GEA is investing €18 million (US$20 million) in an alternative protein technology center in Janesville, Wisconsin. The new food technology hub will pilot microbial, cell-based and plant-based foods.
GEA's cutting-edge technology and team of biotechnology experts will form the basis for expanding new foods for industrial production that are in high demand in the United States.
“Many new food pioneers are already making a history of innovation in the United States. When it comes to industrial production, the market is still at its starting point. and advance the development of complementary proteins through technology,” said Reimar Gutte, Senior Vice President, Liquids and Fermentation Technologies, Head of Emerging Foods at GEA.
GEA's new food technology center in Janesville will house an end-to-end process line that includes GEA's multifunctional fermenters or bioreactors and high-shear mixing, sterilization, homogenization, cell separation, and filtration equipment . This system allows you to freely change the order of the various steps, add or repeat process steps, and test culture and fermentation strategies along with product synthesis. At ATC, GEA helps industry accelerate process development for a wide range of new food applications.
This innovation center complements GEA's new Food Center of Excellence. A full pilot line in Hildesheim (Germany) and technology centers for bioreactors (Skanderborg, Denmark), cell separation (Oelde, Germany), and plant-based foods (Bäkel, the Netherlands). .
GEA will facilitate not only process testing and validation, but also the training of biotech experts within the 10,000 square meter building. The new food expert at his GEA site for homogenizers, separators, pumps and valves, which opened in December 2023, will strengthen knowledge sharing with other sectors.
“Most of the new food companies are in North America, and the majority of investment in alternative proteins is flowing into the region. As a result, there is an urgent need for facilities like ours to expand,” says GEA North America. said Arpad Csay, Head of New Food Business. “Janesville's GEA platform allows manufacturers to do expansion and testing work without investing in capital-intensive infrastructure. In this way, we are able to overcome scaling challenges. , which will help accelerate industry growth.”
This project marks GEA's second investment in a new food hub that will fast-track innovation from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing. Prior to this, GEA opened his technology center in Hildesheim, Germany in June 2023 focused on cell culture and fermentation.
New foods are one of the growth drivers in GEA's Mission 26 strategy. One dedicated business line focuses on microbial proteins and proteins grown in bioreactors, plant-based or fungi-based foods, as well as innovative hybrids that combine plant-based products with proteins produced using biotechnology. technology and complete production line.
Groundbreaking for the new GEA campus is scheduled for spring 2024, with an opening date in 2025.
