Its technological platform is based on molecular farming, a hybrid approach to plant and cell-based production technologies for alternative proteins. The company has announced a portfolio expansion to reflect its ambition to address dependency of animal proteins in every segment of the food industry.
Leveraging the increasing utilization of oat protein in the alternative dairy space, the company is functionalizing oat concentrates with co-expressed whey protein. Similarly, ovum protein is being engineered into wheat for an egg replacement specially designed for the bakery industry.
The products will join the meat analogues currently in Moolec's pipeline, blends of soybean with selected porcine proteins and pea with bovine proteins to complete its growing portfolio.
"We started exploring the space more than 10 years ago. We were the first team to fully deregulate a molecular farming crop and its functionalized protein concentrate for its use in the cheese-making industry, a product that has been successfully used in the manufacturing of thousands of tons of soft and hard cheeses. Since then, we expanded to animal-free meat ingredients and are now announcing a broadening of our pipeline into dairy and egg replacements," said Gastón Paladini, CEO and co-founder.
"Proteins are responsible for the functionality, mouth experience and many nutritional aspects in food. The greatest food experiences are mostly those which include high-quality products. And top products only use the best ingredients. We want to collaborate with B2C food companies to offer the optimal journey and proper affordability for consumers by using our integral animal-free solutions."
"Our selection of dairy and egg proteins will be produced in the host crop. We are going to let the plants, the sun and the land work and, after only basic processing, Moolec's product will have superior nutritional and functional properties for a fraction of the cost. For example, our wheat and egg protein products will have a higher content of digestible protein and, thus, improved nutritional value," said Henk Hoogenkamp, CPO and co-founder.
Moolec recently acquired a nutritional oil technology for the production of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA, branded SONOVA). This technology complements the company's bovine chymosin production platform, both of which are based in the safflower crop, resulting in significant efficiencies.