Harnessing Ginkgo Bioworks’ strain optimization platform to enhance “meatiness” of mycoprotein

03 Oct 2023 --- German start-up Nosh.bio and Ginkgo Bioworks have unveiled a partnership designed to further leverage mycoprotein as a key ingredient in plant-based foods that delivers a rich, savory and natural meaty taste.

Nosh.bio, a company that develops highly functional ingredients from fungal biomass for animal-free food products, will use Ginkgo Strain Optimization Services to screen for protein-producing fungi strains with superior sensorial profiles.

The program aims to produce a mycoprotein that delivers maximum taste when used in food products by utilizing Ginkgo’s ultra-high throughput encapsulated screening capabilities.

Speaking to Food Ingredients First, Tim Fronzek, co-founder and CEO of Nosh.bio, explains 

the challenges when using fungal protein in plant-based meat alternatives compared to soy or other legumes. 

Using strain optimization, Ginkgo aims to deliver a strain of fungi with higher native proteins involved in achieving a rich meat taste.“Usually, the production costs and the need for specific fermentation equipment make it harder to compete against large commodity mono-crops. We are developing a new fermentation platform focused on retrofitting adjacent fermentation capabilities. This speeds up our scale-up process and reduces our costs to a fraction of those from other fungal-based companies.”

Companies developing animal-free protein still face challenges in creating tastier, less processed, and affordable alternative-protein products. Nosh.bio has built a technological platform that uses fungal biomass to create animal-free single-ingredient animal meat alternatives from mycoprotein for human nutrition.

For meat alternatives, red meat – more specifically, a juicy steak – remains the most challenging product to be developed, and current options contain many ingredients and chemical additives. 

Nosh.bio aims to leverage Gingko’s sustainable and cost-effective production process to create a single-ingredient animal-free product that tastes and feels just like red meat while being healthier than an animal product.

To enable this advanced alt-protein product, Ginkgo aims to deliver a strain of fungi with higher native proteins to achieve the rich meat taste, juiciness and color that Nosh.bio seeks. 

To do so, Ginkgo plans to execute a mutagenesis and screening campaign with its proprietary encapsulation and screening technology (EncapS), which can make it possible to search through up to 1 million strain variants in a single run and select the best-performing candidates for further development. Using such an improved strain can help Nosh.bio develop a mycoprotein superior in taste, color, performance and nutrition.

Mycoptoein appeal
Fronzek believes fungi have several superior qualities over other plant-based proteins. 

“Firstly, the texture is naturally more similar to animal muscle fibers than globular plant proteins. Secondly, fungi proteins usually do not have bad off-tastes that require masking. Besides that, fungi proteins normally show a higher digestibility level than plant-based proteins, putting them closer to animal proteins in nutritional scores,” he says. 

“We believe that we have just started scratching the surface of the potential for this protein source. We already know how to modulate the texture of our biomass, allowing us to make single-ingredient meat analogs that range from fish to veal, but there is still so much more to be done,” reflects Fronzek. 

This collaboration with Ginkgo will unlock the potential to bring the alt-protein industry to another level, making ever more “realistic and indulgent products that customers crave,” he underscores.

Also commenting on the partnership, Ginkgo’s Peter Punt, organism engineer and guest professor at Leiden University, says the project is based on Ginkgo’s unique fungal technology married with our screening capabilities. Nosh.bio and Ginkgo are developing a new fermentation platform to retrofit adjacent fermentation capabilities.

“Indeed, a new field is developing around mycoprotein for ingredients and protein foods. The recently founded Fungi Protein Association is all about that. Many different products are in the pipeline and already on the shelves,” he tells Food Ingredients First. 

Leveling up the plant-based game
Nosh.bio is eager to enable the transition from animal-based to animal-free products, according to Fronzek. 

“Our affordable, high-quality plant-based ingredients can build a product that’s even closer to meat in taste and texture than alt-protein options currently on the market,” he comments. 

“Ginkgo’s accelerated screening technology can help us pinpoint and develop a super ‘meaty’ mycoprotein.”

“We’re thrilled to level up the alt-meat protein industry to deliver sustainable products that taste closer to real meat than ever before,” adds Kalpesh Parekh, VP of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks. 

“Our proprietary encapsulation and screening technology can expeditiously deliver valuable insights that enable our partners to optimize their R&D efforts and overall product.”

By Elizabeth Green