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.
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
| Opportunity | Production platform | Solution category | Value chain segment | Technology sector | Maturity level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Microbial strain-development contract research organizations for alternative protein applications
While emerging fermentation-derived ingredient companies often optimize their strain’s productivity in-house, it may be more efficacious for startups to engage contract research organizations with both deep microbial strain development expertise… |
Fermentation
|
Commercial Ecosystem Research | R&D | Host strain development | |
|
Comprehensive microbial screening to identify new protein production candidate strains
A systematic, open-access, comprehensive analysis of novel microbial strains could drastically expand the available strains that can compete on flavor, efficiency, cost, and nutrition. |
Fermentation
|
Research | R&D | Host strain development | 1 – Inception |
|
Producing animal-like fats through microbial fermentation
Microbial fermentation may be able to help us produce lipids that are identical or similar to animal fats—especially saturated fats, which are exceedingly rare in the plant kingdom. |
Fermentation
|
Commercial Research | R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Host strain development Target molecule selection | 1 – Inception |
|
Expanding options for food-safe genetic selection markers
Analysis of which food-safe selection markers exist and can be used orthogonally, as well as efforts to develop new selection markers, for alternative proteins. |
Fermentation
|
Commercial Research | R&D | Host strain development | |
|
Biosynthetic pathway discovery for fermentation-produced molecules
Microbial biosynthetic pathways can be mined computationally to identify candidate pathways for manufacturing high-value ingredients via fermentation. |
Fermentation
|
Commercial Research | End Products R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Host strain development Target molecule selection | |
|
Fat production & encapsulation within oleaginous yeast
Oleaginous yeast with durable cell walls may be able to serve as natural methods of fat encapsulation to protect fats through manufacturing, storage, and preparation. |
Fermentation
|
Research | R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Host strain development Target molecule selection | |
|
Suppressing hyper-branching of filamentous fungi
Prolonging continuous cultivation of filamentous fungi by suppressing hyper-branching to improve texture and boost production efficiency. |
Fermentation
|
Commercial Research | Production R&D | Bioprocess design Host strain development |
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.