Tetra Pak Partners with Danish Company to Accelerate Sustainable Food Production through Bioprocessing
Swedish group Tetra Pak announced on Wednesday the signing of a strategic partnership with Danish biotech firm Swan Neck Bio to facilitate the industrial scaling of food production based on precision fermentation or biomass fermentation. This move reflects the growing convergence between food technology and biotechnological innovation.
Through this collaboration, Tetra Pak aims to expand its offerings directed at “new food” producers, a rapidly growing sector that includes alternative proteins, fermented ingredients, and sustainable food substitutes.
Companies relying on precision fermentation will benefit from DIRINOC™ technology, developed by Swan Neck Bio, which is a ready-to-use inoculum that initiates fermentation without the lengthy stages of cell growth in laboratories. This reduces contamination risks, improves production stability, and lowers preparation costs.
For Tetra Pak, this technology represents a leap in efficiency and reliability, enabling producers to transition quickly from the experimental phase to industrial manufacturing.
The DIRINOC™ technology will be integrated into the Tetra Pak Center for New Food Development in Karlshamn, Sweden, a facility that provides an experimental environment for testing, adjusting, and validating fermentation techniques before large-scale application.
This approach aligns with Tetra Pak’s vision of providing comprehensive solutions covering all stages of production, from cultivating inoculums to packing the final product, allowing clients to reduce the costs and risks associated with investing in complex fermentation systems.
Rafael Barros, Tetra Pak’s New Food Director, stated that the new innovation addresses three key priorities for industry players: speed, risk management, and flexibility. He added that this partnership “removes one of the biggest barriers to industrial manufacturing, which is inoculum preparation, allowing producers to focus on product quality and speed up market entry.”
Troels Bral, Co-Founder and CEO of Swan Neck Bio, explained that this partnership “combines our biotech expertise with Tetra Pak’s industrial engineering to enable companies to minimize development risks and achieve large-scale production with confidence.”
This initiative aligns with the global shift towards sustainable foods, as bioprocessing emerges as an innovative alternative to traditional agriculture for producing proteins, fats, and flavors from microorganisms without the need for livestock farming or intensive agriculture.
With a presence in over 160 countries, Tetra Pak reaffirms its ambition to become a key player in the sustainable transformation of the food industry, while Swan Neck Bio continues to strengthen its position as a strategic partner for startups and organizations looking to develop reliable and scalable bioproducts.
