Our technology produces sustainable animal-identical proteins through precision fermentation, by matchmaking microbes with upcycled waste streams from the agricultural, food, and biotech industries.
About
We believe in reducing greenhouse gases, freeing up farmland, and securing food supply, without compromising taste, functionality, or nutrition.
Food should be sustainable and available to humanity at high quality, low cost, and sufficient volume. We are on a mission to transform how food is produced.
We do this through precision fermentation, whereby engineered microbes convert industrial waste into animal-identical protein. Our intelligence platform helps us solve one of the hardest and most expensive problems in the field — matching the right waste stream to the right microbe.
Based in Denmark, we’re a team with decades of experience in agri-food and industrial biotechnology combined with a strong passion for building the food system the world needs.
Intelligence Platform
Turning complex data into trustworthy production insights
Precision fermentation can only produce protein sustainably if the microbe is matched to the right upcycled waste stream. Our intelligence platform makes that match, transforming waste into protein. It draws on patents databases, scientific literature, and company records — all handled in a secure, private environment with enterprise-grade compliance.
Intelligence Platform Explained
Existing Data
Patent databases, scientific literature, and company records, — all handled in a secure, private environment with enterprise-grade compliance.
Physical Lab
Real-world conditions for testing and validating biostream-based media and production organisms. Hands-on experimentation and observation of fermentation dynamics.
Precision Fermentation
Data and knowledge from previous precision fermentation added to the Intelligence Platform.
Virtual Lab
We are working towards a virtual lab: Predictive modeling and simulation before physical trials. Rapid, low-cost iteration across many scenarios, reducing reliance on trial and error.
Intelligence Platform
With all information gathered: Shifting precision fermentation from a static process to an intelligent, autonomous one.
The Outcome:
Lower energy use, more consistent product, and higher yields.
Industrial sensors and machine learning continuously track fermentation conditions, food safety, and energy performance in real time — shifting precision fermentation from a static process to an intelligent, autonomous one. The result: lower energy use, more consistent product, and higher yields.
Our Services
We help partners speed up R&D and scale faster, at lower cost.
We upgrade waste and residual bio-streams to become sustainable and low-cost growth media for fermentation. We combine engineering, biochemistry, and biology to build tailor-made fermentation media, matched to your production organism inputs and connected end-to-end by our intelligence platform.
Case Studies
Matchmaking upcycles bio-streams and new microbes to produce sustainable food proteins
UPCYFUN
The single most important development in precision fermentation is the shift from refined sugar inputs to lower-cost alternative feedstocks.
Feedstock is the largest cost in production, and ProteinFrontiers takes a media-centric approach to replacing refined sugars with cheaper biostreams. Our first platform applies precision fermentation to milk proteins (BLG, a model protein), grown on low-cost, sustainable biostreams.
New microbes, sustainable food proteins
ProteinFrontiers leads the R&D project UPCYFUN, which upcycles biostreams into production media — or food for microbes — and develops microbial strains that can efficiently use these rougher media. By drawing on technology and knowledge from Denmark’s biotech and pharma industries, UPCYFUN is building a new fermentation industry for food — one based on sustainable production media.
UPCYFUN is a joint venture between DTU, AAU, Vestjyllands Andel, LYRAS, the Danish Technological Institute, HNH-Consult, and Pixinno, supported by Innovation Fund Denmark.
Ecosystem — sustainable feedstock for cell-cultured food
Denmark is fast becoming a leader in bio-manufactured food. ProteinFrontiers is paving the way for a Danish feedstock industry for cell-cultured food production, with the potential for international reach.
We facilitate collaboration across the value chain to upcycle residual biostreams and crops as a replacement for refined sugars. We’re building a new ecosystem for a food-grade Danish growth media industry, allowing us to produce more food on less agricultural land with a smaller climate and environmental footprint.
The Network – Feedstock for Cell-Cultured Food is supported by GUDP, Grønt Udviklings- og Demonstrationsprogram.
Photo by Sebastian Schuster on Unsplash
Cascade use of side (bio)streams as production media
This study maps the volumes and characteristics of local side biostreams from agriculture, food, and industry that are suitable as industrial growth media — for example, molasses, vinasse, potato juice, spent yeast from the brewing/biotech industry, permeate from whey protein production, and brown juice from beet tops or grass protein production. The mapping covers quantities, seasonality, and delivery, as well as nutrient content and possible toxins.
Project supported by: Food & Bio Cluster Denmark, the EU, and the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen).
Photo by Crystal Kwok on Unsplash
Roadmap
Paving the way toward animal-free milk proteins
This roadmap outlines the key steps for building a precision fermentation industry for milk proteins. The vision is to create a Danish hub for protein creation through precision fermentation — opening a new export opportunity for sustainable food. The roadmap is designed to help industry, investors, key stakeholders, and policymakers shape the future food system around sustainability, circularity, resilience, and carbon neutrality.
The roadmap was supported by GUDP.
Photo by rajeev ramdas on Unsplash
BioFerment
This project develops methods for upcycling local agro-industrial biostreams into an affordable, sustainable fermentation substrate for producing food proteins — for example, beta-lactoglobulin. We develop biostreams and production organisms in tandem, matched to each other.
BioFerment was supported by Biosolutions Zealand.
Get news about
alternative proteins.
Join our newsletter for information and the latest news within the field.
Send e-mail with the subject newsletter to: solheim@proteinfrontiers.dk
ProteinFrontiers is supported by GUDP and Innovation Fund Denmark
