Fermentation is an ancient process of preserving and creating food and beverages. Over the past four decades, precision fermentation, or acellular cultivation, has emerged as a specific kind of fermentation process to create lab-grown ingredients for use in a wide variety of products, including food.
Unlike cultivated products that are derived from cells harvested from live animals, precision fermentation uses cells from micro-organisms like yeast and bacteria to produce specific enzymes, fat, collagen, flavour molecules, vitamins or protein ingredients that are identical to animal proteins but which do not contain any living material in the final product. The process is being used to create:
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Omega-3 fatty acids
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Vanillin
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Chocolate
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Coffee
As the cost of the precision fermentation process falls, the possibilities for creating ingredients to replace animal-derived ingredients for use in the food industry will be endless. Consider that by using precision fermentation:
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Expensive or imported ingredients like vanilla can be created and sourced in Canada, which will help build new, sustainable Canadian-based supply chains.
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Precision fermentation allows for greater product consistency and stability, meaning products can be more easily scaled for commercial markets.
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Once scaled, it has the capacity to meet the growing demand for novel and vegan proteins.
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Its use has the potential to help solve issues of food scarcity and insecurity, as well as food waste.
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Unlike synthetic or artificial ingredients, it is derived from a natural source, and can offer food companies a “clean label.”
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Its use removes concerns about animal welfare and the environment that have been linked to conventional dairy and meat industries, including land and water use, carbon footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions.
While insulin made through precision fermentation has been on the market in Canada since the 1980s, today there are a variety of products containing ingredients derived through the process. Some of the Canadian startups using the process to create novel proteins and other alternative products include:
Mississauga, ON-based Liven Proteins, which creates animal-free functional proteins for use in plant-based food and beverages.
Proveta Nutrition Ltd. based in Saskatoon, SK produces animal feed for farmers across the Prairies using precision fermentation.
Toronto’s Ardra, is using the process to produce natural flavours and fragrances.
Another Fish, based in Montreal, plans to use precision fermentation to create a sustainable whitefish fillet without animal ingredients.