PROSPER - PROduction of Spirulina Protein through PEF-Enhanced Recovery

Moving to alternative proteins is an essential part of achieving Net Zero in the UK. We are already making huge progress - Over the last decade, meat consumption in the UK has fallen 17% and alternative protein consumption has doubled. This is great news for both the environment and people's health.

However, it is not a simple task to replace animal protein across manufactured food. First, proteins need certain properties: they must be soluble and able to gel, emulsify or foam, to act as effective food ingredients. They also need to be cost-effective, nutritious and have low environmental impact. This is not currently the case. The vast majority of alternative protein is imported and, in the case of soya, is produced at huge expense to the environment. At Arborea, we believe UK food manufacturers should have access to nutritious alternative proteins, locally produced, with the properties they need to deliver the products consumers want.

Spirulina is a highly nutritious microalgae, high in soluble protein, which offers a solution to this challenge. However, current processing techniques result in an extract with strong colour and flavour, requiring further expensive and only partially effective postprocessing. As such, despite its many advantages, microalgae have achieved limited success as a mass-market food ingredient.

In the PROSPER project, Arborea, a developer of cutting-edge bioprocesses, is collaborating with world-leading experts in food production, Campden BRI, to tackle this challenge. We have identified a novel pre-processing technique with the potential to eliminate flavour and colour issues. However, although this technique is well-established in other fields, limited research has been done into its use with microalgae. With support from Innovate UK/UKRI, we can capitalise on the promise of this rapid, low-cost technology for producing high purity soluble proteins. We will use this project to optimise the growth, pre-treatment and extraction processes to maximise yield and minimise cost.

Arborea has developed the world's first 'breathing' bioreactor -- the BioSolar Leaf -- which significantly reduces production costs of microalgae. Project success will add the remaining piece of the jigsaw to complete an end-to-end protein manufacturing solution suitable for use in the UK, delivering highly nutritious, low-cost and consumer acceptable soluble proteins with almost zero environmental impact.

By producing directly and licensing the technology, PROSPER will create a multi-million pound UK value chain, displace environmentally unsound protein imports and provide UK consumers with a high quality, nutritious and affordable home-grown alternative protein.