Ingredion and Cosaic forge partnership to bring yeast-based creaminess to global food brands

Ingredion and Swiss biotech startup Cosaic announced a strategic partnership that aimed to scale and commercialize a new yeast-based emulsion technology designed to deliver dairy-like creaminess without animal ingredients. The agreement, revealed on 13 November, brought together Ingredion’s global commercial infrastructure and Cosaic’s fermentation-driven ingredient platform, reflecting a broader shift in how emerging food-tech innovations reached industrial scale.

The companies said the collaboration combined the speed and inventiveness of a young biotech firm with the manufacturing depth and customer access of a multinational ingredient supplier. As demand continued to rise for ingredients that enabled better sustainability profiles, improved sensory performance, and reliable processing behavior, both sides framed the partnership as a pragmatic route to faster market adoption.

Cosaic spent the past several years refining a fermentation-derived ingredient that allowed food manufacturers to achieve dairy-like texture, creaminess, and stability across categories as varied as functional beverages, sauces, dressings, and spirits. The product, built from natural yeast components, was designed to be animal-free and clean label while also offering multiple technical functions in a single ingredient.

“From improved texture, to taste, to performance, Cosaic leverages a deep knowledge of biotech innovation to develop a novel, multi-functional ingredient platform that will allow us to innovate foods with customers in ways never before imagined,” said Mike Leonard, Ingredion’s Chief Innovation Officer. The company noted that it viewed Cosaic’s approach as aligned with its broader strategy of supporting customers seeking to reformulate products with simpler labels and lower environmental impact.

Cosaic’s flagship product, Cosaic Neo, integrated fats, proteins, and fibers that naturally formed a stable emulsion. While food manufacturers typically relied on combinations of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and various additives to achieve creaminess and stability, Cosaic Neo’s microstructure brought these components together intrinsically. The company said this structure unlocked functionality beyond one-to-one replacements and allowed developers to reduce or eliminate additional stabilizers.

The startup argued that its ingredient could simplify formulation work for brands navigating fast-moving categories such as ready-to-drink nutrition, performance beverages, and alternative dairy. By delivering multiple sensory and functional benefits in a single material, Cosaic positioned the technology as a way to streamline manufacturing steps while meeting evolving consumer expectations.

“Partnering with Ingredion marked a pivotal moment for Cosaic. It validated the years of research we’ve poured into reimagining what ingredients can do, and how they can do better for people, businesses, and the planet,” said Tomas Turner, Co-founder & CEO at Cosaic. He added that the agreement represented a bridge between “breakthrough biotech and industrial know-how,” enabling the team to push commercialization forward more quickly. “With Ingredion’s global reach and technical excellence, we can accelerate commercialization and make clean-label creaminess a scalable reality,” he said.

Under the partnership, Ingredion planned to support Cosaic’s go-to-market strategy, beginning in the USA. The companies would also co-develop additional products to extend Cosaic’s portfolio, which already spanned performance drinks, meal-replacement shakes, sauces, dressings, and spirits. Both firms also highlighted opportunities to apply the yeast-derived emulsion platform to categories searching for improved mouthfeel, nutritional density, and stability without animal inputs.

For Ingredion, the collaboration fit within a series of moves aimed at expanding its specialty ingredient offerings for brands seeking to address sustainability commitments while delivering familiar sensory cues. The company cited rising interest in animal-free creaminess and more efficient production methods as factors shaping demand across its customer base.

Cosaic, headquartered in Zurich, emerged from the broader wave of biotech startups seeking to apply precision fermentation and microbial processes to ingredient challenges traditionally solved through dairy or intensive processing. With food and beverage manufacturers under pressure to develop products that balanced taste, cost, and environmental impact, the company viewed fermentation-derived emulsions as a way to meet several goals at once.

The partnership also reflected the growing use of alliances between early-stage innovators and multinational suppliers. For many startups, scaling fermentation technologies required access not only to capital but also to global sales channels, regulatory expertise, and application development teams able to support commercial customers. Ingredion’s role in implementation, formulation support, and category-specific development was positioned as a critical component of Cosaic’s next stage of growth.

As work now shifted toward rollout, Cosaic said it would continue refining applications and expanding the range of products supported by its platform. Ingredion, meanwhile, pointed to the potential for new formulations and co-developed ingredients built around the same yeast-derived microstructure.

Both companies framed the collaboration as an example of how biotech-driven platforms could integrate into mainstream ingredient supply chains when paired with established manufacturing and customer-facing capabilities.