Alternative Protein Solutions Database
Discover ideas for new startups, commercial ventures and products, research projects, ecosystem support, and investment opportunities for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived proteins.
Additional Filters
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
| Opportunity | Production platform | Value chain segment | Technology sector | End product focus | Relevant actor | Maturity level | Solution category | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Consumer and sensory research to guide alternative fish R&D
Consumer and sensory research can help companies and academic researchers better understand seafood consumers’ needs and desires. Understanding consumers’ needs will allow alternative fish researchers to ask and prioritize the… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
End Products | End product formulation & manufacturing | Seafood | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | Science | |
|
Catalog of animal meat flavors
Creating a catalog of molecules responsible for the characteristic flavor of a species will enable alternative protein product manufacturers to create products that more accurately replicate the sensory experience of… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
End Products Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Crop development End product formulation & manufacturing Ingredient optimization Target molecule selection | Seafood-relevant | Academics GFI Industry NGO’s Startups | Commercial Ecosystem Research | Industry Science | |
|
Synergistic climate and biodiversity benefits of alternative proteins
The direct climate and biodiversity benefits of alternative proteins are well understood by the alternative protein community, but the synergistic benefits of alternative proteins with other solutions—for example, clean energy… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
Demand Generation Investment | Seafood-relevant | Academics Donors GFI Industry Investors NGO’s Policymakers Startups | Ecosystem | |||
|
Naturally adhesive and edible non-animal scaffolding materials
There is a limited number of edible non-animal scaffold materials that are naturally adhesive for use in cultivated meat production. Identifying a larger and more diverse set of these materials,… |
Cultivated
|
Scaffolding | Seafood-relevant | Science | ||||
|
Cell line development from food-relevant aquatic species
A lack of publicly-available cell lines from relevant species and cell types continues to be a challenge for the field of cultivated seafood. Addressing this challenge will require further investigation… |
Cultivated
|
R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell line development | Seafood | Academics Industry Startups | Research | Science | |
|
Cultivated, fermentation-derived, or hybrid surimi
There has been little publicly announced R&D and commercial effort to develop cultivated, fermentation-derived, or hybrid surimi. Compared to other meat products, surimi is likely to be by far one… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
|
End Products | End product formulation & manufacturing Target molecule selection | Seafood | Industry Investors Startups | Commercial Research | Science | |
|
Optimizing fat profiles for nutritional and sensory properties
Because alternative meat’s fat content and fatty acid profile can be more easily controlled than conventional meat’s, there is an opportunity to alter fat content for nutritional benefits. Additional research… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
End Products Production R&D | Cell culture media End product formulation & manufacturing Target molecule selection | Seafood-relevant | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | Science | |
|
Incorporating growth factors into scaffolds to reduce costs and introduce spatial heterogeneity
Growth factors (GFs) can be incorporated into scaffolds as a strategy for both reducing costs and improving product quality of cultivated meat. Open-access research is needed to test the feasibility… |
Cultivated
|
End Products Production R&D | Scaffolding | Seafood-relevant | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | ||
|
Promoting stemness and proliferation in fish cell cultures
Efficient and cost-effective cultivated fish production will require precise optimization to encourage fast proliferation and highly efficient use of inputs while preventing premature differentiation. A variety of strategies can be… |
Cultivated
|
Production R&D | Cell culture media Cell line development | Seafood | Academics Industry Startups | Research | Science | |
|
B2B media development company
The cultivated meat industry needs dedicated suppliers of low-cost, food-grade cell culture media to reduce cultivated meat production costs. Close collaboration between the customer and supplier will be required in… |
Cultivated
|
R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell culture media | Seafood-relevant | Industry Investors Startups | Commercial Research |
Get involved
If you’d like to fund a research project, work on any of these solutions, share information about related efforts that are already underway, or elevate new ideas for advancing the alternative protein industry, we’d love to hear from you!
Explore key innovation priorities
Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.
How we built this
Full report
Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.
Futures wheels analysis
Explore our framework for uncovering second-order or third-order consequences and implications of hypothetical future scenarios to support better decision-making in the present.
Future-proofing
Discover key findings from GFI’s premortem analysis of potential threats to the widespread adoption of alternative proteins, including strategies to avoid or mitigate the most pressing risks.