FERMENTED INGREDIENTS


IS FERMENTATION RE-FORMULATING THE FUTURE OF


Floor Buitelaar, Managing Partner at Bright Green Partners (BGP), explains how fermentation has progressed from bread-rising and cocoa bean curing to precision biofactories that craft proteins, sweeteners, and colours, letting confectioners deliver indulgence with lower carbon and supply chain risk.


W


hile the taste of chocolate, ganache, nougat and buttercream is timeless, the raw materials behind them are


coming under pressure today. Chocolate’s primary fat cocoa butter comes from tropical orchards battling climate volatility and deforestation scrutiny, while dairy and egg inputs carry soaring carbon footprints and volatile pricing. At the same time, sugar reduction mandates and consumer labels are squeezing formulations that traditionally, were optimised for taste, not the planet. Leading confectionery brands have pledged netzero targets covering scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream value chain) forcing R&D teams to rethink every item on the ingredient list. The hunt is on for ingredients that preserve melt, chew and colour, stabilise price and yet arrive with smaller carbon numbers and more reliable supply. Fermentation has always had a role to


play in confectionery – in cacao, for example, beans are left to ferment so that yeasts and bacteria generate the flavour precursors of fine chocolate. What is new is the use of closed tank systems to coax microbes into


16 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • JULY 2025


producing purified food molecules at industrial scale. In traditional fermentation microbes make the whole food (think soy sauce); biomass fermentation harvests the microbial cells themselves as ingredients and precision fermentation programs microbes with specific genes so they excrete target proteins, fats or small molecules. Because reactors can operate anywhere with sugar feedstock and grid power, they decouple ingredient supply from fragile tropical ecosystems.


Fermentation-powered ingredients Precision fermentation technologies lend themselves well to ingredients that are structurally well understood, and which are required in relatively small inclusion levels, and those whose native supply chains suffer from both sustainability and price volatility. Crucially, bioreactor production can slash carbon footprints by up to 90 % while trending toward cost parity as fermentation efficiency rises. Dairy and egg proteins rise to the top


here because their molecular roles of emulsification, aeration, and gelation are


hard to mimic with plant isolates, yet can be produced efficiently via precision or biomass fermentation. Perfect Day’s ßlactoglobulin, for


example, is already available in dairyfree baking mixes and chocolate bars. On the egg side, The Every Company’s or Onego Bio’s bioidentical egg white protein can be incorporated into meringues, syrups, cookies, etc. Additionally, biomass fermentation pioneer Revyve upcycles spent brewer’s yeast into a powdered egg replacer that binds and emulsifies in fillings and batters, illustrating how confectioners


confectionery?


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