VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Cellular agriculture could help create a sustainable food system in Finland

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Sustainability / Environment

Report: How Cellular Agriculture Could Make the Finnish Food System More Sustainable & Profitable

A new report by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland, and the University of Helsinki has investigated the state of cellular agriculture in the country. At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry and Business Finland, the authors list eight recommendations for policymakers, which include making investments in production-scale infrastructures and expediting and streamlining the EU’s regulatory process. According to the report, cellular agriculture is strategically important because it could boost economic growth, increase food self-sufficiency, and improve the strategic autonomy of Finland, along with the EU as a whole. The export potential for Finland is reported to be €500-1000 million by 2035, while infrastructure investments could open up opportunities for billions in exports of equipment, technology, and expertise. …

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Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

VTT Study Finds Mycoprotein a Sustainable Superfood & Next-Level Nutrient Powerhouse

Research by a team of scientists at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland shows that mycoprotein is a valuable ingredient: it offers digestible proteins and, unlike meat, dietary fiber.  These findings are relevant because various studies suggest that dietary fiber intake significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. The VTT study evaluated the nutritional quality of different microbial biomass samples by assessing their protein digestibility and carbohydrate (fiber) fermentability in the colon using in vitro methods. According to the researchers, previous studies centered on protein content, overlooking fiber, glucose, and other macronutrients. Four microbial biomasses were selected to determine whether they could be both a protein and dietary fiber source for the human diet: one hydrogen-oxidizing …

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Onego Bio Ltd team

Christopher Landowski, Maija Itkonen and Jussi Joensuu ©Onego Bio Ltd
Egg Alternatives

Finland’s Onego Bio Raises €10M Seed Funding for Vegan Egg White Biotech 

Onego Bio Ltd has raised €10 million in seed funding to commercialize its breakthrough technology to produce egg white without chickens. The cellular agriculture startup is the latest spin-off from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and offers a vegan alternative to one of the world’s most used animal proteins. “They have the potential to produce bioalbumen at an industrial scale and at a price point that is competitive with conventional egg production” – Jim Mellon, Agronomics  The Finnish biotech Onego Bio has developed bioalbumen – an animal-free egg protein, using commercially proven Trichoderma technology. The vegan egg white is produced with a specific precision fermentation process that creates identical egg white protein without the need for animals. The startup announces the successful closure of …

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Egg Alternatives

Scientists in Finland Develop Fungi-Based Egg White

Researchers in Finland have developed what could be the first fungi-based egg white. Using precision fermentation to produce the fungi-based egg has the potential to reduce land-use requirements by almost 90% and greenhouse gases by up to 55% when compared to chickens.  As egg white is one of the most important protein ingredients for the food industry, scientists at the Future Sustainable Food Systems research group at the University of Helsinki, together with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, have shown that fungus-produced ovalbumin could have the potential to mitigate a large part of the environmental burden associated with chicken egg white powder. Using the fungus Trichoderma reesei, the food tech scientists have produced ovalbumin – egg white protein – in powder form suitable for …

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finnish dairy company valio investigates cellular agriculture

© Valio
Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

Finnish Dairy Company Valio to Explore Potential of Cellular Agriculture With New Research

Finnish dairy company Valio has partnered with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for a project that will investigate what kinds of food industry raw materials could be produced with cellular agriculture. The project will aim to develop biotechnologically produced proteins, where an organism such as a fungus is instructed to produce the protein. After being fed with nutrients and sugar, the fungus secretes protein into the growth medium. Other potential applications of the technology could involve producing purified fats or multidimensional cell structures. While producing cultivated meat and dairy products is very complex, making individual components is much simpler. This technology is already widely used in the dairy industry to produce animal-free versions of enzymes such as rennet. In recent years, it has …

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