The Protein Brewery bags EU LIFE funding to get Fermotein ready for dairy alternatives

The Protein Brewery secured €2.3 million (US$2.5 million) from the European Union’s LIFE Programme to support the scale-up and commercialization of its mycoprotein ingredient, Fermotein, for use in dairy alternative products.

The funding was awarded to the Netherlands-based company in collaboration with an international food industry partner and was aimed at moving Fermotein beyond pilot-scale development into commercial dairy alternative applications. The project focused on addressing persistent limitations in the category, particularly around nutrition, taste, and affordability.

Fermotein was developed as a minimally processed mycoprotein powder produced through fungal biomass fermentation. According to the company, the ingredient was naturally high in complete protein, prebiotic fiber, and essential micronutrients and bioactive compounds, offering a nutritional profile intended to compete with both dairy and existing plant-based proteins.

The EU LIFE Programme served as the European Union’s funding instrument for environment and climate action. It supported pilot and demonstration-scale projects designed to deliver measurable greenhouse gas reductions while accelerating the deployment of sustainable technologies into the market. The Protein Brewery’s project aligned with that mandate by targeting both environmental performance and nutritional improvement within the dairy alternatives segment.

Plant-based dairy alternatives were widely recognized as a lower-emissions pathway compared to conventional dairy, but many products currently on the market continued to face criticism for falling short on nutritional density, sensory quality, and cost. These gaps had limited broader consumer adoption and constrained the category’s long-term impact.

The Protein Brewery said the LIFE-funded project was designed to directly address those challenges. By scaling Fermotein for real-world dairy alternative applications, the company aimed to demonstrate that fermentation-derived proteins could deliver improved nutrition and functionality while maintaining a lower environmental footprint.

The company’s production platform relied on fungal biomass fermentation, a process it described as resource-efficient and well suited to producing nutrient-dense food ingredients with a neutral flavor profile. The approach converted fungi into edible biomass without the extensive fractionation and refining steps often associated with conventional plant protein ingredients.

As part of the project, The Protein Brewery planned to further optimize and scale its fermentation process to meet the functional and sensory requirements of dairy alternative products. This included tailoring Fermotein’s performance for applications such as milk alternatives, yogurts, and other dairy-style formats, where factors like mouthfeel, stability, and flavor neutrality were critical.

Environmental performance formed a central component of the work. The company said the project would aim to demonstrate a substantially lower environmental impact compared to conventional protein sources commonly used in dairy alternatives, supporting the EU LIFE Programme’s climate objectives alongside commercial development.

In parallel, application development and market validation activities were planned with key players in the dairy alternatives sector. These efforts were designed to assess consumer acceptance and preference for products formulated with Fermotein, providing commercial evidence alongside technical and environmental data.

The project also included targeted health studies focused on evaluating the nutritional and health benefits of Fermotein when incorporated into dairy alternative products. The Protein Brewery said these studies would help strengthen the evidence base supporting the ingredient’s nutritional claims and functional value.

“This grant will tremendously accelerate the scaling of our groundbreaking ingredient Fermotein, significantly contributing to improving the sustainability and nutrition of the important dairy alternative market,” said Gilbert Verschelling, CTO of The Protein Brewery.

Rather than producing finished consumer products, The Protein Brewery operated as an ingredient supplier, working with food manufacturers to integrate fermentation-derived proteins into existing and emerging product categories. The company said its broader mission was to future-proof protein supply by delivering ingredients that combined strong nutritional performance, appealing sensory properties, and a reduced environmental footprint.

By focusing on dairy alternatives, the LIFE-funded project placed Fermotein within one of the most competitive and rapidly evolving areas of the alternative protein market. Success in the category depended not only on sustainability credentials, but also on scalability, consistency, and compatibility with industrial food production processes.

The Protein Brewery did not disclose timelines for full commercialization or specific customer launches linked to the grant. However, the emphasis on fermentation scale-up, application validation, and health research outlined a clear pathway toward broader adoption by food manufacturers seeking next-generation ingredients for dairy alternatives.

The EU LIFE award provided both financial support and external validation for The Protein Brewery’s fermentation-based approach, reinforcing the role of mycoprotein as a potential building block for more nutritious and sustainable dairy alternative products.

The EU LIFE grant followed a string of major milestones for The Protein Brewery over the past year. In December 2025, the company received a positive scientific opinion from the European Food Safety Authority for Fermotein, clearing the first-ever fungal biomass ingredient through the EU novel food system and moving it toward final authorization. Earlier in the year, the company secured a €30 million (US$32 million) Series B to move from pilot-scale validation to commercial production, with its demonstration facility in Breda now producing 500-600 tons of Fermotein annually.

The Protein Brewery was also ranked third in PPTI’s 26 Food Techs to Watch in 2026, reflecting growing industry attention on its fermentation platform and ingredient strategy. Together, the regulatory progress, capital raise, and EU-backed scale-up project marked a period of rapid execution as the company advanced Fermotein toward broader commercial deployment.