GEA Opens Alt Protein Pilot Center, Celebrates 60th Anniversary at ProPack Asia

GEA has inaugurated a central hub for alt proteins — featuring pilot lines for cell cultures and microbial fermentation — to test and produce cultivated meat and animal-free dairy alternatives.

Located in Hildesheim, Germany, the New Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC) will enable customers to “fast-track” innovations from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing.

“Establishing and scaling up a new food production facility is a major task,” said Heinz Jürgen Kroner, Senior Vice President of New Food at GEA.

“In many cases, new food producers are still stuck at the lab scale – with the hygiene, aseptic, and process requirements that involves. On the other hand, industrial-scale manufacturing presents much greater technical and financial challenges,” he continued.

Commercial feasibility

According to GEA, the center allows its customers to test the product’s commercial feasibility without investing in large-scale plants, bridging the gap between testing and commercial production.

One of the company’s first customers, Israeli biotech Imagindairy, which recently received an investment from dairy giant Danone for its animal-free proteins, was at the ATC’s opening.

Eyal Afergan, CEO of Imagindairy, said: “We want to make dairy products without harming the planet. To make that happen, we harness the ancient art of fermentation and combine it with science. This lets us create milk proteins with the taste, functionality, mouthfeel, and nutritional value that we love about milk. Together with GEA, we can pave the way to bringing this innovation faster to the market, with the highest possible quality standards.”

“Ultimately, GEA and our customers want to work together on the development of safe, affordable New Food products for consumers,” Kroner added.

New Food

The German corporation GEA supplies systems and components to the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. The company’s Mission 26 strategy considers alternative proteins (new food) as one of the growth drivers due to their reduced environmental impact and food and feed potential. 

In 2022, the company launched a New Food business unit for the development of cell-based protein synthesis. ATC complements other GEA New Food centers, such as two bioreactor facilities — one in Hildesheim, Germany, and the other in Skanderborg, Denmark — and a cell separation facility in Oelde, Germany.

GEA has previously said it is becoming increasingly involved in producing alt proteins, claiming to have significant experience extracting protein from plants to create ingredients such as TVP and mycoprotein. Earlier this year, a GEA survey revealed that chefs from 11 countries believe a quarter of meals will contain alt proteins by 2040.

60th anniversary at ProPak Asia

This year’s ProPak Asia will take place from the 14th to the 17th of June at BITEC in Thailand.

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