Central hub in Germany for alternative protein industry

GEA’s New Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC) in Hildesheim, Germany, has been inaugurated as a central hub for piloting processes and products for the alternative protein industry. The technology centre will see food experts using cell cultivation and fermentation to fast-track innovations from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing.

The ATC’s testing platform bridges the gap between the test bench and industrial-scale production without customers having to invest in large-scale plants.

According to Heinz Jürgen Kroner, Senior Vice President New Food at GEA, it is a difficult task to set up a food production facility and many new food producers find themselves limited in the lab scale. The ATC’s process experts explore the potential for mass production and work together with food producers to develop safe new food products.

With cell-based meat alternatives making their way onto restaurant tables, the research focus is turning to precision fermentation for milk proteins. In this field, Imagindairy, a scale-up from Israel, is working with GEA to develop dairy products that have the same taste, functionality, nutritional value and mouthfeel as milk via fermentation.

Alternatively sourced proteins such as this can help reduce the environmental impact of the food system, going hand in hand with regenerative agriculture.

GEA has identified new food as one of its growth drivers in the GEA Mission 26 strategy. Since 2022, a dedicated New Food business unit has been furthering the development of cell-based protein synthesis since 2022.