Achieving sustainable and productive agriculture by 2030 will require focused international effort – especially because animal-based food production comes with pollution, land use, and other challenges. One possible route to transforming global agriculture is by producing plant-based protein as a substitute for animal protein. Unfortunately, some of the resulting foods don’t taste the same or don’t have the same texture as conventional foods. Science calls these “different sensory properties,” otherwise known as yuck or weird. That’s no surprise, given that plant proteins generally aren’t the same as animal proteins.

What if animal proteins could be produced by genetically engineered cells instead of by animals? Envision food materials grown in vats instead of in a field. That’s a goal of precision fermentation: using the tools of synthetic biology to produce animal protein and other products. This is not the same as genetically modified food; the final product is simply an animal protein and doesn’t contain genetically modified material. Probably as a marketing aid, some precision fermentation businesses give their protein a special name that differs from that of the conventionally sourced protein, but keep in mind that the protein’s source changes nothing about the biochemical structure or function – they’re identical. The concept of growing food in vats might sound odd, yet the end result can be food that consumers can’t distinguish from conventional food.

Jiancheng Qi, Bioresource and Food Processing Research Unit Lead at the Agri-Food Discovery Place (AFDP) shares his enthusiasm for precision fermentation: “Fermentation technology is a rapidly evolving field, with exciting advancements and innovations emerging regularly. Some of the latest trends include cultivated meat and dairy, single-cell proteins [i.e., extracted from microbial biomass through fermentation – ed.], probiotics and bioactive compounds, bio-based plastics, biofuels, biofertilizers, gas fermentation to convert industrial CO₂ emissions into fuels and chemicals, and artificial intelligence-driven strain engineering and fermentation process control.”

Accordingly, supplementing agriculture with precision fermentation may play a key role in future food production. Even solely focusing on foodstuffs, precision fermentation has a rapidly increasing market size: estimated at USD 2.8 billion in 2023 and projected to be over USD 24 billion by 2030. How are researchers and businesses using precision fermentation to produce animal-free food precursors? Here we share ongoing developments as well as interviews with scientists and company executives.

Pioneers of Precision Fermentation

There are many academic and commercial precision fermentation ventures. For example, the AFDP at the University of Alberta oversees a fermentation laboratory that scales from bench top to 1500 L. Exact control over fermentation conditions, downstream processing capabilities, and comprehensive product analysis enable academic- and industry-driven research focused on bacteria, fungi, yeast, and microalgae.

Liberation Labs is initially focused on a fermentation facility that’s set to be operational by the end of 2025. Their six planned global locations will each initially scale up to 600,000 L and subsequently up to 4 million L. The facilities will be fit for purpose in a way that historical pharmaceutical facilities don’t match, such as in terms of oxygen transfer rates and modern filtration equipment. Mark Warner, co-founder and CEO, elaborates: “Liberation Labs recently closed on a $50 million round of funding that will enable us to complete construction of its flagship 600,000-liter precision fermentation facility, which includes a fully dedicated downstream process in Richmond, Indiana. The plant will produce a range of bio-based materials, including building block ingredients for food, chemicals, and other industrial products at a scale and cost that will fill a pressing need among both new and established consumer packaged goods companies and other industrial manufacturers.”

Mark Warner is also Chair of the track on Biomanufacturing Scale-Up at this year’s SynBioBeta: The Global Synthetic Biology Conference, taking place May 6-8 at the San Jose Convention Center. Industry leaders will be discussing the topics of precision fermentation and innovations for the Food & Ag space in even more detail.

Onego Bio focuses on Bioalbumin, an egg protein (ovalbumin). The waste materials from protein production can feed into packaging and other materials. Bioalbumin has many advantages over animal-sourced ovalbumin: reduction of global warming potential by 89%, land use by 95%, and impacts from water use by 87%.

Perfect Day focuses on ProFerm, a cow whey protein (beta-lactoglobulin). They also produce dairy fats and casein proteins. Compared with whey protein sourced from conventional milk, ProFerm reduces—at a maximum—greenhouse gases by 97%, nonrenewable energy use by 60%, and water use from lakes, rivers, and aquifers by 99%.

Overcoming the Challenges of Precision Fermentation

Despite such ventures, production engineering for precision fermentation remains challenging. Warner explains why achieving modern, fit-for-purpose biomanufacturing is the biggest obstacle to the precision fermentation industry: “The network of CMO facilities used by the industry was built 40–50 years ago for other purposes. This creates significant cost and quality issues.  Liberation Labs was founded to address this problem by building a modern biomanufacturing network designed for the organisms being developed today and in the geographies where the products have the best overall economics. The best example of this is methanol-fed Pichia pastoris, one of the most common GRAS-approved organisms for protein production. The existing network of legacy sites struggled to use methanol, while Richmond had this as design criteria and can operate the entire facility on this process.”

Scale-up—such as recent research aimed at maximizing gene expression in yeast and mammalian cells—will be essential to maximizing the ability to supplement conventional agriculture. In this context, Qi shares insights: “Scale-up from lab scale to industrial scale is a complex and challenging task. It requires much more than just increasing production volume. It also involves ensuring the process remains efficient, consistent, and economically viable.” He highlights many key challenges, e.g., optimizing and maintaining process conditions such as temperature, pH, oxygen levels, nutrient supply, and feed control; improving titer and yield; and minimizing energy consumption.

Public attitude toward precision fermentation is also an ongoing challenge. Data from marketing analyses, such as consumer support of sustainability as well as an aversion to disrupting farmers’ income, can help maximize public acceptance. In particular, a possible criticism of precision fermentation is that it may disrupt rural livelihoods by reducing the need for conventional agriculture.

Qi shares his thoughts on this criticism: “The potential of precision fermentation to replace a substantial portion of conventional agriculture raises valid concerns about its impact on rural livelihoods. While it could disrupt some traditional agricultural practices, precision fermentation is unlikely to replace conventional agriculture. Instead, it can create new markets for agricultural products, as the majority of feedstock or raw materials (such as starches, sugars, and plant-based biomass) come from conventional farming. Additionally, it offers opportunities to build a more sustainable and equitable food system. Rather than replacing agriculture, precision fermentation will complement it. For example, it can produce high-value ingredients (such as proteins, enzymes, nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials), while traditional farming continues to provide staple crops and livestock.”

Warner has similarly positive thoughts on public acceptance and long-term market viability: “Precision fermentation uses agricultural feedstocks such as corn dextrose, so instead of feeding livestock corn to generate meat products later, precision fermentation is an alternate pathway to similar products. The landscape may change, but the overall demand for agricultural products will remain robust.”