Bioprocessing for Modern Food

The food industry is facing a revolutionary transformation as emerging production technologies offer more plant-based and animal-free food alternatives. In response to growing environmental and consumer concerns, there is increasing interest in food production strategies that reduce the issues related to livestock - from pollution and deforestation to antimicrobial resistance and concerns regarding poor animal welfare.

At the heart of this transformation stands the bioreactor, which enables many different ways of food production. For example, as one of the oldest processes of food production, fermentation is already utilized to produce animal products such as milk, cheese, and yoghurt using bacteria. However, an additional path towards conventional meat production alternatives is rapidly developing, with the potential to improve animal welfare and the environmental impact, while still coming from livestock muscle tissue. This new alternative is the creation of cultured meat from mammalian stem cells