3F BIO & M&S Announce Plans to collaborate on Vegan Food Range based on Mycoprotein
This week M&S announced an innovation partnership with 3F BIO Ltd, a pioneering biotech company who produce ABUNDA® mycoprotein in a zero-waste process
Mycoprotein is grown using a naturally occurring fungi and a large-scale fermentation process. The fermentation process is similar to that used to create beer and produces a whole food biomass with a meat-like texture that is high in both protein and fibre. As a food ingredient company, 3F BIO will trade as ENOUGH® and is building a first of its kind high scale facility in the Netherlands[i] to produce and sell mycoprotein as a food ingredient in 2022. ENOUGH is planning to have 50k tonnes of installed capacity by 2027 and the Company aims to produce 1M tonnes cumulatively within 10 years of launch.
Andrew Beasley, Commercial Director for 3F BIO & ENOUGH said that "we are delighted about this collaboration with Marks & Spencer”. The collective purpose of 3F BIO and ENOUGH is to ‘Make Protein Sustainable’ and by doing so we want to make a positive impact on the environment, and on global nutrition. We will only do this by making great food that consumers love and therefore we address this by growing mycoprotein, an existing advantaged ingredient with an established market role, more sustainably and at a lower cost than all other protein options such that it can have impact at scale.
We are hugely excited by the application possibilities of mycoprotein. ABUNDA mycoprotein is a fermented food ingredient, and it is truly special, not only because we can make delicious foods with it, but because it is also sustainable, healthy and nutritious. So many plant protein foods today contain way too many ingredients. With mycoprotein, we can make foods with short ingredient lists, which are common to our kitchens today”.
The role of Fermented Foods
As the population grows towards 9 billion, there is wide recognition that demand for protein will grow by c.60% to >800 M tonnes by 2050 and there is therefore high levels of investment in protein sources that can provide an alternative to the animal including insects, cultured meat and fermentation.
Fermentation is increasingly recognised as the best option as a “protein powerhouse” to make foods that taste as good or better and cost the same or less than the animal alternative. A recent report from GFI[ii] highlighted >40 companies who are active in growing protein with fermentation, with >$770M invested into fermentation companies in the last two years, primarily focussed on the US market.
Founded in 2015, 3F BIO is now a veteran in this sector, and in contrast to other emerging companies in alternative proteins, is wholly focused on a business to business strategy as this enables the maximum impact and scale. The Company supports any target customer with an in-house development team who showcase the vision of tasting as good as the animal alternative.
[i] 3F BIO is building a first of its kind facility, that is part funded by a Flagship project from the Bio Based Industries (BBI-JU). This 5-year project has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 838104-Plenitude and will be located in the Netherlands.
[i] GFI : State of the Industry Report – Fermentation. Explore our resource library