Weekly Roundup: Animal-free casein development, Shiru scores patent for protein discovery platform

16 Sep 2022 --- This week in industry news, Standing Ovation closed a €12 million (US$11.9 million) series A financing round to accelerate the development of its animal-free casein and cheese substitute production process. Azelis opened two new food application labs in Morocco and South Africa, and Ohly started the construction of its first spray drying tower at its Hamburg site. Meanwhile, Lion New Zealand has reduced its emissions by 10%.

In brief: Business moves
Food tech start-up Standing Ovation is developing animal and lactose-free substitutes for cheese and dairy products, using dairy proteins produced by microbial fermentation. The series A financing round initially planned for €10 million (US$9.9 million), then increased to €12 million (US$11.9 million), will enable the company to bring casein production to industrial scale and to initiate the regulatory process.

Azelis has opened two new Food & Nutrition (F&N) application laboratories in Casablanca (Morocco) and Johannesburg (South Africa). Together with the recently inaugurated food application laboratory in Cairo (Egypt), these new labs further reinforce Azelis’ Food & Nutrition presence in Africa and enable the team to provide even more innovative and technical support to customers throughout the Ohly breaks ground on its first spray tower at the Hamburg site.Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. While fully equipped to service various food segments, these application laboratories will primarily focus on dairy, fruit preparations, baking, and beverages.

Ohly has started the construction of its first spray drying tower at its Hamburg site, which will be used to dry yeast derivatives produced there. While Ohly operates spray dryers at its US facility in Boyceville, Wisconsin (US), spray drying requirements for Ohly’s Hamburg-produced yeast derivatives are currently carried out at trusted third-party drying partners. This investment in spray drying capacity to support operations in Hamburg, combined with the continuing partnership with existing drying partners, will strengthen supply reliability for the company’s dry yeast derivative products.

In brief: Sustainability efforts
USDA is investing up to US$2.8 billion in 70 projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity. The investment will triple to more than US$3 billion in pilots, creating market opportunities for US commodities produced using climate-smart production practices. These initial projects will expand markets for climate-smart commodities and leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production. Applicants submitted more than 450 project proposals in this first funding pool, and the strength of the projects identified.

Lion New Zealand has reduced its carbon emissions by 10%, meeting its carbon emissions reduction commitments as part of its Toitū net carbon zero organization certification. Lion had gone carbon zero in 2021 and is the first and only large-scale beverage company in New Zealand that is carbon zero. 

In brief: Plant-based 
Ingredient biotech start-up Shiru has been awarded a key patent for its protein discovery platform. The patent describes Shiru’s unique approach to revealing the elusive “sequence-to-food-function” map. The company uses machine learning algorithms to interrogate a database of tens of millions of naturally occurring non-animal protein sequences for candidate proteins with desired functional characteristics. Select candidates are thenLion had gone carbon zero in 2021 and is the first and only large-scale beverage company in New Zealand that is carbon zero. screened via high-throughput strain engineering and protein function assays to identify proteins that can be mass-produced via precision fermentation. The experimental data are fed back into the models to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the functional predictions.

Heura has created a series of Minecraft games to celebrate its new burger, which has 30% less saturated fat than a traditional burger and even higher protein density. Heura City is a series of five mini-games highlighting the benefits of plant-based eating in fun, where players find the ingredients to create their high-protein, low-saturated fat plant-based burger from scratch. 

In brief: Other highlights
EIT Food has launched two open calls for proposals for impactful and scalable public engagement projects and consumer food research and insights knowledge. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the EU. EIT Food is looking for organizations to join their new program to identify trends across the food system and create a valuable resource for consumer research and insights. EIT Food seeks proposals from individuals, organizations and consortia from the member states and Horizon Europe Associate Countries across five different work packages, including project management, trend watch mechanism development, communication and financial sustainability.  

By Elizabeth Green