As some products hit cost parity with traditional animal sources, the Precision Fermentation Alliance says the future is now for precision fermentation

### The Future is Now for Precision Fermentation

Precision fermentation provides a sustainable alternative to traditional food production methods, with significant reductions in resource use and emissions.

Precision fermentation has been around for over 30 years, and the technology is used in several food ingredients, including:

– **Natural Flavors**
– **Rennet**
– **Vitamins**
– **Stevia**

Recent advancements in cellular agriculture are driving interest, particularly for producing genuine animal proteins without animals.

#### Key Products and Developments

1. **Rennet**: Produced since 1990 using precision fermentation, replacing traditional animal sources for cheesemaking enzymes like chymosin.

2. **EverSweet Stevia**: Avansya (Cargill and dsm-firmenich) uses fermentation to produce steviol glycosides Reb M and Reb D, offering a sustainable alternative with a lower ecological footprint.

3. **Natural Colors**: Phytolon uses precision fermentation to produce vibrant, stable natural food colors, partnering with Ginkgo Bioworks to enhance yeast strain efficiency.

4. **Bioalbumen (Animal-free Egg Proteins)**: Onego Bio develops Bioalbumen, a bio-identical ovalbumin protein from egg whites, providing the same functionality and nutrition without using chickens.

5. **Whey Proteins**: Perfect Day produces animal-free whey proteins for various applications, including sports nutrition and dairy products, significantly reducing environmental impact. Perfect Day’s whey protein reduces blue water consumption by up to 99%, greenhouse gas emissions by up to 97% and non-renewable energy use by up to 60%, when compared to conventional animal production methods, according to the company.

6. **Animal-free Dairy Ingredients**: Imagindairy operates large-scale precision fermentation production lines, achieving cost parity with traditional dairy, enabling mass-market adoption. Imagindairy’s facility allows access to production at more than 100,000 liters of fermentation capacity, with planned capacity expansion to triple this volume within about two years.

#### Environmental Benefits and Market Impact

Companies like Perfect Day and Imagindairy highlight the technology’s potential to transform the food industry by providing high-quality, environmentally friendly alternatives to animal-based products. The advancements in precision fermentation are paving the way for more sustainable food systems, promising a future where food production is both efficient and ecologically responsible.