The EGGcited consortium has industrialized the production of new cellular protein and fiber ingredients derived from brewer’s spent yeast, a brewing industry by-product. 

The functional ingredients can replac egg and dairy proteins and e-numbers in various food applications. Following this scale-up, a process developed by Revyve (previously called FUMI Ingredients) – a spin-out from Wageningen University – will be transferred to full-scale continuous production. Revyve’s ingredients will be commercially available by the end of this year.

Need for sustainable food supply chains 
It is widely recognized that global food supply chains must become more sustainable. 

The food industry needs to cut carbon emissions to combat climate change and optimize the use of increasingly scarce resources, such as farmland and water while feeding rapidly growing populations. 

Alternative (non-animal) protein sources such as cellular proteins have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of food production significantly. 

This reduction could be amplified using biomass and side streams from various industries to create foodstuffs. This also brings the additional benefit of reducing the use of valuable farmland and raw materials and allows companies to generate revenue from what would otherwise be waste material.

Utilizing spent yeast 

The EGGcited project, coordinated by NIZO, was established in 2021 to industrialize processes for extracting new ingredients from used yeast from brewing that is no longer suitable for fermentation – brewer’s spent yeast. 

During the project, the extraction process was upscaled to a semi-industrial level capable of producing hundreds of kilograms of ingredients per batch. This upscaling was done at the NIZO pilot production facility in Ede, the Netherlands.

The extraction uses mild processing that minimizes the use of heat treatments. This ensures the products obtained have much better functionality but also has possible implications for food safety. Hence, identifying and addressing potential food safety issues to provide a reliable, stable and safe product was an integral part of the scale-up activities.

The output of the process is a cellular protein that can replac animal proteins such as egg white and dairy proteins, as well as E-numbers such as methylcellulose or calcium diphosphate in food applications. Additionally, the process yields a protein and fiber ingredient that helps to improve the taste and texture of meat analogs produced through high moisture extrusion. 

Consortium members Ruitenberg Ingredients and Revyve have successfully used the ingredients in meat analogs, bakery and dairy products to validate the functionality and sensory performance of the ingredients in a wide variety of food applications.

“The EGGcited project is a great example of the innovation in small companies and how they can find a route to market for ideas that can play a fundamental role in helping feed the world more sustainably. Our science-based approach to process design and food safety can help deliver a scalable process faster and help bring these ingredients to market,” explains Rianne Ruijschop, head of NIZO’s Health department and consortium project manager.

“We believe that upcycling brewer’s spent yeast can deliver food that is good to eat and good for the planet. Building on our extraction technology and NIZO’s capabilities in process development and upscaling, the EGGcited project has delivered these new ingredients with the right combination of functionalities to enable food products with the perfect texture that are clean label, cruelty-free and highly sustainable,” adds Cedric Verstraeten, CEO at Revyve.

In similar developments, Kerry recently unveiled two sustainable plant-based processing aids for enhancing beer quality, improving process efficiency and delivering cost savings in brewing.