Ones to Watch: Fungal futures

26 FOOD TECHS TO WATCH IN 2026

Dr Tony Martin Callaghan explains how SomaTech converts overlooked by-products into nutrient-rich functional ingredients using solid-state fermentation

In nature, fungi turn waste into nutrients with remarkable precision. The Monaghan, Ireland-based SomaTech builds on that logic to address one of the food system’s biggest blind spots: how to transform overlooked materials such as brans, oil press cakes and spent grains into something genuinely valuable and nutritionally meaningful. Founded by mycologist, Dr Tony Martin Callaghan, the company has developed a continuous solid-state fermentation platform that produces protein and bioactive compounds from these fibrous agrifood side streams with high efficiency.

Callaghan’s academic and industry career – marked by several world firsts in fungal biotechnology and gut microbiology – underpins a company built on precision, scientific rigor and practical application. Those years spent exploring how fungi break down complex materials now shape SomaTech’s approach to circular ingredient innovation.

“We are pioneering the future of fungal-driven innovation in food and feed,” he begins. “Our technology uses fungal mycelium to turn by-products into high-value, activated functional ingredients that are rich in pre and postbiotics that improve gut health. Modern science is only now uncovering the importance of fermentation to gut
health, a principle our ancestors understood intuitively and depended on for survival.”

A new model for local transformation

Callaghan argues that the food system needs tools that work where waste is generated. “We need technologies that enable localized transformation of by-products into custom functional ingredients,” he explains. SomaTech’s plug-and-play solid-state platform supports a wide range of substrates and fungal strains, giving producers the ability to tailor outputs to specific nutritional or functional targets.

Just as important is how the technology is deployed. “Our model is to license the system, so by-product producers can transform their own feedstocks onsite,” Callaghan says. SomaTech then acts as an ingredient innovation partner, developing new concepts and using the same hardware for scaled production. For him, this distributed approach offers the fastest path to global adoption.

In 2025, the company moved from concept to traction. It filed its first patents, secured significant investment, and expanded its technical team. Commercial pilots with food industry leaders provided real-world insights that helped refine the company’s focus on digestive health and bioavailability. Early backing from ProVeg and Ireland’s Pre Seed-Start Fund further validated the platform. SomaTech is now working with leading research organizations and key commercial players to create a new generation of scientifically proven 100% natural food and feed ingredients.

Gut health is a cornerstone of good health, and our technology delivers on affordability, circularity and functionality

Engineering scale the smart way

“Scale and automation are a challenge,” Callaghan confesses. Designing a solid-state system that is flexible, reliable and commercially viable requires expertise across biology, engineering and manufacturing. SomaTech is working with academic specialists, industry veterans as well as Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) to model the process digitally and evaluate key operating parameters. The goal is to learn rapidly from the beta hardware build so the commercial version can be optimized from the outset.

Meanwhile, ingredient validation continues using the company’s current production infrastructure, ensuring scientific and commercial testing can progress without waiting for next-generation equipment.

Callaghan is keen to correct a common fallacy. “Solid-state fermentation is not like other fermentation technologies,” he states. “We are zero waste and low cost. Unlike liquid fermentation, we have highly competitive costs that allow us to produce healthy, functional protein at scale.” SomaTech measures progress by volumes of material transformed, emissions reduced, nutrient availability improved and jobs supported.

Ultimately, Callaghan predicts SomaTech licensing its systems to companies across multiple continents, supported by families of patents covering both process and ingredients. Data generated from these installations will inform continuous process optimization and enable new product development. “We will be developing new formulations and testing them to solve emerging challenges in food and feed.”

For SomaTech, the goal is not to replace existing fermentation methods, but to broaden what is possible with fungi – and to unlock value where the food system currently leaves it behind.