An Estonian startup has developed a way to produce fats and oils from industrial waste. In this way, wood, agricultural by-products such as straw and sawdust, and even food waste can be transformed into ingredients for the food or cosmetics industry.
According to the developers of the method, it is basically a natural process, like fermentation.
What we have developed is very similar to beer, where yeast is used to convert the sugars in the barley into alcohol and hops are added for flavour. We are using a different type of yeast that covers sugars from industrial side streams, but not ethanol, i.e. fats and oils.
Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, co-founder of the startup ÄIO
The process can still improve food security when local inputs are used, citing how the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have disrupted global supply chains. The startup is working on technologies to “recycle” household food waste, such as bananas and orange peels.
To compete effectively in the market, new products must be cheaper than the originals. This is not currently the case, although industry experts argue that if the environmental cost of animal and plant products were taken into account and government subsidies were eliminated, innovative substitutes would be much more competitive.
Legal barriers are probably the most difficult to overcome, or let’s say they contain the most uncertainty because in technological terms we can scale the process very well. The biggest unknown for us today is the regulations, we all know and understand that food must be safe. But today the procedures for applying for a normal food permit are not, so to speak, very understandable or predictable.
Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, co-founder of the startup ÄIO
The European Union has some of the strictest regulations on food production in the world. This helps ensure that edible products are not harmful to consumers or the environment. However, some experts argue that EU laws hinder food innovation.
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Source: Olhar Digital
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