Temasek announced today the launch of the Asia Sustainable Foods Platform, which will enable, operate and invest in food-tech companies in Asia.
The platform aims to provide solutions and support to food-tech companies through their entire life cycle, from product development to commercial scale-up, reads a press release on Nov 15.
The Asia Sustainable Foods Platform will be managed by a core team of food-tech professionals, led by newly appointed CEO Mathys Boeren.
Boeren has worked in the food and food-ingredients industry for more than 25 years as part of Unilever, Givaudan, Symrise and Kerry. More recently, he has advised start-ups in the sustainable food space on the alignment of product attributes and consumer preferences.
First investment
The Asia Sustainable Foods Platform and A*STAR’s Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) have committed to invest over $30 million in the Food Tech Innovation Centre (FTIC) over the next three years.
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With FTIC, food-tech start-ups will have access to a food grade pilot scale facility with extrusion and fermentation equipment, shared labs, test kitchens, co-working spaces and more.
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FTIC has found its first partner in Next Gen Foods, which will set up their global R&D and innovation centre within FTIC. Next Gen Foods is a food start-up behind plant-based chicken meat TiNDLE, now available across seven markets.
Two JVs
The Asia Sustainable Foods Platform is also exploring two joint ventures (JVs) with global industry experts in plant-based and microbial proteins.
A partnership with CREMER, a German agri-food multinational with expertise in plant-based protein, will boost the Platform’s manufacturing capabilities for plant-based protein products.
Key to this process is high-moisture extrusion (HME), a new technology for producing texturised proteins that more closely resemble meat than other plant-based manufacturing techniques.
The Platform has also signed an agreement with ADM that will pave the way for a JV that enables contract development and manufacturing services for microbial proteins produced via precision fermentation.
This project is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board.
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“Asia is expected to require around US$1.55 trillion of investment over the next decade to satisfy growing consumer demands for healthier and more sustainable food options,” says Yeoh Keat Chuan, deputy head of the enterprise development group at Temasek.
Temasek has invested over US$8 billion in the global farm-to-fork value chain since 2013, including investments in seven unicorns: Apeel, Bowery Farming, Eat Just, Farmers Business Network, Impossible Foods, Pivot Bio and Perfect Day.
“We need to evolve our current capabilities to bolster food security and strengthen supply chains,” adds Yeoh.
The announcements come at the start of the inaugural Singapore International Agri-Food Week (SIAW), running from Nov 15 to 18.
Speaking to reporters at a media briefing, Yeoh explains the two technologies being explored: “On the high-moisture extrusion, what that does is to give the product a much more textured feel of a muscle, as opposed to just mincemeat, which is not that challenging. Having tasted the chicken equivalent, I can vouch for the fact that it tastes really just like chicken.”
“Precision fermentation really relates to how we are using microbial organisms. The first wave of domestication of animals happened 10,000 years ago, and that was for chickens, pigs and cows. This is the second wave of domestication, except that it's on microbial and micro-organisms, which are multiple times as efficient and targeted.”
