GEA’s New Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence: A Key Hub for Food Manufacturing
GEA unveils a new Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC) in Hildesheim, Germany. The center has been designed to bridge the gap between the laboratory and commercial-scale manufacturing in the alternative protein industry. With plant-based foods and cultivated meat gaining momentum, cell-based meat alternatives are gradually making their way into restaurants, and manufacturing processes need to be refined to bring sustainable food to market.
At GEA’s new ATC center, food manufacturing experts will utilize a cell cultivation and fermentation pilot line to fast-track innovations from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing. This technology will facilitate the commercial feasibility of new food products, enabling customers to test new food recipes without investing in large-scale equipment and production plants. The ATC offers a platform for manufacturers to move beyond the lab scale to industrial-scale manufacturing, making it a central hub for the alternative protein industry.
Heinz Jürgen Kroner, Senior Vice President New Food at GEA, says, “Establishing and scaling up a new food production facility is a major task. In many cases, new food producers are still stuck at the lab scale – with the hygiene, aseptic, and process requirements that involve. On the other hand, industrial-scale manufacturing presents much greater technical and financial challenges. At the ATC, our process experts explore the potential for mass production to make this step manageable for food manufacturers. Ultimately, GEA and our customers want to work together on the development of safe, affordable new food products for consumers.”
GEA has identified new food as one of the main growth drivers in the GEA Mission 26 strategy and has already established a dedicated business unit for the development of cell-based protein synthesis.
The development of alternatively sourced proteins has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of our food system while simultaneously helping feed the world’s growing population. The shift to new food goes hand in hand with the development of regenerative agriculture.
Imagindairy, a scale-up from Israel, is one of GEA’s first customers in this field. Eyal Afergan, the company’s CEO, comments, “We want to make dairy products without harming the planet. To make that happen, we harness the ancient art of fermentation and combine it with science. This lets us create milk proteins with the taste, functionality, mouthfeel, and nutritional value that we love about milk. Together with GEA, we can pave the way to bringing this innovation faster to the market, with the highest possible quality standards.”
Overall, GEA’s new ATC center heralds a new era of food manufacturing, which is not only sustainable but also more affordable and healthier for consumers. With the focus on new food intensifying, GEA is confident this will become a major driver for business growth within the food industry.
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GEA’s ATC center is a game-changer for sustainable food manufacturing. With new food quickly becoming one of the growth drivers within the food industry, GEA’s ATC center has the potential to be a central hub that facilitates innovation and the expansion of environmentally-friendly and sustainable food options for consumers.
