Optimising the production of alternative proteins

PLANTOMYC aims to address the major environmental and consumer challenges in the alternative protein market. Through innovative solutions, the project aims to increase consumer acceptance of alternative protein sources and strengthen the sustainability of food production through the following initiatives:

• Valorizing food industry residues: Utilizing Brewers Spent Grains (BSG) and Pea Protein Isolates Byproducts (PPIB) as substrates for fermentation, promoting circularity within the sector.
• Developing functional ingredients: Transforming fermentation broth into value-added products, such as flavor-enhancing ingredients or functional beverages.
• Moving toward clean labels: Creating minimally processed, nutritious products that align with clean-label trends in food production.

With this holistic approach, PLANTOMYC is helping to shape the sustainable food system of the future.

RISE role and mission

RISE is coordinating the project, which combines state-of-the-art fermentation technology, circular resource use and consumer-oriented product development to optimise the production of alternative protein sources by combining pea protein isolate (PPI) and MPB. RISE's expertise in fungal biotechnology includes screening, fermentation and optimisation of mycelial protein biomass (MPB) production using recycled by-products such as pea protein starch. Work is also carried out to assess the techno-economic feasibility of our innovations.

The work will be carried out at RISE's modern research facilities in both Örnsköldsvik and Gothenburg, which are part of the Bioeconomy Arena.

The material, such a purée, to be 3D printed is filled into a steel container, and to build up the structure, the purée is extruded onto the build plate or plate according to the digital file. For the structure to be successfully created, the flow properties of the ingredient are crucial—the viscosity must allow it to flow out of the nozzle at a suitable rate as the structure is built. The material deposited on the build plate must also be able to hold its shape, which requires characterization of the ingredient’s viscoelasticity and yield stress. In one publication, we explored the rheological properties of 3D-printed timbales, where we aimed to increase the fiber content in the formulation.: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/food-science-and-technology/articles/10.3389/frfst.2022.1058641/full  

We create DELICIOUS together

At DELICIOUS, we tackle problems that are too big and too difficult for individual actors to solve on their own. The knowledge we create together is an important key to achieving a sustainable transition of the food system.

RISE is coordinating the DELICIOUS project and will also be responsible for scale-up of microbial processes, high-throughput screening of microbial strains and communities, and sustainability assessments and through techno-economic analysis (TCA) and social life cycle assessment (SLCA)

iCOSHELLs – Co-Creation for Healthy Soils in Europe

The Importance of Soil and EU Challenges
Soil is fundamental to all life on Earth, yet alarmingly, 60–70% of EU soils are considered unhealthy due to pollution, urbanization, and intensive agriculture, further exacerbated by climate change. This degradation leads to economic, societal, and environmental challenges, including reduced productivity, biodiversity loss, and deteriorating soil structure.

RISE’s Leading Role in iCOSHELLs
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden serves as the project’s Lead Coordinator and also spearheads the development of a Swedish Living Lab in Southern Sweden. This lab addresses soil health challenges linked to intensive agricultural land use, focusing on sustainable solutions for improved soil health.

A Contribution to EU’s “A Soil Deal for Europe”
iCOSHELLs is part of the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, aiming to achieve healthy soils across Europe by 2030. The project contributes to three key objectives:

• Reducing soil pollution and promoting restoration.
• Enhancing soil structure and biodiversity.
• Raising societal awareness and knowledge about soil health and its significance.

Innovative Living Labs Addressing Regional Challenges
The project encompasses six Living Labs across diverse European regions, tackling unique climatic and geographical challenges:

• Southern and central Sweden: Solutions for soil health in agricultural systems.
• Southeastern Spain (Murcia and Almería): Developing sustainable agriculture ecosystems.
• The Basque Country (Spain/France): Improving soil structure in wetlands, semi-urban areas, and forest environments.
• Western Macedonia (Greece): Restoring contaminated mining soils.
• Northern Italy: Solutions for soil health in rural, urban, and semi-urban areas.
• Plovdiv Region (Bulgaria): Addressing issues of reduced organic matter, poor soil structure, and biodiversity loss.

