Swedish precision-fermented designer fats firm, Melt&Marble, has reached a critical milestone by scaling its fat fermentation process to over 10,000 litres.

This development paves the way for the start-up's commercial scale production and broader application testing in the alternative protein, confectionery, bakery and personal care industries.

Melt&Marble leverages precision fermentation to engineer the metabolism of yeast to create ‘designer fats’ with precisely controlled composition and properties.

Melt&Marble’s scientific team successfully maintained comparable strain and bioprocess performance achieved in previous tests, demonstrating the robustness and scalability of its process.

The start-up says that the success of the trial will open the door for broader application testing of the fat across various culinary contexts, allowing it to fine-tune the use of its fat for optimal performance in different food and personal care products.

Melt&Marble’s CEO Anastasia Krivoruchko said: “Scale-up of fermentation processes can be tricky, and we’re extremely proud of what our scientific team has managed to achieve in such a short amount of time".

Florian David, Melt&Marble’s CSO, commented: “The scale-up is a key milestone which proves that our process can create precision-fermented fats in much larger quantities than we had done previously. The success of this was driven by the collaboration of both internal and external teams to ensure that our process is translatable to a larger scale.”

Melt&Marble’s CBO Thomas Cresswell added: “This milestone is a pivotal step toward our goal of launching Melt&Marble’s fats commercially. It enables us to accelerate the pilot projects we’ve already initiated with some of our partners, bringing innovative, sustainable fat solutions to market and aligning with global demand for better alternatives sooner rather than later. We are committed to getting Melt&Marble’s fats onto consumers’ plates and enabling the transition to a more sustainable food system.”

Building on recent successes, including securing €2.76 million in EU grants earlier this year, Melt&Marble’s successful scale-up puts the company in a strong position for its next steps. In March, the start-up announced its move to a new headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The company says it will continue to further develop its designer fat products, with applications in alt-meat, cheese, butter, confectionery and bakery products, aiming to bring these sustainable alternatives to market in the coming years.

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