Israel Innovation Authority establishes infrastructure for fermentation of microorganisms for nutrients

As part of the Israel national operational plan led by the Israel Innovation Authority, to maintain and expand the strength of its developmental ecosystem in the field of alternative proteins, the Authority has announced a new RFP for the establishment of infrastructures for precision fermentation of microorganisms to develop alternative proteins.  

Fermentation technology in general, and precision fermentation specifically, are an important building block in this field, both as a means to manufacture proteins and other nutrients for the food industry, as the main method for manufacturing dedicated and vital nutrients for cultured proteins and as components to enrich plant-based meat and dairy alternatives.  

In 2021 alone, worldwide investment in fermentation technologies amounted to US$1.69 billion, a 285% increase over 2020. For comparison, between 2013 and 2021, the total invested in this field amounted to US$2.81 billion. Fermentation technology is an important building block in alternative proteins field, both on its own for manufacturing proteins and other nutrients for the food industry, and as the main method for manufacturing designated and vital nutrients in the field of cultured proteins and components to enrich plant-based meat and dairy alternatives.  

Fermentation infrastructures will allow upscaling in volume along with technical-economic viability experiments for the first time in Israel, and creation of larger batches to allow testing of products among potential customers. Creating R&D infrastructures of this type in Israel will allow many projects to continue the necessary research and development here, and in the future, to establish local manufacturing plants. It will also assist in obtaining regulatory food certifications for the nutrients manufactured using fermentation technologies.

“Israel has marked the food-tech industry, which could yield 55,000 high-paying jobs to the economy by the year 2030, as an R&D priority," stated Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority. "The Innovation Authority has supported the food-tech industry over the past decade with over NIS 230 million in grants, over 140 million of which has been in the field of alternative proteins. Notably, approximately 90% of this support has been allocated since the beginning of 2020 – further testimony to the growth of this ecosystem in Israel. We hope that this infrastructure for precision fermentation of microorganisms for food purposes will help maintain the strength of the Israeli ecosystem and accelerate development of startups and companies working toward scale-up solutions in this field.”