Biosecience company Chr. Hansen has joined MISTA, a Californian-based startup optimizer focusing on the development of sustainable, innovative foods. Chr. Hansen aims to further develop fermented plant-based solutions and help to create a sustainable and resilient global food system to feed a growing population.
MISTA is an optimizer program, said to be more encompassing than an incubator or accelerator, enabling startups and established corporations to optimize ideas, products, people and investments. Chr. Hansen is a global bioscience company based in Hørsholm, Denmark that develops natural solutions for the food, beverage, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries
Fermented plant-based foods is an industry that is evolving rapidly and can offer excellent options for dairy alternatives; in the past 12 months, 160 new brands of fermented plant-based foods have been launched. In the US, plant-based milks now account for more than 10% of the volume of drinking milks.
Ross Crittenden, who will manage Chr. Hansen’s participation in MISTA commented: “The application work will be plugged into Chr. Hansen’s global network of application centres to ensure efficient dissemination of learnings both ways. It will give us an opportunity to run rapid prototyping directly with potential customers in collaboration with best-in-class ingredient suppliers.
Working closely with the other partners will help us to accelerate our research, and ultimately our product development, within the exciting space of fermented plant-based. Chr. Hansen already has a number of solutions in this category, but we are keen to offer even more options to our customers. We also look forward to supporting the other members’ aims of developing exciting, tasty, healthy and sustainable foods, and gaining valuable knowledge and commercialization opportunities along the way”.
