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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

alt-protein

The Latest Ingredient For Alt-Protein? Wood.

Over the last few years, everything from chickpea to microbes found in the air to bugs (lots of bugs) has been put forth as a new source of alt-protein.

But what about wood?

According to Arbiom, an agtech ingredient development company, wood is ready for prime time as a human-consumable source of protein. In a press release, the company said its first commercialized product, SylPro, recently completed a proof-of-concept study in which it replaced a variety of plant-based alternatives such as soy, pea and wheat gluten “without compromising taste or product quality”.

Arbiom says that SylPro could replace plant-based alternatives like wheat, which can act as an allergen, in functional roles such as binding.

Arbiom’s technology works by converting wood substrates into single-cell protein microorganisms through the process of fermentation. Up to this point, the technology had been used to make only animal feed, but this month’s news is the first indication that Arbiom’s technology can be used to convert wood into human food.

The company’s been working on making wood a source of protein for years. It first created a wood pre-treatment concept lab in 2011 and in 2017, it formed the European Union funded SYLFEED Consortium with a €9M grant to develop a wood-to-food ecosystem built around Arbiom’s technology.

There’s no doubt that trees could be a plentiful source of input material when it comes to making food, but any talk of wood as a food source needs to be balanced against concerns of deforestation. Deforestation continues to be a concern around the world, mostly due to the use of trees as construction material, fuel, and through clearing for agriculture. According to Arbiom, SylPro’s impact would be negligible in part because it gets its raw material from excess material derived from the wood processing and paper production industry.

Looking forward, wood might make it into other types besides your plant-based burger. SylPro is part of another European Union project launched last year called Next-Gen Proteins that is looking to put alternative non-animal protein inputs into products like baked goods, sports nutrition and 3D printed foods.

Purple Orange Ventures Announces Fellowship Program For Alt Protein Scientists

Purple Orange Ventures (P.O.V.), a seed fund based in Berlin, Germany, announced the launch of a new fellowship program aimed at alt-protein projects and ideas.

Dubbed The Entrepreneurial Scientist & Engineer Fellowship Program, the fellowship will provide grant money and mentorship for scientists and engineers using, well, science and engineering to create products that mimic the look, feel, and taste of meat, dairy, and seafood without using any animal byproduct whatsoever.

“We want to accelerate the animal-free foodtech movement in Europe, UK, Israel & Singapore,” P.O.V. investor and Managing Director Gary Lin wrote in a blog post when he announced the fellowship. In keeping with that, the fellowship is open to those currently residing in those regions or countries.

The Fellowship, for which P.O.V. has partnered with The Good Food Institute, New Harvest, ProVeg International, and the ProVeg Incubator, differs from the usual startup accelerator or incubator in a few different ways. Most notably, the selection criteria is much narrower: the Fellowship’s homepage states that applicants should have a “Ph.D in science, engineering or related field with ideally commercial work experience or Master’s degree with a minimum of 2 years of commercial work experience.”

It’s also different in that it’s not about growing a company, as startup accelerators do, but rather, to validate whether a project is strong enough to warrant starting a company. To that end, participants will spend time testing their projects in the lab setting, receiving feedback from potential customers and stakeholders, and adjusting the product based on that feedback. The end goal is to get a project closer to a commercial reality.

The chosen few get €120,000 (~$135,379 USD) in grant funding across 12 months. The grant is non-dilutive. Participants also receive coaching and mentorship, networking opportunities, as well as a chance to work at P.O.V.’s facility in Berlin and a lab setting in Berkeley, CA.

Should a fellow choose to incorporate their company by program end, there’s potential for P.O.V. to invest, though that’s not a foregone conclusion.

Fellowships in food, food science, and food technology are becoming more plentiful these days. P.O.V.’s program joins the likes of the Future Leaders for Food and Agriculture (FFar) Fellows program, UC Davis’ Innovator Fellowship, and the Kirchner Food Fellowship.