Berlin-based startup Nosh Biofoods and biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) announce a new partnership to produce what they claim would be a superior mycoprotein ingredient for red meat alternatives to make them “taste closer to real meat than ever before.”
Creating plant-based red meat, free from binders and chemical additives, continues to challenge the industry. Still, these two companies are poised to solve this problem and develop a mycoprotein with better taste, color, performance, and nutrition for clean-label alternatives.
“Nosh.bio is eager to enable the transition from animal-based to animal-free products”
As part of the collaboration, Nosh Biofoods will leverage Ginkgo Bioworks’ capacity to discover and deliver protein-producing fungi strains with superior sensorial profiles to provide the rich taste, juiciness, and color of red meat in NPDs.
“Nosh.bio is eager to enable the transition from animal-based to animal-free products. What really excites us about partnering with Ginkgo is their accelerated screening technology that can help us pinpoint and develop a super ‘meaty’ mycoprotein,” says Tim Fronzek, CEO and co-founder of Nosh Biofoods.
Nosh Biofoods produces functional and nutritional ingredients for the alt protein sector. The company has successfully developed a proprietary fermentation platform that claims to be efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective. Its goal is to help manufacturers of animal-free products overcome the drawbacks of taste, texture, and price to reach a broader market.
Discovering fungi strains
Ginkgo Bioworks, a leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, offers an encapsulation and screening technology (EncapS) that can be used to screen protein-producing fungi strains with superior sensorial profiles. This tech searches through up to one million strains in one run and identifies the best candidate.
The company has previously worked with biotech company Bolt Threads to make its vegan spider silk more sustainable and cost-effective and to create proteins for biomaterials. It has also partnered with Evo Foods to develop animal-free egg proteins.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Nosh.bio and help level up the alt-meat protein industry to deliver sustainable products that taste closer to real meat than ever before,” said Kalpesh Parekh, VP of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks.
