Database of solutions for the alternative protein industry (2021)

45+Research opportunities

50+Commercial whitespaces

35+Ecosystem support needs

Additional Filters

Key:

Cultivated

Fermentation

Plant-Based

Opportunity	Production platform	Value chain segment	Technology sector	End product focus	Relevant actor	Maturity level	Solution category	Topic
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
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
Hybrid products to optimize nutrition, taste, cost, and sustainability Hybrid products are a promising means to introduce cost-competitive versions of cultivated meat to the market while improving the taste of plant proteins. Promoting the health benefits of hybrids may…	Cultivated Fermentation Plant-Based	Demand Generation End Products Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs	End product formulation & manufacturing Ingredient optimization	Species-agnostic	Academics Industry Investors Startups		Commercial	Industry 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
Animal-free, non-recombinant albumin and transferrin for cultivated meat The identification of non-animal, non-recombinant proteins with similar functionality to serum albumin and transferrin will lead to major cost reductions in cell culture media development, facilitating progress toward achieving price…	Cultivated Plant-Based	Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs	Cell culture media Crop development Target molecule selection	Species-agnostic	Academics Industry Investors Startups		Commercial Research	Industry Science
Animal ingredient substitution Enabling easy animal ingredient substitutions in a wide range of food products.	Cultivated Fermentation Plant-Based	End Products R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs	End product formulation & manufacturing Ingredient optimization	Species-agnostic	Academics Industry Investors NGO’s Startups		Commercial Research	Industry Science
Metabolic modeling for cultivated meat Academic researchers or consortia consisting of several cultivated meat companies should undertake research aimed at understanding metabolic pathways and fluxes within cultivated meat-relevant cell types. The outputs of this research…	Cultivated	R&D	Bioprocess design Cell culture media Cell line development	Seafood-relevant	Academics Industry Investors Startups		Research	Science
Affordable animal-free omega-3 ingredients for alternative seafood and other alternative protein applications In order to appeal to health-conscious consumers, alternative seafood products should contain similar omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA and EPA, content to conventional seafood. Animal-free omega-3 ingredients can be expensive…	Fermentation Plant-Based	Investment Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs	Bioprocess design Crop development Host strain development Ingredient optimization Target molecule selection	Seafood	Industry Investors Startups		Commercial	Industry
Preventing oxidation of omega-3 fatty acids before and after addition to alternative seafood products Deeper fundamental knowledge of the causes and prevention of oxidation of omega-3 fatty acids before, during, and after addition to alternative seafood products is needed to improve their nutritional and…	Cultivated Fermentation Plant-Based	End Products Investment Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs	Bioprocess design Crop development End product formulation & manufacturing Host strain development Ingredient optimization Target molecule selection	Seafood	Academics Industry Investors Startups		Research	Industry Science
Coordination among investors with alternative protein industry-specific expertise Investors specializing in alternative proteins should be leveraged to educate the broader investment community through coalitions, syndicated deals, and co-investments with industry-agnostic investors, and spearhead efforts to facilitate later-stage funding…	Cultivated Fermentation Plant-Based	Investment		Species-agnostic	GFI Investors Startups	2 – Early adoption	Commercial Ecosystem	Industry

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Explore key innovation priorities

Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.

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How we built this

Executive summary

Get an overview of GFI’s Solutions initiative and a summary of key resources.

Full report

Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.

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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.

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Alternative Protein Solutions Database