Is Algae More Plant Like or Animal Like

"Fat is such a clear hurting bespeak [for meat and dairy alternatives] that it's definitely an emerging infinite, with companies trying to utilise innovative approaches to make fats and lipids," Yali Bio co-founder and CEO Yulin Lu told FoodNavigator-USA. "To reach a much broader consumer base, we take to make a better product."

One of a new wave of startups creating 'designer fats' for meat and dairy alternatives (checkout our interview with Lypid from terminal week), Yali Bio is deploying synthetic biology to genetically engineer microbes - specifically oleaginous fungi - to produce fats that behave similar creature fat, and come without the environmental baggage of some institute-based hard fats such as palm and coconut.

Coconut oil has a far lower melting point than, say, beef tallow

Speaking to united states afterwards raising a $3.9m seed circular* (bringing the firm's total funding to $5m), Lu said coconut oil - the go-to hard fat for nigh found-based meat formulators - has a relatively low melting point and tends to leak out of the 'meat' matrix during cooking, making for a drier, less juicy texture in the final product.

Information technology too doesn't olfactory property like pork or beef fatty, says Lu, a biochemical engineer with all-encompassing experience in microbial fermentation through working at Solazyme (which developed ' algae butter' using genetically engineered microalgae), and Impossible Foods (which uses genetically engineered yeast to produce its flagship 'heme' protein).

"I recollect the reason the manufacture used kokosnoot oil is because it was readily available and the focus was on other other elements of making plant-based meat," said Lu, who also spent iii years at Hampton Creek (at present Swallow Just) working on plant proteins.

"But coconut oil melts at effectually 25°C [whereas beefiness tallow melts around 42-45°C], then when you put establish-based meat [containing coconut oil] on the grill, it will melt fast and leak out.

"The second part, is that it doesn't deliver the flavor of animal fat, and so if you're making chicken or beef or pork, y'all have to employ season additives, so these are pretty articulate limiting factors in this space. The fat delivers the flavor, so if you can make brute fats [with microbes], yous don't need to add all those flavor additives."

Oleaginous fungi - which Yali Bio is working with - are capable of accumulating 20%–80% of their dry biomass into lipids

Using synthetic biology, Yali Bio is finer programming fungi cells to produce animate being-like fats… without animals, designing fats with specific functional properties or melting points and biosynthesizing them more efficiently than living breathing animals or even animal cells in bioreactors (an arroyo adopted past some startups such as Mission Barns, which is growing fat cells straight), claimed Lu.

While there is some downstream processing involved - Yali Bio has to excerpt the fats from the fungi cells information technology is using and then split the fatty from the fungi jail cell biomass - it's still a pretty efficient way to produce fat, claimed Lu, who says Yali Bio has filed a suite of patents around its applied science.

"Many microbes naturally accumulate fat, and there's a class of microbes called oleaginous microorganisms [oleaginous fungi - which Yali Bio is working with - are capable of accumulating 20%–80% of their dry biomass into lipids], that naturally produce a lot of fat, then we're borer into nature'southward ability to make these compounds. Using a microbe-based organisation we can substantially increase the carbon efficiency."

Downstream processing and purification

As for downstream processing and purification, he said: "Recovering fats is very dissimilar compared to recovering proteins [that are fabricated in fermentation tanks]. Proteins are much more heat sensitive than fats, and yous get a higher percent recovery."

Asked what happens to the remaining jail cell biomass once the fatty has been removed, he said: "Once yous extract the fat, you're left with prison cell biomass, the natural protein that comes with cells, and then some residue fats component, so this could be an interesting product for feed applications, only it remains to exist tested."

'Our approach is to look at fats made by different animals and try to make them in microbes'

And then what kinds of fats tin can Yali Bio brand using its fungi-powered fat platform? "Our approach is to look at fats made by different animals and endeavor to make them in microbes," he said. "Fish fat has a very dissimilar composition to beefiness or pork fatty, for example."

Merely are Yali Bio's fats bio-identical to those produced past animals, which is presumably a central question from a regulatory perspective?

"So that'due south a primal consideration for us, to prioritize limerick targets and the similarity or shut proximity of the compositions to animal fats [vs animals]," he noted. "But fat actually has a very complex chemical science and nosotros utilize different systems to make it, and so I call back you lot can make it in high proximity [to animal fats], just not entirely the same."

As for how such fats might exist labeled on an ingredients list in the U.s.a., that'due south still upwards for discussion, said Lu, who will use the funding secured in the latest round to expand the team and get some fats into the hands of nutrient formulators to experiment with.

Yali Bio Team — The Yali Bio team is deploying constructed biology to genetically engineer oleaginous fungi to produce fats that behave like animal fat. Image credit: Yali Bio

Precision fermentation for fats

While so-chosen 'precision fermentation' is best-known for producing proteins such every bit collagen (Geltor), whey (Perfect Day), casein (Modify Foods), albumin (The EVERY Company), and myoglobin (Motif FoodWorks) without animals, it's also gaining traction as a ways to produce designer fats, something TerraVia (later on acquired by Corbion) started to explore several years ago with ' algae butter' made via engineered microalgae.

Modify Foods and Perfect Day are both working on producing dairy fats via microbial fermentation, while Nourishand Yali Bio are exploring a variety of beast-similar fats produced via engineered microbes.

And right now, the marketplace is wide open, said Chuck Templeton, managing partner at S2G Ventures, which participated in Yali Bio's latest funding circular.

"High quality fats are currently a major weak point when developing found-based analogs for beast proteins. We are excited to invest in Yali Bio to improve this crucial component of plant-based products with the goal of enhancing the consumer experience while reducing the impacts of conventional animal husbandry."

*The seed round was led past Essential Capital with participation from new and existing investors: Third Kind Venture Capital, S2G Ventures, CRCM Ventures, FTW Ventures and First-in Ventures. Stephanie Sher and John Goldsmith too participated as angel investors.

Mission Barns fat — Mission Barns raised $24m in a Series A last year to help scale up its cell-cultured fat applied science. Epitome credit: Mission Barns

The race is on to create more 'animate being-like' fats for meat alternatives with meliorate functionality, flavor, and environmental credentials, with some firms such every bit Mission Barns creating 'existent' animal fatty (without animals) in bioreactors from fauna cells; and others such as Yali Bio, Zero Acre Farms, c16 Biosciences, and Nourish producing brute-similar fats via engineered microbes.

Motif FoodWorks meanwhile, is developing oleogels that trap liquid oils within an ethyl cellulose scaffold to create oleogels that can be co-extruded with plant-based proteins, creating a "veining and marbling effect;" while Lypidis microencapsulating liquid oils such every bit sunflower to create vegan emulsions with very loftier melting points.