Reimagining food using fermentation

[Opera singing can be heard and an image appears of three croissants being cooked]

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[Image changes to show milk being poured into a glass, and text appears: How much do you know about fermentation?]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: How much do you know about fermentation?

[Image changes to show three opera singers taking a bow on stage and a glass of beer, a slice of bread and a bowl of yoghurt appear above the heads of the opera singers]

You may be familiar with some of its most famous creations, beer, bread and yoghurt.

[Images move through to show a researcher working at a lab bench, and a glass of milk surrounded by a wedge of cheese, an egg, a bowl of yeast, a ruler, a scale, a fermenting vat, and a slice of bread, and text appears: Precision fermentation]

Today researchers are adding a dash of science to make this age-old process new again into what’s called precision fermentation.

[Image changes to show Banpreet Kaur Shahi talking to the camera, and text appears: Banpreet Kaur Shahi, CSIRO, More protein, More sources]

This new food process may hold the key to unlock the future of sustainable food because we need to produce more protein from more sources sustainably to feed a growing world. Let’s tuck in.

[Images move through to show two glass bottles of apple cider being brewed next to a pile of apples, stainless steel fermenters, and bread dough rising in a bowl]

When you think of fermentation you will think of beer growing in a large barrel or bread dough rising in a bowl.

[Image changes to show a researcher working at a lab bench near a large stainless steel fermenter]

Today it’s a very high-tech process.

[Images move through to show a person working with DJ playing equipment with a “yeast” and a “fungi” button, a glass of milk surrounded by eggs, and then a hamburger, and text appears: Precision fermentation can make…]

Yeast and fungi can be put to work to produce entirely new products like milk or egg proteins or ingredients like meat fats.

[Three ticks appear labelled “Texture”,“Taste”,“Nutritional profile”, and then the image changes to show a cow which splits apart to show text at the centre: Without the animal]

These have the same texture, taste and nutritional profile as the traditional kind but without the animal.

[Image shows the cow moving back together, and then the image changes to show text on a blue screen: What is fermentation and how has it evolved?]

So, what is fermentation and how has it evolved?

[Images move through to show depictions of people in Egyptian and medieval erasusing the fermentation process, and then a yeast fermentation flow chart, and text heading appears: Yeast fermentation]

Fermentation has been used for thousands of years. It uses naturally occurring micro-organisms like yeast to turn one thing into another.

[Images move through to show a glass of beer linked to a bowl of dried yeast, which morphs into a model molecular structure, which morphs into sugar grains, and then into a carbon dioxide molecule]

In beer for example, yeast breaks down glucose triggering a chemical reaction that turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

[Image changes to show Banpreet Kaur Shahi talking to the camera]

Fermentation has been evolving for some time now. Now the next evolution of food production is here, precision fermentation.

[Image changes to show text on a blue screen: What is precision fermentation and why is it so exciting?]

What then is precision fermentation and why is it so exciting?

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Precision fermentation has been used extensively since the ‘80s to produce a whole range of high value pharmaceuticals and vitamins and fortified foods. You’re more than likely to have consumed something containing precision fermentation ingredients already.

[Image changes to show Thomas Vanhercke talking to the camera, and text appears: Thomas Vanhercke, CSIRO]

Thomas Vanhercke: It is a technique where we engineer yeast salts so that they start to produce all kinds of functional food ingredients.

[Images move through to show a flow chart of the precision fermentation process on a computer screen, coins pouring into a Savings jar, and bottles moving along a conveyer belt]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: Thanks to advances in tech the costs of precision fermentation have come down, so much so that it can now be used to produce higher volume low value products like food.

[Image changes to show Dr Geoff Dumsday talking to the camera, and a glass of milk appears on his left, and text appears: Dr Geoff Dumsday, Proteins]

Dr Geoff Dumsday: So, at the moment we are looking at the important proteins that are found in milk and trying to make those without a cow.

[Images move through to show Geoff talking on the right, and images on the left showing Protein 1 and Protein 6 highlighted from ten proteins, data moving through on a computer screen, and a bowl of dried yeast, and text appears: Engineering Process, Yeast Strain]

We identity the proteins that we are interested in in milk and then we engineer the sequences for those proteins to create yeast strains,so it makes those proteins for us.

[Images continue moving through on the left to show a small, medium and very large fermenters, and text appears: Fermenters]

We then go through a process to improve production of those proteins and then we’llscale up tomuch larger connectors to produce enough materialto tests and then ultimately,we’ll scale up to very large volumes, up into the hundreds of thousands of litres, to enable us to produce large amounts that people can actually eat or drink.

[Image changes to show text on a blue screen: What are the possibilities for future foods]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: What are the possibilities for future foods?

[Image changes to show Thomas talking to the camera]

Thomas Vanhercke: So, what is amazing and exciting about this technology is that we are limited in terms of applications by the limits of our imagination.

[Images move through to show a bottle of Eden Brew milk like liquid being boxed, researchers working in the lab and filling a bottle with the liquid, and a researcher sniffing and then drinking the liquid, and text appears: Milk without the cow]

For example, we are currently working with CSIRO’s startup Eden Brew and helping them produce casein and casein is a weak protein that you can find in cows’ milk and can be used in all kinds of dairy formulations and also ice creams.

[Image changes to show Thomas talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a trolley moving down a supermarket aisle]

But there is a whole other suite of products that are following suit and that you will likely soon find on the shelves in the supermarket.

[Image changes to show flour being added to an egg in a bowl, and text appears: Egg without the chicken]

For example, egg white substitutes made without the chicken.

[Images move through to show Thomas talking to the camera, babies being fed bottles of milk, and then Thomas talking to the camera again]

Lactoferrin which is a kind of a wonder protein that’s been found in breast milk that has a whole lot of positive attributes associated with it, can be used for precision fermentation to add for example, to infant formula but also gelatines that can be made without the need for animals. So, basically the sky is the limit.

[Image changes to show text on a blue screen: Is the idea to make products that replace meat and plant foods?]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: Is the idea to make products that replace meat and plant foods?

[Image changes to show Thomas talking to the camera]

Thomas Vanhercke: The idea is not to replace more traditional animal and plant-based proteins. The idea is to be able to tap into a broad variety of different sources that can produce proteins sustainably.

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Not just to feed a growing world population but also to be able to address their needs in terms of nutrition and health.

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Now in the end it comes down to being able to offer a broad variety of options and choices to the consumers that match better their desires in terms of dietary patterns and dietary needs.

[Image changes to show text on a blue screen: How sustainable is precision fermentation?]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: How sustainable is precision fermentation?

[Images move through to show Thomas talking to the camera, various views of fermenters, a researcher working in the lab, and a liquid in the brewing process]

Thomas Vanhercke: Precision fermentation as a technology holds great promise for the sustainable production of food proteins and food ingredients but of course this needs to be backed by science, so there’s still some work to be done to be able to make sure that we have the data to back up some of these sustainable ethical claims and this will be key to make sure that we have openness towards the consumer but also the trust of the consumer.

[Image changes to show flavoured ice cream being scooped]

Banpreet Kaur Shahi: Standby because ice cream and milk products will soon be on their way to the market.

[Image changes to show Banpreet Kaur Shahi talking to the camera, and then text appears on her left: Eden Brew, Deliciously Animal-Free Dairy]

Our Future Protein Mission has cofounded Australian companies like Eden Brew to bring these to market and they taste surprisingly, just like the real thing.

[Image changes to show a wombat scratching itself while sitting on some grass, and the CSIRO logo and text appears: CSIRO, Thanks for watching]