Sustainable food-tech company, Clean Food Group (CFG), has received a £1.7 million investment to produce a sustainable alternative to palm oil.
The funding from investment company, SEED Innovations and led by alternative proteins investment company, Agronomics, will help CFG to develop the lab-produced, bio-equivalent palm oil which uses microbial fermentation.
The creation of the alternative comes following the boycott of palm oil use by many FMCG brands and retailers due to its unsustainable production, resulting in the destruction of forests and other habitats.
CFG which owns the IP address for a technology platform that produces the palm-oil equivalent, has partnered with the University of Bath in a two-year collaboration to bring the product to the market.
Developed over an eight-year period by Professor Chris Chuck and his team as the University of Bath, the technology platform also produces a rose scented and flavoured by-product.
Also technical advisor for CFG, Chuck and a team of scientists now work to develop the technology at the tech-company’s laboratory, pilot plant and at the university.
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Hoping to identify partners to work with, CFG looks to submit a novel foods dossier to the European Food Standards Agency and UK Food Standards Agency before the end of this year, looking for authorisation to sell the palm-oil alternative to consumers when it is in production.
“This investment has come at a time where sustainability and minimising environmental damage is at the forefront of investors’ minds,” SEED finance director and COO, Lance de Jersey said.
“CFG seeks to utilise its disruptive technology to produce a bio-equivalent palm oil alternative using microbial fermentation.
“Palm oil plantations have been well documented to be a major cause of damage globally in terms of habitat destruction and deforestation and CFG are aiming to commercialise the IP it owns to bring an alternative to market.”
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