Australian food tech company, Nourish Ingredients, will use Singapore as its base to build a regional footprint for its world first animalic fats. In October, Nourish Ingredients launched its breakthrough plant-based fat, Tastilux, that is derived from nature but cooks, smells, and tastes like traditional meat.
The company’s focus on the precision fermentation process is designed to be highly scalable and affordable because of the relatively low volumes required, enabling it to work with the world’s largest food makers.
Nourish Ingredients co-founder and CEO, James Petrie, said, “Nourish Ingredients combines breakthrough science with a focus on the most potent fat molecules found in nature to transform the plant-based proteins market.
“Without the right fats, alternative proteins just don’t have what it takes to deliver on the one thing that consumers want, which is authentic taste. Nourish Ingredients fats are key to making alternative proteins taste incredible and is the missing piece for the plant protein industry.”
Nourish Ingredients will operate from the Food Tech Innovation Centre (FTIC) at the flagship pilot and development facility of Nurasa, a sustainable food accelerator wholly owned by the Singaporean sovereign investment fund, Temasek. The site gives the company access to shared labs and pilot-scale equipment.
Nourish has started collaborating with ScaleUp Bio, a joint venture between Nurasa and global nutrition and agriculture company ADM, on scaling production and working with the regulatory body Singapore Food Authority before its public release.
When ScaleUp Bio launched in August 2022, it was one of the first in Asia to offer end-to-end contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) services for food tech companies in process optimisation and scale-up.
ScaleUp Bio CEO Francisco Codoner said, “With more consumer demand for alternative proteins, it’s vital that sustainable food companies are provided the right commercialisation pillars to accelerate scalability. Our partnership with Nourish Ingredients will not only accelerate the production of speciality fats but also help create sustainable food products that excite consumers.”
Singapore has been ahead of the curve for several years when it comes to innovation in the alternative proteins market. Driven by the challenges of food security and self-sufficiency – only one per cent of Singapore’s land is set aside for farming, the country is working towards a 30-by-30 goal, to build up its agri-food industry’s capability and capacity to sustainably produce 30 per cent of the country’s nutritional needs by 2030. In 2020, it was the first country to say cultivated meat was safe for human consumption.
The partnership will support 10,000 litre batches of fermentation capacity as well as 100 litres of thermal processing, to successfully scale production of speciality fats.
“ScaleUp Bio empowers global food-tech companies like Nourish Ingredients to access state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and industry expertise on their lab to market scale-up journey, enabling these firms to empower the next food revolution,” Codoner said.
Nourish Ingredients CTO & founder director, Anna El Tahchy, said, “Singapore’s highly enabling ecosystem – from regulatory and legal support to production capabilities – and commitment to innovation and sustainability makes it an ideal hub for showcasing our groundbreaking natural fats to investors and customers in the Asia Pacific region.
“We know that if we can improve the taste of alternative proteins, Nourish Ingredients can spur the category’s mainstream consumer adoption for greater food security in Singapore.”
ScaleUp Bio announces major developments
ScaleUp Bio also announced it’s in the final, pre-operational phase to open Singapore’s first, dedicated food-grade submerged microbial and precision fermentation facilities. Its two facilities are designed to support two distinct ScaleUp growth areas: research and development, and pilot-stage manufacturing.
The Fermentation Joint Lab is a R&D lab that enables global food tech start-ups to explore ideas for new food innovations with state-of-the-art equipment dedicated for food-grade fermentation purposes.
One of its main distinctions is that its facilities and equipment are calibrated to the alternative food industry, when many start-ups have had to use lab facilities not set up for the sector.
Cordoner said it addressed a critical need in Singapore and Asia, with dedicated food-grade fermentation facilities from inception.
The Lab was jointly developed and operated by ScaleUp Bio and A*STAR’s (Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research) Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) and is in Nurasa’s FTIC, which is located within Singapore’s Biopolis research district.
The second facility is a fully owned, dedicated, food-grade commercial production fermentation facility and a first for Singapore. It offers up to 10,000 litres fermentation capacity for pilot-stage manufacturing.
Innovation hubs and technical specialists will be on hand to ensure quality control and safe production standards, coupled with a full suite of business advisory, Asia market entry and other related services.
Also serving as ScaleUp Bio’s new headquarters, the facility is in the new, high-tech manufacturing and logistics district of Tuas, on the western side of Singapore island. Full operations are expected to commence in early 2024.
It has received initial letters of intent to use the facilities from:
- USA-based C16 Biosciences, which produces next-generation oils and fats to decarbonize the consumer products supply chain – starting with a sustainable alternative to palm oil and palm-derived ingredients;
- Malaysia-based Ultimeat, which is creating plant-based meat alternatives that are just as juicy, flavourful and tender as actual meat; and
- Singapore-based Allium Bio, which uses a novel co-culture fermentation technology to create sustainable and functional ingredients from algae and mycelium.
