Project description
Precision-fermented fats for a sustainable future
The global food system heavily relies on animal-based proteins, which occupy 77 % of agricultural land yet only provide 17 % of the world’s calories. This dependence on animal farming is a major driver of ecosystem destruction, biodiversity loss, and over 15 % of greenhouse gas emissions. However, plant oils and fats fall short of replicating the flavour and functionality of animal fats. The EIC-funded Melt&Marble project aims to solve this problem with a groundbreaking, scalable technology platform. Specifically, it uses engineered yeasts to produce animal-like fats with superior taste, functionality, and lower saturated fat content. The goal is to scale up the technology to meet the growing demand from alternative meat producers.
Objective
Melt&Marble (M&M) is a Sweden-based company that specializes in developing exceptional fats for plant-based foods. The origins of our company trace back to Jens Nielsen's Systems and Synthetic Biology group at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently, more than 60% of dietary proteins are supplied by animals whose farming takes up ~77% of all agricultural land despite supplying only 17% of the world’s calories. Dependence on animal proteins leads to ecosystem destruction, biodiversity loss, and >15% of GHG emissions. Though there are alternate meat and dairy options available, the plant-based oils and fats used in plant-based meat and dairy analogues simply cannot compete with the functionality and flavour of animal fats. We have created for the first time, a scalable, precision-fermentation-based proprietary technology platform using engineered yeasts that produce animal-like fats with superior functionality and flavour that customers are demanding. The fats have lower saturated fats levels (40-60% vs. 90% of coconut oil) and better functionality than coconut oil to impart a better taste to meat and dairy analogues. The entire technology platform is scalable due to the existing and outsourced fermentation infrastructure.
The fats are customizable to various food and non-food applications and will benefit the alternative meat producers within the EU and globally. Our technology is protected by a robust IP strategy and patents. We have 10 granted patents and 2 pending patents across 5 patent families and the innovation stems from 2 crucial components protected by these IPs that allow us to efficiently produce highly tailored fats.
We have already scaled up our first product to pilot scale (TRL 5). Within this project, we will improve our production process, scale up further to demo scale, and conduct extensive application tests. This will allow us to advance to TRL 8 and significantly de-risk our investment case.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC-ACC - HORIZON EIC Accelerator
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-02
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
413 46 Goteborg
Sweden
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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