Charting a path forward for a microbial food industry

The question is no longer whether microbial foods can be made; it is who can turn them into an industry first.

KAIST research led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee’s team in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, together with researchers at SilicoBio, a KAIST faculty startup, have analysed the conditions required for the microbial food industry to succeed across manufacturing, markets and regulation.

The study, published in One Earth, is significant in that it did not develop a new microorganism or production technology, but instead systematically analysed the key challenges involved in connecting laboratory-based core technologies to real-world industry. In particular, by presenting an integrated perspective that encompasses manufacturing readiness, market entry strategies and regulatory responses, the study proposes a direction for developing microbial foods beyond the next-generation protein industry into a future biomanufacturing platform. It is expected to serve as an important milestone for strengthening national biomanufacturing competitiveness and fostering the global sustainable food industry.

The researchers analysed the way that competition in the microbial food industry is shifting from productivity at the laboratory level to manufacturing readiness. They identified stable raw material supply and quality control, control and safety assurance of non-model microorganisms, reduction of downstream processing costs, and regulatory compliance for byproduct recycling as key factors that will determine the pace of commercialisation. Manufacturing Readiness refers to the level at which a laboratory technology can be reliably produced at industrial scale. Non-model microorganisms are microorganisms with high industrial potential but insufficient accumulated research infrastructure. Downstream processing refers to the processes of separating, purifying, concentrating and drying target components after fermentation.

The researchers particularly emphasised that future competitiveness will depend less on the excellence of any single technology and more on the ability to build integrated manufacturing platforms. An Integrated Manufacturing Platform refers to a production system that operates the entire process as one connected framework, from strain development and large-scale fermentation to purification, quality control and product formulation. Even for the same microbial food product, the choice of raw material can affect pretreatment costs and quality variability, while the choice of strain and fermentation process can greatly influence production cost, energy use and product quality. The researchers therefore concluded that future industrial competitiveness will depend on how quickly companies can build manufacturing platforms that optimise these factors in an integrated way.

On the market side, the researchers also identified the conditions needed for the microbial food industry to succeed. Based on consumer surveys and industry cases, they found that microbial foods cannot spread simply by emphasising environmental sustainability. Consumers place importance on taste, texture, familiarity and safety, while food manufacturers value functionality that can be applied to actual products. Companies and investors, meanwhile, consider the predictability of regulatory approval procedures and speed of market entry to be especially important. In other words, the microbial food market has entered an industrial stage where not only technology, but also product development capability and regulatory readiness are evaluated together.

The researchers also argued that microbial foods should not be viewed merely as an alternative protein industry. They suggested that microbial foods have the potential to develop into a core platform for precision fermentation-based functional food ingredients, high-value biomaterials and circular biomanufacturing. Precision Fermentation is a technology that uses microorganisms to selectively produce specific proteins or functional substances. Circular Biomanufacturing refers to a sustainable manufacturing system that uses byproducts and renewable resources to produce new bio-based products. This means that microbial foods could become not only a future food source, but also a new production system connecting the global food, materials and biomanufacturing industries.

The industrialisation strategy proposed in this study is also closely aligned with the business direction of SilicoBio, which participated in the joint research. Based on the manufacturing readiness strategy presented in the study, SilicoBio is working to build a platform that connects microbial proteins and functional food ingredients to industrial-scale fermentation, scale-up and product development.

Professor Lee said, “As global competition surrounding synthetic biology and biomanufacturing intensifies, microbial foods are growing into a key industry that will shape national biomanufacturing competitiveness beyond future food.” He added, “Going forward, competitiveness will be determined by how quickly we can build an industrialisation ecosystem that connects core technologies to real production and markets.”

A SilicoBio representative said, “Our goal is to connect the industrialisation strategy proposed in this study to actual production and commercialisation,” adding, “We will build a platform capable of stably producing microbial-based next-generation foods and functional biomaterials.”

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