Five European start-ups using food tech to reimagine fats

From cultivated fats, to encapsulated oils and palm oil substitutes using precision fermentation, food tech start-ups have fats firmly on their radar.

As global supply chains for traditional fats, like palm oil​ and cocoa butter, continue to face tough scrutiny around their impact on people and planet, a growing collection of European start-ups are turning to food tech to develop next-gen alternatives.

Here are 5 worth knowing about:​

ÄIO​

Founded in 2022 by bioengineers Estonian Petri-Jaan Lahtvee and Brazilian Nemailla Bonturi, Estonian-based brand, ÄIO, produces edible fats and oils from agricultural and wood industry side-streams.

Specifically, the team uses natural and precision fermentation to grow microorganisms from these side-streams, capable of producing fatty acids, antioxidants and pigments. These are then used to create microbial oils rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and with far less environmental impact than fats such as palm oil, say the company.

Already the start-up has created three products: A Red Oil, capable of replacing convention vegetable, seed and fish oil, as well as suitable for use in cosmetic products and household chemicals. An Encapsulated Oil, which is intended as a plant-based alternative to palm and soybean oils and can be used in categories like animal-free meats and bakery products. And a ‘buttery fat’ that the start-up say can be used as a substitute for coconut and animal fats and shortenings.

Currently working with food producers to test its products, the company plans to start production on an industrial scale by 2026. ​

Cubiq Foods​

Barcelona-based, Cubiq Foods, uses a mix of cellular culture technologies, microencapsulation of Omega 3 oils and newly developed oil/water emulsion formulas, to create healthier fat alternatives for the food sector – a multi-pronged approach that the company says makes it the first focused on industrial scale applications for alternative fats.

Its existing portfolio of fats and oils includes Go!Drop, a fat replacer that they say offers ‘improved juiciness, a full flavour profile containing fewer calories, less saturated fats and 20% oil.’

Last year, the Spanish start-up signed a deal with US ingredients supplier Cargill Foods to collaborate on product development and commercial go-to-market strategies, as a means to accelerate the commercialisation of its fats and oils portfolio.

“Signing the joint development and commercial agreements represents the next phase in our partnership, as our ground-breaking technology is now ready for application development, production scale-up and widespread commercialisation – roles that Cargill is uniquely equipped to help us advance,” said CEO Andrés Montefeltro.

Cultimate​

Earlier this year, Berlin-based start-up Cultimate successfully closed a €2.3 million seed funding round to scale up production processes of its premium cultivated fat ingredient.

Founded in 2022, the biotech start-up has developed both cultivated beef and pork fat, what they believe is a ‘game changing’ ingredient, due to its delivery of an ‘authentic’ meaty taste and texture to plant-based products. Their fat is unique on the market, say the company, as it uses a ‘technological approach to 3D cultivation’ that replicates the structure of animal fat tissue and reduces the cost of production.

“Science is the key to addressing many of the problems caused by the food industry. Through innovative technology, we can deliver the meaty flavours consumers crave while simultaneously cutting down on unethical intensive animal farming and tackling climate change by reducing CO2-emissions,” said co-founder and managing director Eugenia Sagué.

Hoxton Farms​

London-based, Hoxton Farms, first launched in 2020 as a collaboration between school friends, Ed Steele and Max Jamilly. The team has developed cultivated fat using stem cells taken from both pigs and cows, and fermented in a blend of plant-based nutrients to create a product that the pair say “looks, cooks and tastes like the real thing​” but with far better ethics.

“Our innovative process brings together computational modelling and synthetic biology to grow animal fat from stem cells in patented reactors: a sustainable, scalable, cost-effective ingredient,” said Steele. “We then sell our cultivated animal fat as a B2B ingredient to food manufacturers.”

In September last year, the team opened a 14,000 square foot pilot facility in London, complete with cell culture laboratories and a food development kitchen. A workshop at the site will also manufacture bespoke bioreactors, designed to optimise fat cell growth with much lower capital costs than industry-standard bioreactors. The site will eventually produce around 10 tonnes of fat a year at the facility, say the start-up.

Melt & Marble​

Swedish start-up, Melt & Marble, believes fat is a big contributor to the current taste gap that exists in plant-based foods. “The fats that are being used right now, such as coconut, don’t have the same sensory properties as meats,” co-founder and CEO Anastasia Krivoruchko, told FoodNavigator​, last year. “You don’t get the same mouthfeel; you don’t get the same juiciness or flavour.”

The company’s solution is to use precision fermentation to produce fats that have a similar fatty-acid composition and saturation level as those in fats from animal protein and dairy. By using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering the team can build proprietary yeast strains to convert natural sugars into these specialised fats, with the addition of carefully selected enzymes to dictate the structure and properties of the final fat.

Because the resulting product is ‘just fat,’ unlike cultivated or encapsulated fats that have a specific structure, the team says it can far more easily replace current plant-based fats, such as coconut, cocoa butter and shea butter.

This year the team moved into new headquarters in Gothenburg as they look to scale up production, with plans to increase its bioreactor capacity to tens of cubic metres in the coming months, which would yield hundreds of kgs in each run. The plan is to aim for a launch in the US in 2025.