Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Fl'Our Planet (Valorisation of food production side-streams as multifunctional ingredients by an innovative fermentation process.)
Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2024-12-31
The issue at hand concerns both food production and the environment. Food companies today must prioritize (i) reducing food loss and CO2 emissions, (ii) improving food quality (healthy nutrition/transparency), and (iii) ensuring food naturality (less processing/clean label). As 60% of the CO2 footprint is linked to ingredients, the challenge is finding affordable ingredients that address these goals without compromising consumer experience. Additionally, 30% (1.6GT) of all food produced annually is wasted—along with the resources used to create it—resulting in economic losses of €850B, environmental losses of €593B, and social costs of €762B (FAO).
Green Spot Technologies (GST) has developed an innovative solid-state fermentation (SSF) process that transforms large volumes of fruit and vegetable side-streams into high-value, nutritious, and functional food ingredients. These fermented flours can replace conventional ingredients, offering cost efficiency and sustainability while preserving taste and texture. For instance, GST has created cocoa-alternative ingredients for use in baked goods and chocolate preparations.
Uniquely, GST’s SSF platform enables cost-effective upscaling and automation. Over the past four years, the technology has reached TRL 8, and GST has established an industrial demonstration plant (100T/y capacity) meeting high quality and safety standards. This allowed scaled production and real consumer trials with multiple food companies. GST’s Fl’Our Planet project supports the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies by advancing sustainable food systems.
Green Spot Technologies (GST) has developed an innovative solid-state fermentation (SSF) process that transforms large volumes of fruit and vegetable side-streams into high-value, nutritious, and functional food ingredients. These fermented flours can replace conventional ingredients, offering cost efficiency and sustainability while preserving taste and texture. For instance, GST has created cocoa-alternative ingredients for use in baked goods and chocolate preparations.
Uniquely, GST’s SSF platform enables cost-effective upscaling and automation. Over the past four years, the technology has reached TRL 8, and GST has established an industrial demonstration plant (100T/y capacity) meeting high quality and safety standards. This allowed scaled production and real consumer trials with multiple food companies. GST’s Fl’Our Planet project supports the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies by advancing sustainable food systems.
Green Spot Technologies has developed an innovative solid-state fermentation process that converts large amounts of fruit and vegetable side-streams from the food processing industry into high-value-added ingredients. These ingredients are nutritious, functional and cost efficient for the food industry. These are a range of flours that can replace different ingredients bringing sustainability and cost efficiency while keeping technical and organoleptic functionality.
For the continuation of Green Spot development, a set of work packages were carried out and the preliminary results were achieved and are presented below:
1. The development of a methodology for screening, identifying, testing, and validating new strains for fermenting substrates derived from co-products from the food industry.
2. Another important development was to be able to highlight the applications and benefits of using them in standard and/or innovative products to our potential clients. Several applications were selected to test and analyze some market segments and the potential of our first range of ingredients. From these, Green Spot Technologies worked on the compatibility of ingredients’ granulometry with the type of applications: liquid and semi-liquid, soft and dry. Some applications were used to display the impact of ingredients’ granulometry on the perception in the mouth and to evaluate if the granulometry was adapted or not.
3. In the same way, the gluten-free and vegan markets are in expansion the past few years. However, they faced some problems in formulating a final product as good, and nutritious as the conventional product on the market. Indeed gluten-free formulations are challenged in terms of color, taste, and moistness and vegan ones look for a better texture, nutrition, and taste. Thanks to Ferment’up flours (Green Spot’ first range of ingredients) we can propose solutions to the industries that aim to develop these two markets. All of our ingredients are plant-based, therefore can be used in vegan/vegetarian applications. Ferment'Up Apple and Ferment'Up Tomato are directed to the gluten-free market and Ferment'Up Spent Grain to the vegan market. At the same time based on first feedbacks additional work was done to develop other market segments, which represented a market-fit for the additional ingredients that were developed.
4. Lastly, the ambition of the industrial demonstration plant was to set up a production frame to support the increase of production capacity in a representative environment. The first goal was to create an environment adapted to Green Spot’ activity, to install all the equipment, and adjust an environment to be able to follow and report the activity. After 6 months of operational running, the management system was tested and the preparation for capacity increase with the relevant tools was carried out and validated at the first phase of Green Spot demonstration plant.
For the continuation of Green Spot development, a set of work packages were carried out and the preliminary results were achieved and are presented below:
1. The development of a methodology for screening, identifying, testing, and validating new strains for fermenting substrates derived from co-products from the food industry.
2. Another important development was to be able to highlight the applications and benefits of using them in standard and/or innovative products to our potential clients. Several applications were selected to test and analyze some market segments and the potential of our first range of ingredients. From these, Green Spot Technologies worked on the compatibility of ingredients’ granulometry with the type of applications: liquid and semi-liquid, soft and dry. Some applications were used to display the impact of ingredients’ granulometry on the perception in the mouth and to evaluate if the granulometry was adapted or not.
3. In the same way, the gluten-free and vegan markets are in expansion the past few years. However, they faced some problems in formulating a final product as good, and nutritious as the conventional product on the market. Indeed gluten-free formulations are challenged in terms of color, taste, and moistness and vegan ones look for a better texture, nutrition, and taste. Thanks to Ferment’up flours (Green Spot’ first range of ingredients) we can propose solutions to the industries that aim to develop these two markets. All of our ingredients are plant-based, therefore can be used in vegan/vegetarian applications. Ferment'Up Apple and Ferment'Up Tomato are directed to the gluten-free market and Ferment'Up Spent Grain to the vegan market. At the same time based on first feedbacks additional work was done to develop other market segments, which represented a market-fit for the additional ingredients that were developed.
4. Lastly, the ambition of the industrial demonstration plant was to set up a production frame to support the increase of production capacity in a representative environment. The first goal was to create an environment adapted to Green Spot’ activity, to install all the equipment, and adjust an environment to be able to follow and report the activity. After 6 months of operational running, the management system was tested and the preparation for capacity increase with the relevant tools was carried out and validated at the first phase of Green Spot demonstration plant.
GST’s SSF platform stands out for enabling viable B2B scale-up compared to traditional fermentation technologies. The industrial demo plant now operates at 100T/year. GST’s screening tools allow rapid matching of substrates and fungal strains, enabling the creation of diverse, functional, and nutritious ingredients with market appeal.
This integrated approach ensures products are sustainable, nutritious, and cost-effective—making quality ingredients accessible to a broader population. Moreover, GST responded to market volatility, such as rising cocoa prices (due to climate and labor issues), by offering cocoa alternatives developed from local European raw materials in record time.
The platform showcases the value of upcycling food waste into high-performance ingredients, supporting stable supply chains, reducing waste, and positioning European innovation at the forefront. There is strong potential to standardize upcycled ingredients and establish incentives (e.g. carbon credits) to promote their adoption in the food industry.
This integrated approach ensures products are sustainable, nutritious, and cost-effective—making quality ingredients accessible to a broader population. Moreover, GST responded to market volatility, such as rising cocoa prices (due to climate and labor issues), by offering cocoa alternatives developed from local European raw materials in record time.
The platform showcases the value of upcycling food waste into high-performance ingredients, supporting stable supply chains, reducing waste, and positioning European innovation at the forefront. There is strong potential to standardize upcycled ingredients and establish incentives (e.g. carbon credits) to promote their adoption in the food industry.