scale factory will have a production capacity of three million kg a year. Business Finland has conditionally approved the recycling and reuse investment grant. 

“Compared to commercially available mycoproteins such as Quorn that are typically wet and fibrous used in meat analogs, our food-grade Pekilo is a dry powdery mycoprotein ingredient that is rather sold B2B and used in a similar way as plant protein concentrates and isolates as an ingredient in various food applications,” Kuivanen underscores.

“It is neutral in taste and color while containing an adequate proportion of each of the nine essential amino acids. It also contains about 30–35% fiber, of which about half is fungal beta-glucan.” 

The proprietary process is a continuous submerged fungal fermentation, so the feedstock (an industry by-product) is continuously fed into a bioreactor — a stirred tank reactor — where the fungus grows by eating carbon sources of the by-product.

“As a continuous bioprocess, including the grown Pekilo mycelial biomass, is continuously harvested from the process using energy effective mechanical solid-liquid separation,” says Kuivanen. “This step resembles the straining of fresh cheese, and the harvested mycoprotein looks like feta cheese afterward. It is then broken down and dried into a mycoprotein powder.”

Scaling protein sourcesThe company plans to build additional facilities in Finland (Credit: Iiro Muttilainen).

Enifer raised €11 million (US$12.1 million) in series A funding in spring 2023, and the company already has ongoing partnerships with prominent global companies in the feed and food industries, such as Skretting, the international aquafeed division of Nutreco, Purina for pet food and Valio for consumer food products.

“This plant will be a critical stepping stone to scaling the production of Pekilo as a truly universal protein source — which we aim to commercialize globally across different applications. Thanks to the unique history of Pekilo, we are able to take this giant leap from our existing pilot directly to a commercial-scale facility,” says Simo Ellilä, CEO and co-founder of Enifer.

In other industry developments, UK-based Marlow Ingredient, proprietor of Quorn, partnered with Danish food start-up Tempty Foods to launch meat alternatives based on mycoprotein.

In addition, Zhang Yan, dean of the Angel Yeast Research Institute, spoke to Nutrition Insight about the properties of microbial fermentation-derived yeast, its potential as a sustainable alternative to animal and plant-derived protein and a solution to the looming protein shortage. At COP28, experts emphasized the risk of this shortage as the effects of the climate emergency and the global population growth exacerbate.

By Inga de Jong