This progress brings the company closer to commercial-scale production and opens the door for wider testing across industries such as alternative proteins, confectionery, bakery, and personal care.

This scale-up of Melt&Marble’s bespoke fat product, formulated to mimic animal-derived fats in alternative meats and personal care applications, follows a successful trial earlier this year at the cubic-metre bioreactor scale. The company’s scientific team maintained consistent strain and bioprocess performance, validating the strength and scalability of its approach.

“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,” said Melt&Marble CEO Anastasia Krivoruchko. “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,” added Melt&Marble CSO Florian David.

The success of the trial opens the door for broader application testing of the fat across various culinary contexts, allowing Melt&Marble to fine-tune the use of their fat for optimal performance in different food and personal care products.

Melt&Marble 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.”

Melt&Marble utilises precision fermentation to modify yeast metabolism, producing designer fats with carefully controlled composition and characteristics. Following recent achievements, such as securing €2.76 million in EU funding, the company’s latest scale-up success strengthens its trajectory for future growth. Melt&Marble is now poised to advance the development of its fat products, targeting applications in alternative meats, cheese, butter, confectionery, and bakery. The company aims to introduce these sustainable fat alternatives to the market in the coming years, contributing to a more eco-friendly future for food production.