GEA opens technology centre in Germany for alternative protein industry

GEA customers will be enabled to prepare processes and products for commercial production

GEA has inaugurated the New Food Application and Technology Centre of Excellence (ATC) in Hildesheim, Germany, as a central hub for piloting processes and products for the alternative protein industry.

The shift to plant-based foods, cultivated meat and products such as microbially produced dairy proteins promises to feed future generations in a climate-friendly way. At the new technology centre, German firm GEA’s new food experts will be using a cell cultivation and fermentation pilot line to fast-track innovations from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing.

The ATC complements other GEA new food centres of excellence, including for bioreactors (Hildesheim, Germany, and Skanderborg, Denmark) and cell separation (Oelde, Germany).

With cell-based meat alternatives now making their way onto restaurant tables, the research focus is turning to precision fermentation for milk proteins. One of GEA’s first customers in this field is Imagindairy, a scale-up from Israel.

Alternatively sourced proteins can help reduce the environmental impact of our food system and help feed the world’s growing population. The shift to new food is going hand in hand with the development of regenerative agriculture.

Image caption- (from left to right) Dr Matthias Hobbie, Head of Research and Development New Food (GEA); Dr Ingo Meyer, Mayor of Hildesheim; Tatjana Krampitz, Head of Technology Management New Food (GEA) and Heinz Jürgen Kroner, SVP New Food (GEA)