German start-up Nosh.Bio has announced a new partnership with biotechnology company Ginkgo Bioworks, aiming to enhance the ‘meatiness’ of mycoprotein.
Nosh.Bio, based in Berlin, aims to transform the food industry by developing highly functional ingredients from fungal biomass for animal-free food products.
Through its partnership with US-based Ginkgo Bioworks, the company will leverage Ginkgo’s strain optimisation services to screen for protein-producing fungi strains with superior sensorial profiles. This aims to produce a mycoprotein that can deliver a rich, savoury and naturally meaty taste when used in food products.
Nosh.Bio has developed a technological platform that uses fungal biomass to create animal-free single-ingredient meat alternatives from mycoprotein. The company aims to leverage its production process to improve alternatives to meat products that can be more challenging to emulate, such as juicy steak and other red meat products.
The start-up said that while many red meat alternatives contain many ingredients and chemical additives, its efficient, sustainable and cost-effective process allows for the development of an authentic-tasting product that is healthier than its traditional animal counterpart.
Ginkgo aims to discover and deliver a strain of fungi with higher native proteins involved in achieving the rich meaty taste, juiciness and colour that Nosh.Bio is seeking.
It plans to execute a mutagenesis and screening campaign with its proprietary encapsulation and screening technology (EncapS), which can make it possible to search through up to one million strain variants in a single run and select the best-performing candidates for further development.
Kalpesh Parekh, VP of business development at Ginkgo Bioworks, said: “We’re thrilled to partner with Nosh.bio and help level up the alt-meat protein industry to deliver sustainable products that taste closer to real meat than ever before. Our proprietary encapsulation and screening technology can expeditiously deliver valuable insights that enable our partners to optimize their R&D efforts and overall product.”
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