A Systematic Approach
iCOSHELLs employs a structured strategy to:

• Build stakeholder capacity and bridge the gap between science and practical application.
• Deepen understanding of soil indicators and enhance soil health through scalable methods.
• Replicate effective soil restoration solutions across different regions.

The Future of Living Labs
The project challenges traditional models by anchoring Living Labs in co-creation, broad stakeholder engagement, and practical application. The vision is to develop standardized, globally recognized labs that serve as benchmarks for future Living Labs.

Sustainable Outcomes for the Future
iCOSHELLs promotes collaboration and knowledge-sharing by serving as a comprehensive soil health database and supporting policy development to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture and the environment.

The EU project MICROORC focuses on developing new, sustainable solutions to extend the shelf life of foods by combining innovative technologies and advanced materials. With a strong emphasis on research and development in food safety and sustainability, the project is particularly focused on creating solutions to address the many challenges surrounding the shelf life of fresh and perishable foods. The aim is to reduce food waste by increasing the precision of shelf-life labeling and by extending the shelf life of food products using innovative methods and tools.

The MICROORC project aims to extend and more accurately determine the shelf life of perishable foods, thereby reducing avoidable food waste through two primary strategies:

1. By developing advanced tools, technologies, and guidelines that enable improved process control. This includes microbiome monitoring and new, more accurate predictions for shelf life and labeling. This precise monitoring strengthens food safety and provides better data for assessing products’ storage and shelf life, which can lead to better-informed consumers.
2. By extending shelf life using bio-based protection methods and packaging technologies that effectively reduce, control, or limit the growth of harmful and pathogenic microorganisms on or within food products. These measures not only improve food quality and safety but also optimize packaging solutions to be sustainable and better aligned with today’s environmental requirements.

To ensure a sustainable transition, new innovations within the project are not only developed but also evaluated from a broad sustainability perspective. Therefore, sustainability assessments are integrated into the innovation processes, also considering consumers’ perspectives. This approach ensures that the solutions developed meet technical and environmental standards while also accounting for social and economic factors, which is crucial for a comprehensive sustainability perspective.

Since current regulations are often static and unable to evolve in step with rapid technological and market changes, the project also actively works to identify and develop new methods for policy and regulatory innovation. This means MICROORC strives to develop concrete proposals and tools to adapt regulations quickly and efficiently, supporting a more sustainable and innovative food industry. A dynamic and forward-looking policy development approach is thus an important component to enable the practical implementation of technical solutions that benefit both the industry and consumers.

Inflammatory bowel disease, IBD, primarily refers to the chronic intestinal diseases Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. RISE leads the Vinnova-funded project "Precision Medicine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease", which brings together experts in medicine, molecular biology, genetics, AI, as well as clinical and translational research. The idea of ​​precision medicine is to be able to tailor prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of the patient based on the individual's unique conditions, such as genetic profile, gene expression patterns and the composition of the bacterial flora in the gut. By combining advanced analytical technology, AI and the new treatment methods introduced in recent years, the quality of life for people with IBD can be improved.

The project brings together many actors who work with IBD, including two pharmaceutical companies, which provides good conditions for the innovation work to produce results. By studying the treatment effect of the 20 or so different drugs available today and by combining this with various business solutions, an improved treatment for people with IBD can be developed and each patient can have their treatment tailored. 

One of the project's goals is to create a sustainable innovation environment based on the Community of Practice that has been created during the project's journey. The innovation environment will invite and open up to more actors in addition to the current project partners. How this will happen will be designed during the course of the project.

The project includes prominent researchers in gastroenterology from Lund University and Örebro University as well as practicing doctors with extensive experience in clinical trials and healthcare from Ersta Hospital, Region Skåne and Region Östergötland, among others. The parties in the project are RISE, Innovation Skåne, Linköping University Hospital, Skåne University Hospital, First Hospital, Lund University, Örebro University, Mavatar, Pfizer and Takeda.