By the year of 2050, the world population is estimated to increase to about 10bln people. To sustainably feed everyone, founders are embracing on a race to develop innovative solutions. To bring them forward, Tomorrow’s Taste – Unknown Group’s venture engine – aims to invest and actively support ventures to bring their solutions into the market with a vast network of leading corporates.
Problem Statement: The goal is to produce tasty, healthy, accessible and sustainable food for all, however, solely traditional farming is not enough.
Scope for Innovation: Using fermentation to meet future food protein needs is widely recognized as the most effective solution to feed a growing planet. Fermentation is a natural process in which, through the use of microorganisms, we can generate alternative protein sources. Fermentation has been used in the production of food and beverages for centuries: from beer to wine, from yogurt to cheese. The process is simple and natural, and can save water compared to other vegetable protein production as well as it produces lower carbon emissions than animal farming.
Our solution of the week, ENOUGH, is a Scotish biotechnology startup founded in 2015. Their ABUNDA mycoprotein is a fermented food ingredient made using fungi to convert sugars from sustainably-grown grain. Unlike many plant proteins which are commonly used by vegans and vegetarians today, ABUNDA is a whole biomass, a complete protein with all 9 essential amino acids and rich in fibre. Its fibrous meat-like texture makes it easy to use by food manufacturers and restaurants by simply stirring it with a handful of other ingredients in a bowl to create a new recipe: from burgers and chicken style products to noodles and snacks, ABUNDA is highly versatile. ABUNDA’s processing was designed as highly scalable, in order to meet future growing demands. The proprietary zero-waste process is more resource-efficient than both plant and animal traditional farming: water is completely reused throughout the process to save resources, and the conversion of grain into food is the most efficient on the market. In its whole, ABUNDA uses 15% lower carbon emissions and 40% less water than pea production.
ENOUGH has the vision to produce 1,000,000 tonnes of mycoprotein by 2032, which is equivalent to replacing 5 million cows, over a 1.2 billion chickens, and reducing more than 5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.