The Every Company CEO on cracking the scale challenge for animal-free egg protein

Alternative protein companies often struggle with scaling from the lab to reliable and cost-effective industrial production. Animal-free egg protein firm The EVERY Company is tackling that hurdle by partnering with biotechnology manufacturer Huvepharma to make use of its existing fermentation infrastructure.

The collaboration will “quadruple” Every’s production capacity amid high demand for its flagship product, OvoPro. OvoPro is said to be the “world’s first” commercially available egg protein made via fermentation.

Huvepharma’s subsidiary Biovet AD will provide fermentation infrastructure to scale Every’s fermentation-based version of ovalbumin (the main protein in egg white).

Arturo Elizondo, CEO and co-founder of The Every Company, says the Huvepharma expansion signals that food manufacturers are ready for replacement egg proteins that avoid supply chain challenges and deliver the same performance.

“For years, one of the main questions around precision fermentation has been around scalability, and for good reason. New fermentation facilities cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to come online. With the right partners and genuine market pull, companies can overcome this ‘valley of death,’” he tells Food Ingredients First.

How are egg protein replacements used?

OvoPro is used in food applications requiring structure and texture — both as a drop-in replacer for egg or egg white and in new formulations that need a binding or aeration agent.

“In practice, that spans traditional sweet baked goods, high-protein baked goods, protein bars, pasta, savory snacks, and even foaming beverages,” says Elizondo. “The strongest pull right now is on the high-protein side — donuts, muffins, bars, pasta — where consumer demand for protein is most intense and where doing the binding with a pure protein gives formulators the most room to deliver on it.”

“That traction isn’t confined to R&D labs — it’s on shelf, through national retail on shelves at Walmarts and Targets nationwide, and direct-to-consumer on Amazon and customer websites, which is exactly what’s driving the capacity expansion behind it.”

OvoPro can replace shell egg, liquid egg, powdered egg, liquid egg whites, and powdered egg whites in muffins and brownies.

Rising consumer demand for egg substitutes

Every’s Huvepharma partnership follows a rise in B2B and retail demand for OvoPro. Every says it secured annual orders worth 550% of its total 2025 order volume in the first four months of 2026.

Elizondo says demand from consumers comes from people wanting protein in foods that were “historically pure indulgence — cookies, brownies, muffins, donuts — and they’re no longer willing to trade away taste or texture to get it.”

Consumer expectations around protein bars have increased as well. “A chalky, dense bar doesn’t cut it when people expect something closer to a candy bar. OvoPro helps formulators deliver that — the chewy nougat bite in a bar, the structure in a high-protein baked good,” says Elizondo.

He also points to a “durable demand base” for egg replacers from consumers avoiding eggs for ethical reasons. In March, the company debuted its OvoPro-based egg white protein powder for consumers on DTC brand Healthier Comforts as a vegan egg white replacement. It can be used in meringues, macarons, and angel food cake.

Addressing egg industry volatility

On the manufacturer side, the main demand driver is supply chain resilience, Elizondo shares.

“Conventional egg supply has been volatile — on price, availability, the freight, and the energy costs of moving a refrigerated commodity — and trade and tariff pressures sit on top of that.”

“A protein made by precision fermentation doesn’t depend on weather, land, or a flock, and it can be engineered for exactly the job it needs to do. It’s shelf-stable for up to two years, it doesn’t need a cold chain, and it lets a manufacturer build predictability directly into their formulation.”

Precision fermented egg proteins can also “genuinely outperform” conventional eggs in terms of functionality, says Elizondo. Emphasizing that their performance is “consistent batch to batch,” he says they are decoupled from the volatility of a live flock and a global egg supply chain.

Huvepharma’s Biovet AD will support the scale-up of Every’s egg substitute using its nine million-liter fermentation capacity in Bulgaria (Image credit: The Every Company).

Replacing eggs in F&B formulations

The F&B industry uses a variety of egg replacement systems, plant-based binders, starches, and gums to overcome supply shocks and meet consumer health demands.

Elizondo expects most formulators to keep a full toolkit of these solutions alongside precision fermentation proteins, but points out that they work in different ways.

“The conventional approach to replacing eggs is a system — a stack of starches, gums, hydrocolloids, and emulsifiers assembled to recreate everything an egg does. That can work, but it costs you label real estate [more space on the ingredient label] and can introduce off-notes or texture compromises,” he explains.

“OvoPro is a single, high-purity ovalbumin — the functional powerhouse of the egg — so it does the structural work as one clean ingredient. In a market where consumers want more protein in every bite, that efficiency matters: a binder that is itself a pure protein frees up formulation space to dial protein up without running up the calorie count or the ingredient list.”

The future of animal-free proteins

Every plans to further optimize batch costs and prepare the Huvepharma partnership for future growth. At the same time, it will continue to onboard additional proteins from its fermentation platform. The company has already developed 50 distinct proteins using the platform, Elizondo tells us.

These include OvoBoost, its taste and texture neutral ingredients for coffee and juices, and an animal-free pepsin.

“Right now, our focus is squarely on OvoPro — meeting the demand in front of us and scaling responsibly, which is what the capacity expansion with Huvepharma is all about. But OvoPro is really the first commercial proof point for a much broader platform, especially given their nine million liters of fermentation capacity,” says Elizondo.

He emphasizes that precision fermentation leverages the ability to take proteins “nature already perfected” and produce them reliably, at scale, for the food system that needs them.

“We’re not trying to improve on nature — we’re making what nature does best more consistent, more accessible, and far less dependent on strained land, animals, and fragile supply chains,” Elizondo emphasizes.

The Every Company is based in Daly City, California, US, and has secured investments worth roughly US$288 million to date, from investors like Bloom8, McWin Food Systems Fund, and actor Anne Hathaway.