If you’re an astute follower of my content, you’ve heard me mention the concept of precision fermentation (and/or name notable startups that are commercializing such material for functional CPG brands) in numerous pieces of content over the last handful of years. That being said, I’ve somehow overlooked the fact that I haven’t given precision fermentation the respect it deserves with its own dedicated content. But regardless of mentioning it before...how about we start with what the heck precision fermentation is and how it differs from what has been used in food production for thousands of years ago. Traditional fermentation uses intact live micro-organisms to modulate and process plant-derived ingredients. It results in products with unique flavor, nutritional profiles, and modified texture. Precision fermentation is a significantly newer technology that has been used within the food industry for let’s say the last two decades. Precision fermentation has now emerged as a leading edge of food and beverage ingredient innovation…with the list of mega-companies investing in the process growing extensively of late. Precision fermentation uses microbial hosts as “cell factories” for producing specific functional ingredients. Not only is precision fermentation being explored as a launchpad for cultivating new protein sources, but it’s also highly versatile in its capacity to be tailored toward producing other key food and beverage ingredients for texturizing, flavoring, and stabilizing.Unlocking the potential of precision fermentation within the CPG space has been made possible with the use of artificial intelligence to rapidly identify ingredients that may offer improved functionality or added health attributes. AI is the heartbeat of the precision fermentation movement. To keep this content concise, I'll focus on functional CPG applications involving nature-identical animal proteins (e.g. Perfect Day and The Every Company). There’s a few different short- and long-term value propositions that differentiate this precision fermentation material from the mainstay commodity ingredient that I mention including functionality and quality considerations, sustainability, and hedging commodity costs with supply chain stability. Finally, I'll walk through the different challenges and potential slowups around adoption of precision fermentation that's likely ahead for the food technology.

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