Beer, wine, yogurt, leavened bread and coffee are just a few of the delicious things we can consume thanks to the chemical process known as ferment. The future of human food could be very different if Solar Foods is correct.
The industrial biotech startup is working on a sustainable alternative to animal-derived proteins. Solein is a single-cell microbe that is grown using gas fermentation. They are harvesting calories from hydrogen-oxyidizingMicrobes.
It is like a brewery according to CEO and co- founder Dr. Vainikka. The technologies are similar. There is a difference between a process and a feedstock.
Air, water and energy are just a few of the ingredients needed to make Solein. It could be made in a factory in a remote area or inside a city.
It is not possible to feed it to create an adequate yield with other foods. The promise is huge. The main problems of human kind are land use and energy use.
According to Vainikka, Solein is similar to dried meat, dried carrot, or dried soy in terms of its blend of vitamins, minerals, andsaponins. He says it is familiar but it is a bit new. It is easy to include a mild taste in a wide range of food without the need for a strong flavor to be masked.
Solar Foods has discovered a new species through its fermentation process, but the microbe itself has been around for hundreds of millions of years. There is a mixture of old and new in the bioreactor.
Why is it important to find new forms ofProtein? Solar Foods is trying to find a solution to the problem of the environmental costs of livestock-based meat production. Wouldn't it be great if you could produce billions of meals without the need for deforesting and slaughter of animals? Humans could stop consuming the planet if they could feed themselves.
That is the main difference between Solar Foods and animal-derivedProteins.
Solein is produced by a solar foods bioreactor. The image is from solar foods.
If you compare Solein to the growing gaggle of plant-based meat alternatives, they still rely on land being farmed to produce the necessary plants. The environment upside is still very real despite the fact that they need less land. Solar Foods sells Solein to companies that make plant-based foods as another ingredient they can use to cook up healthy meals.
Cereals, vegetables, fruits, herbs aren't going away, says Vainikka, discussing how Solein could fit into an evolved food production system. Solein could solve 80% of the problem but 20% of the problem if we went back to the original problem.
If you are excited about the promise of lab-grown meat, Vainikka says the startup is supportive of such efforts.
If people are willing to eat it, then use cases for Solar Foods. It could be used as a feed for livestock, although the startup's messaging is focused on the need to transform a broken food system and enter "the era of sustainable food production."
The sole byproduct of its production process would be continuously recycled back into production of more of the foodstuff. If it can pull that off, it could be used as a life support system for humans on space missions where the timescales are too long for astronauts to rely on food brought with them from Earth.
We don't use any agriculture in the foods, that's the specific thing that we think is different in what we're doing. The main components are electricity and carbon dioxide. That is the point where food production is disconnected from agriculture.
We like that thing. Once you can link the use of land and land-use impacts and food production, all the environmental benefits fall on your lap.
Being able to unhitch food production from the vagaries of seasonal weather and other factors that can have major impacts on agricultural yields is one of the advantages Solar Foods has. Vainikka says that the security of supply, consistency and quality is one of the added advantages that he says the food industry can offer.
Solein appears to be a no-brainer on the environment front. In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe is facing supply issues of its own. Russia is a reliable supplier of gas to Europe.
Solar Foods has a long-term bet on energy production costs being brought down by wind and hydro energy in the north of Europe and solar in the sunny south. The European energy markets are structured so that the wholesale price of energy is linked to the cost of the most expensive type of energy, even though there is a lot of renewable energy available. If the wholesale price of energy goes up, the bill payers must pay more, even if they source their energy from cheaper sources.
Europe has been faced with a supply vs. demand issue. Over the past several months, it has been difficult for Europeans to escape energy price spikes as their governments have sought to reduce reliance on Russian gas imports.
The coming winter looks bleak, with Russia shutting down its gas exports to Germany in order to weaken support for the pro-Ukraine sanctions. Energy supply in Europe is a weapon of war.
Europe's marginal-cost based energy markets are in desperate need of structural reform to reflect the cheaper production costs of renewable energy and ensure consumers and businesses aren't at the mercy of fossil fuel volatility.
The startup is having to manage Vainikka's background in energy economics, which he says allows him to understand where the markets are headed.
The CEO of Solar Foods is Dr. Vainikka. The image is from solar foods.
