Alternative Protein Solutions Database
Discover ideas for new startups, commercial ventures and products, research projects, ecosystem support, and investment opportunities for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived proteins.
Additional Filters
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
| Opportunity | Production platform | Value chain segment | Technology sector | End product focus | Relevant actor | Maturity level | Solution category | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mapping animal cell metabolism to optimize media formulation
The cost and environmental impact of cultivated meat are driven by the cell culture media formulation and its conversion efficiency into meat. Metabolic modeling and engineering techniques can aid media… |
Cultivated
|
Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell culture media Cell line development | Species-agnostic | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | ||
|
Consumer education on the food safety of cultivated meat
Consumer education on the food safety of cultivated meat can positively impact consumer acceptance when sufficient information is provided. Additional research and efforts to increase transparent science communication on the… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
|
Demand Generation End Products | Species-agnostic | Academics GFI Industry NGO’s Startups | Ecosystem | Science | ||
|
Ensuring appropriate food safety controls for cultivated meat
Sterilization guidelines from well-established biomedical and food industries can act as helpful templates for safe cultivated meat production. However, more research is needed to identify potentially novel production hazards for… |
Cultivated
|
Compliance | Species-agnostic | Ecosystem Policy Research | Policy | |||
|
Scaffolds and structural approaches to optimize fat distribution and content in cultivated meat
The inclusion of fat and marbling in cultivated meat is likely to increase its flavor, texture, and consumer appeal. Structural approaches using edible microcarriers, hydrogels, and 3D bioprinting present promising… |
Cultivated
|
End Products Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Bioprocess design End product formulation & manufacturing Scaffolding | Species-agnostic | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | Industry Science | |
|
Hybrid products to optimize nutrition, taste, cost, and sustainability
Hybrid products are a promising means to improve the cost and sustainability of animal-derived meat while improving the taste of plant proteins. Promoting the health benefits of hybrids may facilitate… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
Demand Generation End Products Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | End product formulation & manufacturing Ingredient optimization | Species-agnostic | Academics Industry Investors Startups | Commercial | Industry Science | |
|
Cost-effective sterility controls for cultivated meat
Meticulous attention to sterility controls throughout cultivated meat production is essential to optimize food safety, but the cost of biopharmaceutical-based sterility—the current standard for cell-based processes—is incongruent with large-scale food… |
Cultivated
|
Production | Bioprocess design Cell culture media End product formulation & manufacturing | Species-agnostic | Industry Policymakers Startups | Ecosystem Research | Industry Policy Science | |
|
Scientist / engineer outreach and education
To expand the technical talent pipeline, various players in the alternative protein field should reach out to scientists and engineers in relevant disciplines (e.g., biotech, biopharma, and food science) to… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
Workforce | Species-agnostic | Academics Donors GFI Industry NGO’s Policymakers Startups | Ecosystem | |||
|
Plant-based scaffolds to improve cultivated meat nutrition
A variety of plant-based scaffolds present the opportunity to combine the natural nutritional and structural benefits of plants with the taste and high protein of cultivated meat. Bacterial nanocellulose from… |
Cultivated
Plant-Based
|
End Products Investment Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Bioprocess design End product formulation & manufacturing Scaffolding | Species-agnostic | Academics Industry Startups | Commercial Research | Industry Science | |
|
Animal-free, non-recombinant albumin and transferrin for cultivated meat
The identification of non-animal, non-recombinant proteins with similar functionality to serum albumin and transferrin will lead to major cost reductions in cell culture media development, facilitating progress toward achieving price… |
Cultivated
Plant-Based
|
Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell culture media Crop development Target molecule selection | Species-agnostic | Academics Industry Investors Startups | Commercial Research | Industry Science | |
|
Repurposing and retrofitting facilities for use in alternative protein manufacturing
The manufacturing capacity for rapid and cost-effective scale-up of alternative protein production is a current constraint on the growth of the industry. Repurposing and retrofitting stranded or underutilized assets such… |
Cultivated
Fermentation
Plant-Based
|
Business Services Production Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Bioprocess design End product formulation & manufacturing | Species-agnostic | Academics Donors GFI Industry NGO’s Policymakers Startups | Commercial Ecosystem Policy Research | Industry Policy |
Get involved
If you’d like to fund a research project, work on any of these solutions, share information about related efforts that are already underway, or elevate new ideas for advancing the alternative protein industry, we’d love to hear from you!
Explore key innovation priorities
Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.
How we built this
Full report
Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.
Futures wheels analysis
Explore our framework for uncovering second-order or third-order consequences and implications of hypothetical future scenarios to support better decision-making in the present.
Future-proofing
Discover key findings from GFI’s premortem analysis of potential threats to the widespread adoption of alternative proteins, including strategies to avoid or mitigate the most pressing risks.
