EvodiaBio raises $6.4M to produce aromas for non-alcoholic beer through precision fermentation
Danish company EvodiaBio has secured $6.4 million (around £5.3M) in capital to develop aromas for non-alcoholic beer through precision fermentation.
EvodiaBio’s monoterpenoid aromas are produced using fermented yeast cells which secrete individual aroma components. These components are then combined to mimic specific aroma profiles.
The company will utilise the technology in the category of non-alcoholic beers first. Company Co-founder and Chairman Jarne Elleholm explained this was because getting the taste of the beer right has been a major challenge for the alcohol-free brewing industry.
EvodiaBio’s newly developed aroma blend for this mission is called Yops, and was developed by scientific Co-founders Professor Sotirios Kampranis, Dr Simon Dusséaux and Dr Victor Forman.
It claims the blend can improve the taste of non-alcoholic beer, while serving as a natural and sustainable alternative to other aroma manufacturing techniques.
According to the Danish business, the precision fermentation solution “avoids depleting limited plant resources”, and can cut brewers’ water and CO2 usage by more than 90%.
Flemming Besenbacher, Board Member for EvodiaBio and former Chairman of Carlsberg and the Carlsberg Foundation, said the development of fermented aromas was a promising step for the non-alcoholic beer category.
“As former chairman of Carlsberg, I see huge opportunities for our company, now that our financing is secured,” he said. “EvodiaBio is a very promising project that solves an industry challenge, which I excitedly have been involved in solving, and I look forward to being part of the further developments, we are beginning now.”
In the long-term, the company plans to develop further aroma blends for other food and beverage categories.
The next steps for EvodiaBio will be concentrating on launching Yops in 2023, as well as establishing offices, laboratories and a pilot-production facility in Denmark.
Fermentation is a highly versatile technology for the food industry – find out how it is used now and how it will be leveraged in the future in this episode of the Food Matters Live Podcast:
