Plant Based Foods
The world’s population is growing rapidly as we were recently informed that the 8th billionth person was born. By 2050 the world’s population is expected to reach 9.7 billion people. How are we going to feed all these people healthy and nutritious food? Yonatan Golan, the CEO and co-founder of Brevel, has a great solution for feeding the world and saving it at the same time. Brevel has developed a protein from microalgae which is tasty, sustainable, and affordable and will become a major part of our food industry in the near future.
Gary Drenik: Let’s start with the basics: why can’t we just keep eating beef, chicken, and eggs for the rest of eternity?
Yonatan Golan: As you mentioned, the world’s population is growing. Theoretically, in order to feed all of those people we would need to double the size of our planet to support humanity’s demands. But we only have one earth, and we need to make what we have on this earth count. The vast majority of crops grown today are actually used to feed farm animals and the food industry as a whole accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. So even if we put the question of animal welfare and moral issues aside, the continued reliance on animals for our nutrition is simply not an option.
To put this into numbers, in order to produce 1 ton of protein from beef, you need the equivalent of 230 football fields vs 5 football fields for a ton of soy protein. For comparison, a ton of microalgae protein would require only a fraction of that at less than one basketball court. There is no question about it - microalgae are by far the most sustainable source of protein on this planet and this is exactly Brevel’s mission.
However, this huge potential is not yet realized due to two main barriers - taste and cost of microalgae today - both of which we are solving with our unique technology.
Drenik: Where did you get the idea to use microalgae as a source of protein?
Golan: I founded Brevel together with my two brothers, Matan, an MD who brings the health angle to our table and Ido who is an engineer who has a vast background in microalgae and invented a new way of producing microalgae efficiently and at a very high quality. Ido worked as chief engineer at a leading microalgae company in Israel where he improved and scaled up the existing growing methods, but understood that by incremental improvements, the glass ceiling won’t be broken, and the huge potential won’t become a reality. He had a brilliant idea on how to re-invent the growing process: Today, microalgae are produced either by photosynthesis in outdoor (or indoor) ponds or closed reactors which are very labor intensive, suffer from contaminations and produce at low yields and high costs. The alternative is to use fermentation tanks where sugar is added to the process and then the microalgae grow at significantly lower costs and higher yields. However, this is done today in the dark and in the absence of light many of the nutrients, functionalities and benefits of microalgae are lost in the process.
Brevel is the first company globally who has been able to combine sugar-based fermentation and light in a single process. We have been able to produce affordable microalgae at very high yields which are rich with all of the functionalities, ingredients and nutrients that are only produced in the presence of light.
Matan trained as a surgeon, spending many days at the hospital treating unhealthy patients. He felt that he wanted to help people live a more healthy and nutritious life before they get to the point of needing a doctor. Today, vegan foods have very low amounts of protein. Hence, it is quite hard for vegans to maintain a healthy lifestyle if they consume plant-based products.
I, on the other hand, am a vegan physicist. I am very pragmatic with my will to feed the growing population worldwide, which is expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. My kids are vegan as well and I want them to be able to eat healthy and have many choices on their table every day. According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, 19% of all respondents said they are buying more plant-based products, food, or meals for the sake of their health. We owe it to them to give them healthier choices.
Prosper - Buying More Meatless Products
Drenik: I have been hearing of many plant-based proteins over the last years. Why should consumers prefer microalgae as opposed to pea or chickpea?
Golan: The current alternative protein market has many problems when it comes to cost, flavor, functionality, quality, and sustainability. Microalgae are the ultimate source of protein in terms of sustainability, but unfortunately the existing options for microalgae as an alternative protein have very high costs and flavor barriers. Brevel’s solution for microalgae-based protein has managed to solve these challenges.
Brevel's protein has a very mild flavor and color which makes it very suitable for food applications where flavor masking is not an option - mostly plant-based dairy and egg alternatives. These food applications don't have suitable solutions today at affordable costs. The leading protein sources (soy and pea) have very strong flavors, are allergenic and suffer from negative market perception and thus cannot be good solutions
Drenik: How do you envision the plant-based market developing in the next few years?
Golan: I am actually excited to say that I see around us so many inspiring and dedicated entrepreneurs and companies working hard to solve these enormous challenges ahead of us. I believe that the food industry will be transformed during the next decade with completely new sources of protein, fat, fibers, and other nutrients which will be much more sustainable and healthier, while also being tasty and provide excellent textures and sensory properties to our food. I also believe that the food industry will shift to advanced indoor production of microorganisms such as yeast, mycelium, microalgae, and others instead of animals of course, but also instead of soy, pea and other plant-based sources which are used today. We simply have no other option if we want to continue living on this little planet we have.
Drenik: Thanks Yonatan, for your insights on the plant-based industry and where it is going.
