GEA Alt Protein has inaugurated a central hub — featuring pilot lines for cell culture and microbial fermentation — to test and produce farmed meat and animal-free dairy alternatives.
Located in Hildesheim, Germany, the New Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC) will enable customers to “fast-track” innovations from the lab to commercial-scale production.
“Establishing and scaling up a new food production facility is a major task,” said Heinz Jürgen Kroner, Senior Vice President of New Food at GEA.
“In many cases, new food producers are still stuck at lab scale – the hygiene, aseptic and process requirements involved. On the other hand, industrial-scale production presents much greater technical and financial challenges,” he continued.
Commercial Feasibility
According to GEA, the center bridges the gap between testing and commercial production for its customers, allowing them to test the commercial feasibility of products without investing in large-scale plants.
One of the company’s first customers, Israeli biotech Imagindairy, which recently received an investment from dairy giant Danone for its animal-free protein, was at the ATC launch.
Imagindairy CEO Yaal Affargan said: “We want to make dairy products without harming the planet. To make this happen, we use the ancient art of fermentation and combine it with science. This allows us to create milk proteins with the taste, functionality, mouth feel and nutritional value we love about milk. Together with GEA, we can pave the way to bring this innovation to market quickly with the highest possible quality standards.”
“Ultimately, GEA and our customers want to work together to develop safe, affordable new food products for consumers,” Kroner added.
new food
German corporation GEA Provides systems and components to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The company’s mission 26 strategy considers alternative proteins (novel foods) as one of the drivers of growth due to their environmental impact and reduced potential for food and feed.
In 2022, the company launched a new food business unit to develop cell-based protein synthesis. ATC Complementing other GEA New Food Centers, are two bioreactor facilities – one in Hildesheim, Germany and the other in Skanderborg, Denmark – and a cell separation facility in Weld, Germany.
GEA has previously said it is increasingly involved in the production of alt proteins, claiming significant experience in extracting proteins from plants to produce ingredients such as TVP and mycoprotein. Earlier this year, a GEA survey revealed that chefs in 11 countries believe a quarter of meals will contain alt proteins by 2040.
A 60th anniversary Propak Asia
The company will feature solutions for slicing and packaging, frozen foods, meat processing, meat-free and vegetarian foods, bakery, pasta and extruded foods. It will display its new line A range of high-quality, high-performance machines with energy-saving and cost-reduction features.
Gregory Coquill, Head of Food & Healthcare Technologies at GEA Thailand, said: “The show is introducing some exciting innovations that we believe will greatly improve our customers’ production output while maintaining product quality – not to mention moving them forward. Our sustainability goals. We are excited to meet our customers and prospects in person at ProPak Asia 2023.”
This year’s Propak Asia will be held from June 14 to 17 at BITEC, Thailand.