Nourish Ingredients, an Australian startup creating novel fats via fermentation, has struck a deal with Chinese biomanufacturing co CABIO Biotech in which CABIO will manufacture Nourish’s first product ‘Tastilux’ at commercial scale.

Tastilux—which is claimed to deliver an “authentic animal taste and aroma” at very low inclusion rates in meat alternatives, prepared meals, snacks, spices and condiments—is produced by the same family of fungi (Mortierella alpina) that CABIO uses to produce the omega 6 fatty acid arachidonic acid (ARA) for infant formula, said Nourish CEO James Petrie.

“CABIO Biotech is one of the world’s largest producers of ARA for infant formula,” he told AgFunderNews. “By leveraging CABIO’s established expertise, we’re not only de-risking our supply chain for expansion but also enhancing our ability to deliver high-quality, innovative food solutions at scale.”

He added: “We’ve been talking with them for quite a while now as we were aware of each other’s capabilities and found a really happy overlay as they’re keen to get further down the value chain into cutting edge products.

“It’s perfect for us because we don’t want to have to spend the capex associated with precision fermentation. In the current market climate, the days of large capex-heavy rounds are probably behind us. You have to be more intelligent about how you scale your product.”

Under the deal, CABIO will handle distribution and sales of Tastilux in the Chinese market, utilizing its local knowledge and networks. Nourish will continue to handle sales in other markets, with CABIO providing manufacturing support.

“China is very difficult to penetrate for Western companies, so if we want to access China’s market, we need to do it with a Chinese partner, and a very strong one at that,” said Petrie. For customers outside of China, he said, “They are producing for us, we are taking that material and selling to customers. Sales begin next year, which is super exciting.”

While the initial focus is on Tastilux, the partners see potential for future expansion into other product categories developed by Nourish Ingredients, which has also developed Creamilux, a lipid claimed to replicate the mouthfeel, taste and emulsification properties of dairy fat.

‘We’re talking to global flavor houses, ingredients companies, and CPG companies’

Nourish is interested in the phospholipids that go around the cell surface, rather than the triglycerides inside the cell, explained Petrie. “Once the triglyceride is separated away from the cell biomass [Cabio uses the triglyceride portion to extract arachidonic acid] you’re left with residue that is quite enriched with phospholipid. This suits our purpose perfectly.”

Rather than spending large sums on pricey downstream purification processes for the fats in Tastilux, Nourish is using this crude extract that also contains yeast from the Non-GMO strain at issue, said Petrie. Beyond that, there is a highly controlled cooking process “where you can do a lot of fine tuning for the flavor profile that you’re building” and some further steps depending on what formats customers prefer (powders, liquids etc).

As for potential customers, said Petrie, who is going through the GRAS process in the US, “We’re talking to global flavor houses, ingredients companies, and CPG companies with an initial focus on the US, then Asia in parallel, and Europe later.

“What we’re finding with [CPG] customers is that they are able to displace some of the flavor house offerings, which are hugely expensive, but they’re also able to displace other ingredients, for instance, such as yeast extracts for an umami mouthfeel.”

Labeling is yet to be determined and will depend on different products and regulatory pathways, noted Petrie, who is also looking at the FEMA GRAS* process in the US. “It depends, but in some cases it’s likely to be ‘natural flavor.’”

High impact, low inclusion rates

Attempting to produce a drop-in replacement for a commodity fat such as palm oil using microbial fermentation clearly makes no economic sense right now. But if you can produce high-potency molecules that can be used at sub-1% inclusion rates to dramatically transform the flavor and cooking experience of a plant-based burger, for example, the equation is quite different, said Petrie.

“Only a small proportion of animal fat is actually interesting and provides that signature taste. So if you make a drop in [replacement for animal fat], 80% of what you’re producing could readily be substituted by a plant. And you don’t want to be competing with plants.”

Fats… the next generation

Nourish is one of a growing number of startups using microbial fermentation to make tailored fats including Yali Bio, Melt&Marble, ÄIO, c16 Bio, Circe, Seminal Bio, NoPalm Ingredients, Zero Acre Farms and Clean Food Group.

Other startups are making cell-cultured fat by growing animal fat cells in a bioreactor (Hoxton Farms, Mission Barns​​, Believer Meats, SuperMeat, Mosa Meat) while some are playing around with the structure of plant oils through emulsions (Lypid), oleogels (PerFat, Shiru), oil structuring technology (Fattastic), and CO2 and hydrogen (Savor).

* Under the FEMA GRAS (Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association Generally Recognized as Safe) process, a panel of experts in toxicology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, metabolism, and pathology assesses the safety of flavor ingredients.

Watch our recent interview with James Petrie at the SynBioBeta conference in San Jose in May: