Bitburger to provide Mushlabs with capacities as well as by-products from beer production as raw materials

Bitburger Ventures, the venture investment arm of the Bitburger Group of Companies, and Mushlabs have announced that they are launching a strategic collaboration, with the goal of rapidly developing innovative production processes that could save millions of tons of CO2.

Utilizing high-value by-products from the local agri-food industry, and in doing so returning valuable nutrients to the food economy, are integral parts of Mushlabs’ strategy. The start-up is one of the first biotech companies in the world to use by-products for the fermentation of edible mushroom mycelium. In the future, the raw materials will be sourced locally, and the food produced on site – in each case adapted to the individual conditions and needs of the market. This efficient use of resources makes fermentation one of the most sustainable methods of producing alternative proteins worldwide.

The Bitburger Brewery Group has been working on sustainability issues along the value chain for years and already recycles its residual materials to the agricultural sector. In cooperation with Mushlabs, these residual materials will be used for mycelial fermentation, among other things, in order to reduce transport distances and further improve the CO2 footprint.

“Mushlab’s technology is able to address the sustainability and supply security issues plaguing our current food system,” commented Dr Thibault Godard, CSO at Mushlabs. “We can utilize the full potential of natural resources by recovering the nutrients from valuable industrial food leftovers and reinjecting them back into local food economies. In doing so, we show that it is possible to simultaneously increase the efficiency, profitability, and sustainability of historical food production systems.”

"We are always looking for ways to improve the sustainability of our production process and to explore new, innovative paths,” added Jan Niewodniczanski, Managing Director Technology and Environment at Bitburger Brewery Group. “This has been part of Bitburger's DNA for 200 years."

"Mushlabs is an excellent example of how we understand our role as Bitburger Ventures in the group of companies – through the interaction between the fermentation know-how of Mushlabs and the technical brewing know-how in the Bitburger Brewery Group, we can offer real added value,” concluded Dr Friedrich Droste, Managing Director of Bitburger Ventures. “Using by-products and existing infrastructure from the brewing process to produce alternative proteins in the brewery environment is no longer a future fantasy with this cooperation, but lived practice that creates sustainable value for all parties involved and the environment."

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