Melt&Marble scales up fat fermentation for commercial production

Melt&Marble, a company that specializes in precision-fermented designer fats, has reached a critical milestone by scaling its fat fermentation process to the tens of thousands of liters range, paving the way for commercial-scale production and broader application testing in the alternative protein, confectionery, bakery and personal care industries.

The production scale-up of Melt&Marble’s innovative, tailor-made fat product, designed to replicate animal-derived fats for use in alternative meat and personal care products, builds on a successful trial of the fermentation process at cubic metre bioreactor scale this spring. Melt&Marble’s scientific team successfully maintained comparable strain and bioprocess performance achieved in previous tests, demonstrating the robustness and scalability of its process.

“Scale-up of fermentation processes can be tricky, and we’re extremely proud of what our scientific team has managed to achieve in such a short amount of time,” commented Melt&Marble CEO Anastasia Krivoruchko. “The scaleup is a key milestone which proves that our process can create precision-fermented fats in much larger quantities than we had done previously. The success of this was driven by the collaboration of both internal and external teams to ensure that our process is translatable to a larger scale,” added Melt&Marble CSO Florian David.

The success of the trial opens the door for broader application testing of the fat across various culinary contexts, allowing Melt&Marble to fine-tune the use of their fat for optimal performance in different food and personal care products.

“This milestone is a pivotal step toward our goal of launching Melt&Marble’s fats commercially," added Melt&Marble CBO Thomas Cresswell added. "It enables us to accelerate the pilot projects we’ve already initiated with some of our partners, bringing innovative, sustainable fat solutions to market and aligning with global demand for better alternatives sooner rather than later. We are committed to getting Melt&Marble’s fats onto consumers’ plates and enabling the transition to a more sustainable food system.”

Melt&Marble leverages precision fermentation to engineer the metabolism of yeast to create designer fats with precisely controlled composition and properties. Building on recent successes, including securing €2.76 million in EU grants earlier this year, Melt&Marble’s successful scaleup puts the company in a strong position for its next steps. The company will continue to further develop its designer fat products, with applications in alt-meat, cheese, butter, confectionary, and bakery products, aiming to bring these sustainable alternatives to market in the coming years.