Nutreco backs company relying on fermentation to meet future food protein needs
ENOUGH produces ABUNDA mycoprotein, fermenting fungi using renewable feedstocks to make food protein.
The funding round also included Olympic Investments Inc. along AXA IM Alts through the AXA Impact Fund – Climate & Biodiversity, HAL Investments and Tailored Solutions.
Existing investors CPT Capital and Scottish Enterprise participated as well.
ENOUGH, which has also received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking within the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, in the process of building its factory, which will initially produce 10,000 tons of its mycoprotein per annum; the company aims to produce over 1m tons by 2032.
It claims the impact of introducing 1m tons of ABUNDA is equivalent to replacing 5 million cows, over a 1.2 billion chickens and reducing more than 5 million tons of CO2 emissions.
Transforming protein production
Nutreco CEO, Rob Koremans, commenting on the move, said: “ENOUGH is an exciting business with real potential to transform protein production. This partnership perfectly supports our ambitions to accelerate the contribution we can make to the challenge of feeding a growing global population. If we are serious about meeting this objective in a sustainable way, we will need to produce protein from a variety of sources such as fermentation, which is very much a shared goal.”
Nutreco is supportive of protein production from both traditional and alternative protein production methods in the context of its ‘Feeding the Future’ business model.
February this year saw it further invest in cellular meat pioneer, Mosa Meat, a company that introduced the world’s first cultivated beef hamburger in 2013, while early 2020 saw it announce a strategic partnership with cell-based seafood startup, Blue Nalu. We spoke to Koremans back then to hear more about the company’s rationale for supporting cultured meat and seafood innovators, and the longer-term goals for the business.
“Cultured meat is not going to replace red meat. In essence, we see that cell-based meat and seafood add to the options available for consumers. If we just continue producing animal proteins as we do today, that is not going to be sufficient to feed a global population of 10 billion people in the future,” said the Nutreco lead back then.
