Authored by: Leonard Chong

 

  • Precision fermentation is revolutionising the food industry by offering sustainable, health-conscious, and economically viable alternatives to traditional food production methods.
  • This technology is gaining traction in Singapore, with support from the government, Institutes of Higher Learning and food-based MNCs that have taken root locally.

 

Traditional fermentation, which relies on naturally occurring microorganisms to preserve food, develop unique flavours and make essential nutrients more bioavailable, is very familiar in Asian food culture, from products like soy sauce, tempeh, kimchi and many others. Precision fermentation, while less well-known, has existed in the food industry since the late 20th century, to produce ingredients like chymosin for cheesemaking. This technology employs genetic engineering to design microorganisms that produce a specific organic compound, like protein or fat. These engineered microorganisms are then cultivated in controlled environments where they can produce the desired compounds in large quantities. The goal often is to produce an ingredient that is chemically identical to its natural counterpart, which may currently be unsustainably produced, economically unviable for the food industry or have an unstable supply chain.

Benefits of Precision Fermentation

While precision fermentation has been used in the food industry for some time, it has been gaining traction recently as a solution to tackle the unprecedented demand for protein due to the growing world population. As traditional animal-based protein is becoming increasingly unsustainable, alternative proteins from plant, microorganism or cultured-based sources are constantly being developed. Precision fermentation, with its ability to produce nature-identical proteins, is viewed by many as an ideal solution to manufacture proteins that retain the functionality of animal proteins so as to achieve the flavours and textures of the end food product.

One of the significant advantages of precision fermentation is its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resource usage. Traditional livestock farming is a major contributor to methane emissions and requires vast amounts of water and land. Precision fermentation, on the other hand, uses microorganisms as highly efficient cell factories with minimal by-products or side streams, hence achieving resource efficiency.

From a food safety perspective, precision fermentation allows for the production of clean and safe food ingredients. By controlling the fermentation environment and the genetic makeup of microorganisms, manufacturers can eliminate contaminants and allergens, resulting in purer end products.

Economically, precision fermentation presents advantages in scalability, cost-effectiveness, and market potential. The ability to produce food ingredients at scale without relying on seasonal agricultural cycles or fluctuating livestock markets means more stable pricing and supply chains. Additionally, the modular nature of bioreactors used in precision fermentation allows for rapid scaling up or down based on demand, making it a highly adaptable production method.

Customisation and innovation are other key benefits of precision fermentation. It enables the development of unique food products tailored to specific consumer needs and preferences. For instance, companies can create lactose-free dairy alternatives with identical protein profiles to cow's milk, healthy fats and oils that have the flavour profile of animal fat or designer sweeteners that replicate the intensity profile of sucrose. This level of innovation opens up new market opportunities and caters to the evolving demands of modern consumers.

Challenges and Barriers to Adoption

Despite its many advantages, the adoption of precision fermentation faces several challenges and barriers.

Regulatory hurdles and approval processes pose significant obstacles. The chief concern is the application of genetic engineering. While proponents of precision fermentation will argue that the use of cellular expression systems and downstream processes removes all genetically modified material from the end product, most regulatory bodies will still require PCR testing as part of the approval process as well as subsequent quality validation. Navigating these regulatory processes can be time-consuming and costly, potentially slowing down the market entry of new products.

Public perception and consumer acceptance are also crucial factors. Genetic engineering in food production often triggers scepticism and resistance among consumers due to concerns about safety and ethical considerations. Educating the public and building trust through transparency and rigorous safety testing are essential for gaining consumer acceptance.

Technical challenges in scaling up production further complicate the adoption process. While precision fermentation can be conducted on a small scale in laboratory settings, transitioning to industrial-scale production requires significant investment in infrastructure and expertise. Issues such as maintaining product consistency, optimising fermentation conditions, and ensuring cost-efficiency need to be addressed to make large-scale production viable.

Intellectual property and competition represent additional barriers. The development of proprietary strains of microorganisms and fermentation processes often leads to intense competition and patent disputes. Companies must navigate these complexities to protect their innovations while fostering a collaborative environment that encourages technological advancements and industry growth.

Industry Adoption: Current Trends

The adoption of precision fermentation is gaining momentum, with numerous companies leading the charge and setting trends in the industry. Companies like Perfect Day and Impossible Foods are at the forefront, leveraging precision fermentation to create dairy and meat alternatives that closely mimic their traditional counterparts in taste, texture, and nutritional value. Perfect Day, for example, uses genetically engineered microflora to produce whey protein identical to that found in cow's milk, offering a sustainable and lactose-free alternative for dairy products. Impossible Foods utilises genetically engineered yeast to produce leghaemoglobin, a molecule naturally found in soy root nodules, in a cost-effective and consistent way.

Collaboration between tech start-ups and established food companies is another notable trend. Partnerships between innovative start-ups and large food corporations enable the scaling up of precision fermentation technologies and accelerate the market introduction of new products. In June 2024, French dairy giant Danone and American start-up DMC Biotechnologies, along with Michelin and Crédit Agricole Centre France, launched the Biotech Open Platform to accelerate the scale-up of advanced fermentation processes like precision fermentation. The following month, Leprino Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of mozzarella cheese, announced a collaboration with Dutch start-up Fooditive Group to use their precision fermentation platform to exclusively produce casein for Leprino.

The Local Ecosystem

Singapore is emerging as a significant player in the precision fermentation industry, with several key entities driving the adoption and development of this technology.

Companies like ScaleUp Bio and Allozymes are at the forefront, contributing to the local ecosystem with their expertise and innovations. ScaleUp Bio, a joint venture by ADM and NURASA, is positioned as a CDMO that helps fermentation companies with their innovation needs to bring them to the next level of commercial production. Allozymes focuses on enzyme engineering, developing custom enzymes for various applications, including precision fermentation. We also see many start-ups establishing a presence in Singapore, capitalising on the strong ecosystem that has been built. Paleo, a Belgium-based start-up working on myoglobin for plant-based meats; Manusbio, a company headquartered in Massachusetts producing flavours and sweeteners; and Nourish Ingredients, an Australian start-up working on alternative fats, are all examples of precision fermentation companies that have established roots in Singapore.

The timeframe for the adoption of precision fermentation products in Singapore is accelerating, driven by supportive government policies and investments in food innovation. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) plays a crucial role in evaluating and approving new food technologies, ensuring they meet stringent safety standards. The novel foods regulatory framework, designed to ensure food safety while fostering innovation, has provided structure to companies seeking to commercialise many of their products, especially in the space of fermentation and cultivated meat. In 2022, Solar Foods, a start-up producing single-cell proteins using microorganisms, received regulatory approval in Singapore for their Solein® protein, making it the first country in the world where consumers can enjoy their products.

While Singapore has built a thriving ecosystem for precision fermentation start-ups to incubate and grow in, there are also intrinsic challenges present. Firstly, we deal with the lack of talent with the relevant skillsets. Precision fermentation can produce ingredients not only for food but also for others, like the pharmaceutical and personal care sectors. The products in the latter are typically of higher value, which also translates to better-paying positions. Furthermore, while there is a strong presence of STEM in the Institutes of Higher Learning, the education is very focused on lab-based R&D. Experience in pilot or industrial scale plants, which is essential for scale-up, is less available. Secondly, there is also a lack of specialised infrastructure. Many start-ups looking to scale up are unable to invest in CAPEX for the necessary equipment. While facilities like ScaleUp Bio cater well to these start-ups in their upstream processes, there is a lack of similar offerings for downstream processes like extraction and purification. In some ways, having a CDMO for these downstream processes is a greater challenge, as different ingredients, e.g., fats, proteins, and bioactives, may require different equipment and treatments. Hence, government intervention may be necessary to pool resources together to provide the necessary services to fill these gaps.

This technology and industry may still be nascent, but there are opportunities for our local food manufacturers to capitalise on. Ingredients like natural sweeteners and flavours produced using precision fermentation may be worth exploring as alternatives. In a recent roundtable discussion on “Opportunities and Challenges of Precision Fermentation for Food Industry SMEs”, the key considerations for local SMEs that were brought up were cost, quality, safety and the scale of production of these ingredients, as well as regulatory concerns like the timeline to approval and labelling. Many of these challenges will take time to be fully addressed by the precision fermentation industry. However, food manufacturers should get their feet wet, as precision fermentation is expected to be a mainstay in food production, especially with its potential to tackle the instability in the global food supply chain.

Conclusion

Precision fermentation represents a transformative force in the food industry, offering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges related to sustainability, food security and food safety. Its ability to produce targeted nature-identical food ingredients with minimal environmental impact positions it as a key player in the future of food production.

In the context of Singapore, precision fermentation holds promise. The city's robust regulatory framework, coupled with strong support for food innovation, provides a conducive environment for the adoption and development of this technology. As local companies and start-ups continue to explore and expand the possibilities of precision fermentation, Singapore is poised to become a leader in this innovative field, and our local food industry should be prepared to reap the rewards of these developments.

With IPI's Open Innovation services, the pathway to these transformative solutions is streamlined, accelerating the development and refinement of products, business models, and organisational competencies. The future is fermentation, and with the support from IPI, identifying and integrating these technologies into your operations for business growth has never been easier. To explore how these technologies can be integrated into your operations for enhanced sustainability and to drive business growth, reach out to us today.