Chromologics: Precision fermentation addresses ‘main challenges’ going via natural colours
The meals colouring market has seen a prolonged-term structural shift from synthetic colours to natural sources, driven by particular person put a question to for orderly labels which would possibly perhaps perhaps well be free from synthetic components. In line with Mintel, the scale of the natural colourings market overtook gross sales of synthetics support in 2011.
Nonetheless, the natural colourings market faces some challenges. Colourings made of carmine, a dye derived from cochineal insects, fail to fulfill increasing put a question to for vegan merchandise. Meanwhile, colourings from plant-basically basically based mostly sources can face stability elements with light, pH and temperature typically impacting coloration. And, presumably the biggest subject of all, natural colourings are vastly dearer than synthetic that chances are high you’ll perhaps perhaps presumably bring to mind choices.
Chromologics, a scurry-out from the Technical University of Denmark, has developed a platform that it says will take care of the ‘main challenges’ going via the natural colouring sector at the present time.
Based in 2017, Chromologics is a originate-up that hopes to position of abode a ‘fresh benchmark’ for meals colourant manufacturing. The firm modified into as soon as fashioned by TUD scientists Gerit Tolborg and Anders Ødum after the ‘bright discovery’ of a original community of fungal pigments throughout Tolborg’s PhD work.
Thru the exhaust of precision fermentation, the firm needs to make stronger a transition from the ‘enter-intensive and wasteful exhaust of meals sources’ in the colourings sector – unlocking a €4.6bn market alternative in the technique.
The firm’s founders envision a future where laboratory-grown natural meals colourants replace archaic natural colourants, releasing up arable land for ‘indispensable’ meals manufacturing and reducing the exhaust of fertilisers and pesticides.
“Our platform is in response to precision fermentation. The platform is scalable, mark-competitive, and responds to the sturdy market pull for moral and sustainable sourcing of original natural meals colorants,” Tolborg, the firm’s CEO, told FoodNavigator.
“With the traits of plant-basically basically based mostly intelligent and the level of interest on sustainability, we assume that we can possess a huge fabricate in that segment from the originate. Carmine cannot be traditional in vegan merchandise and a few assorted natural pink colorants struggle with challenges in efficiency.
“Our ambition is to develop Chromologics into the market leader of fermented natural coloration choices.”
Seeing pink
Chromologics’ flagship product is a natural pink meals colouring produced using fungal fermentation.
“It is produced by a fungus, which makes it compliant with the dietary requirements of huge particular person bases similar to kosher, halal, and vegan diets,” Tolborg told us. “We exhaust our proprietary fermentation protocol, which entails upstream fermentation and a few straightforward downstream processing steps.”
These downstream steps imply that the firm is willing to bring a colouring that is non-allergenic, she revealed.
“After the fermentation is carried out, the colourant and the fungus are separated and the colourant is processed. Thanks to the precision fermentation followed by our explicit DSP technique, the resulting natural pink coloration doesn’t possess any protein residues that would put of abode off an allergenic response.”
Tolborg is additionally smitten by the purposeful properties of the colourant, which is steady below assorted processing conditions, inserting its efficiency on a par with carmine. This ability it’s well-suited to a ‘huge fluctuate’ of assorted meals capabilities.
“The fermented natural pink has the same stability traits as carminic acid. It is pH and temperature steady, doesn’t possess any style or odour, and is water soluble,” she revealed. “Our fermented pink is pH steady on a huge fluctuate of pHs. We possess now carried out winning pilot be taught in collagen-casings, which faces harsh pH adjustments.”
Investment accelerating course to market
Chromologics appropriate closed a €6m seed financing round, securing the backing of investors including Blue Horizon Ventures, Novo Seeds, Nordic Food Tech and The Danish Increase Fund Danish Vækstfonden.
“The completion of our €6m series seed is a blue stamping of our technology and validation of our conception,” Tolborg told us.
Chromologics is at reward working to steady regulatory approval in the US and Europe, and the investment is expected to lunge this to boot as assorted yell efforts. “It ability that we can lunge the regulatory approval, engagement with capacity customers, and manufacturing scale-as much as industrial sizes. That will enable us to possess even extra conversations with meals manufacturing firms and put of abode up pilot trials with our fermented pink colorant.”
The firm is fascinated by bringing its fermented pink coloration to the market ‘as speedy as that chances are high you’ll perhaps perhaps presumably bring to mind’, in the period in-between no longer no longer as much as. However, the funding will additionally imply Chromologics can originate as much as scrutinize at additional innovation alternatives.
“This would possibly perhaps well perhaps perhaps enable us to return to the lab, work on our formulations,” Tolborg predicted. “We possess now assorted piquant merchandise in the pipeline. Our fungus additionally naturally produces yellow and orange, so in the prolonged speed, we envision adding assorted colours of the rainbow.”
