EVERY’s 65th patent takes egg protein protection into finished foods

The EVERY Company has announced a new US patent covering formulations and finished foods containing recombinant ovalbumin, including baked goods, taking its reported global portfolio to 65 granted patents. The company said the protection builds on earlier US and European patents as it expands commercial production of its precision-fermented egg proteins.

• EVERY said US Patent No. 12,767,701 covers recombinant ovalbumin formulations and finished foods, with specific protection for baked goods.
• In an earlier interview with PPTI, CEO Arturo Elizondo said the company had built its patent portfolio knowing it would need to defend it.
• Elizondo described patent protection and freedom to operate as separate requirements, while warning that neither replaces the need for viable manufacturing economics.

For food manufacturers using fermentation-derived egg proteins, much of the development work happens after the protein has been produced. Its behavior in a formulation determines whether it can deliver the foam, structure, binding or moisture retention required in the finished product.

EVERY’s latest patent addresses that application work. According to the company, US Patent No. 12,767,701 covers combinations of recombinant ovalbumin with other egg proteins and food ingredients, including compositions used in bakery and processed food products.

The company identifies baked goods as its core market. Its OvoPro ingredient, previously called EVERY EggWhite, is designed to supply functional properties ordinarily provided by eggs and egg whites.

Ovalbumin accounts for more than half of the protein in egg white. Producing it through precision fermentation allows EVERY to supply the protein without extracting it from eggs, but the resulting ingredient still has to perform through formulation and processing.

EVERY said the new patent builds on US Patent No. 12,096,784 and European Patent No. 4017287. It describes the additional protection as extending from the ovalbumin ingredient into finished foods containing it.

The announcement lists several production organisms within the claimed coverage: the yeast Pichia pastoris and the fungi Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger. It also describes formulations in which recombinant ovalbumin delivers equivalent or improved performance compared with animal-derived egg white.

The properties specified include gelling, whipping, emulsification, foam stability, humectancy, or moisture retention, and browning. Powdered egg-white compositions are also included in EVERY’s description, with characteristics intended to match conventional egg white in consistency, taste, appearance and shelf stability.

“Securing our 65th granted patent globally is a powerful validation of a decade of relentless innovation and scientific leadership,” said Arturo Elizondo, Co-founder and CEO of EVERY, in the announcement.

“As precision fermentation transitions into mass-market adoption, building a deep IP portfolio is critical for establishing long-term commercial value and protecting our market leadership.”

Speaking previously to Protein Production Technology International, Elizondo was more explicit about the financial reasoning behind that investment.

“Ultimately, when you're developing deep technology, protecting innovation is part of the responsibility that comes with taking investor capital,” he said. “If someone is investing US$50 million into your company, they want to know that you have the right to win in the markets you're targeting and that you're protecting the innovations they've funded.”

EVERY said its portfolio covers strain engineering, downstream processing, ovalbumin production and end-use compositions. Those are different parts of the route from developing a production organism to supplying an ingredient that works in a customer’s food.

Elizondo told PPTI that the company’s decision to build that portfolio had always included a willingness to enforce it.

“From the beginning, we knew that if we were going to invest in building an IP estate of this size and scale, we also had to be prepared to defend it. Those two things go hand in hand. Building intellectual property isn't just about filing patents. It's about being willing to protect them as well.”

He added: “If you're not prepared to defend your IP, then you have to ask yourself why you're investing in it in the first place.”

At the time of the interview, Elizondo said EVERY had more than 100 patents pending. He described continued investment in the portfolio as important to customers as well as investors, while acknowledging that other businesses might choose to put their resources elsewhere.

“For some businesses, intellectual property may not be a major focus or a significant investment priority. For us, it always has been.”

The latest announcement arrives as EVERY increases production through manufacturing partnerships. The company said it had quadrupled capacity with Huvepharma and announced an agreement with ADM to add production in the USA. Its IP strategy therefore accompanies a business supplying ingredients through outside manufacturing infrastructure and into customers’ formulations.

In the patent announcement, Elizondo said the additional protection would give commercial partners and prospective investors greater confidence in EVERY’s proprietary position.

But in his PPTI interview, he resisted treating patents as a sufficient measure of a food technology company’s strength.

“You're not going to build a successful company on patents alone. That's not how you build a massive company, especially in food.”

He identified freedom to operate separately from patent protection. Both, he said, had to sit alongside regulatory approval, an ingredient that met customer specifications, a customer base and manufacturing capable of supporting low-cost production.

“Success comes from the combination of all those things.”

There is a further technical constraint once an ingredient reaches commercial use. Customers formulate around agreed specifications, which limits how freely a producer can change its product while improving the manufacturing process.

“Once you're commercial, it becomes an entirely different game. You lock in specifications that customers rely on, and then every optimization has to happen within those guardrails,” Elizondo said.

“You're no longer optimizing in a vacuum. You're optimizing against a product that customers depend on.”

That requirement sits alongside EVERY’s effort to protect both production technology and application compositions. Higher yields alone are insufficient if the resulting protein no longer provides the performance for which a customer selected it.

Asked how protecting EVERY’s own work fitted with helping the wider precision fermentation industry develop, Elizondo focused on the need for companies to establish credible commercial records.

“It doesn't matter if you have 1,000 small companies all trying to do similar things. At some point, you need a handful of companies that investors, customers, manufacturers, and everyone else can point to and say, ‘Okay, this works.’”

His answer did not set out a licensing policy or a proposal to share technology. He argued that proving a company could manufacture and sell successfully would itself help attract capital, customers and production partners to the sector.

For EVERY, the patent portfolio is one investment toward that result. Elizondo’s test for the business remained more immediate.

“Ultimately, though, the most important ingredient is the same as it is in almost any industry: can you make the product for less than you sell it for? If you can, you have a business.”

If you liked this, check these out...‍

• The EVERY Company and Huvepharma quadruple OvoPro egg protein production capacity amid 550% order growth

• ADM partnership gives The EVERY Company the commercial scale it has spent a decade building toward

• Onego Bio and Sigma Foods partner to test fermentation-derived egg protein Bioalbumen