Solar Foods may need to wait out the current energy crisis before it can scale commercial production of Solein in a way that is economically viable, as it is banking on Europe being able to find a way through to more stable electricity prices. The Commission has said it will be coming with an emergency reform plan to curb energy prices, both in the short term and over the long run, to ensure prices reflect cheaper renewables.
We shouldn't make electricity supply agreements right now. Vainikka says that they can't be on the market right now. It is a fact because of the energy price fluctuations. We are happy that we aren't making natural gas or electricity. We have a chance to make a good deal.
We need to replace fossil fuels with electricity so we need a lot of new generation capacity which is also a problem in the market. There is a lot of turbulence right now.
Regardless of the energy crisis, Solar Foods is still going strong.
At a cost of around 40 million, it is in the process of building its first factory, a demo facility, as a step on the way to future commercial scale up of Solein production.
Major energy requirements won't be needed for the demo facility. He said it is still holding off on signing an energy supply contract.
Vainikka says that it would be better for the turbulence to stop. The real factories would be 100x larger in terms of energy use, 50x larger, and it would need 50 turbines to run a huge facility that will produce half a billion dollars. If we were to invest in that factory now, it might be delayed because of the turbulence.
Solar Foods hopes that the first consumer product containing Solein will be on the market by the end of next year, if the demo factory is successful. Regulatory clearances will determine which global market will get the first taste of the novelProtein.
Solar Foods can't say if regulators in Europe or the U.S. will be the first to approve their application. It is possible that the first clearance will happen this year, according to Vainikka.
It is not yet known what the first product for sale to consumers will contain.
Vainikka suggests that it could be added to breakfast cereals or vegan meals for fortification, or as a main ingredient in plant-based meat replacements. He says it could be used as an egg substitute. It can be used as a principle ingredient in ice cream or yogurt.
He suggests leaving the final product development for customers so that they can be given more power. Having a food act for good is something that should be done.
The startup has been making demos in its labs. The image is from solar foods.
It might be a good idea to focus on what we master, which is conversion-fermentation, producing this ingredient, and so that it would have the functions needed for food products, he says. There are a lot of companies on the market who have experience with texture, product development and so on. When we introduce Solein into the market you would need to get everything right, what we are doing and mastering now, as well as the final product.
He emphasizes the still extensive range of requirements for developing a product that is designed to be an ingredient in processed foods.
Nutrition must be there, along with safety, how it works and forms texture, scaling and production technology, and how does the supply chain work, as well as who has it, how does it work, is it Scalable, and how does the supply chain work. A lot will happen in the next year and a half.
Solar Foods won't be a food product maker itself, but it does have an R&D lab which it uses to experiment with its product, from chicken-style chunks served with pasta to soup, bread and a breakfast smoothie.
Solein takes the form of a yellow powder after passing through Solar Foods' bioreactors and being dried.
The strong color makes it look like a blend of two different things. It isn't like that strong. One expert said it was like a dried carrot. He emphasizes that the taste is mild enough that it can be easily masked in any food product that it is being incorporated into.
Vainikka says that adding Solein to pasta would be similar to eating a plate of spaghetti with all the nutrition from an animal-based ingredient. It might take a bit of swallowing for those who used to consume traditional recipes. A second Italian suggested we should focus on having fun eating the actual food on our plates instead of talking about it after I described this meatless but meat-like pasta dish to her at a dinner party.
It is easy to imagine food producers being able to create something that has a meat-like taste and texture thanks to the addition of Solein. With the current food fad for high-protein eating, that could be a good selling point.
Solar Foods has been experimenting with a lot of different food ideas.
The image is from solar foods.
Since there are so many meat-alternative patty options out there, Vainikka wants the first food to contain the ingredient to not be a burger. He suggests that it could be a meat-like bite and be served in a hot pot. He thinks yogurt, ice cream, soup, bakery pastry application could be the first thing to go.
He suggests that it could be a frozen food, fresh or even on the street kitchen of an Asian city.
Food can be both culturally and politically personal. Once Solein leaves Solar Foods' factories and arrives in customers' commercial kitchens that's where all these localizing product and branding challenges will kick in, as buyers will have to work on figuring out how best to blend it in with other taste and cultural considerations
It looks like the future of food will be bright and colorful. The environmental challenges we face, as a species, demand we find the appetite to consume them.
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