Inside the Fermentation Spectrum

Buzzwords often catch fire quickly, causing them to become mainstream. Society has had a wave of them before.

When it comes to ingredient supply chains, another popular word within the nutraceuticals industry is “fermentation,” including its ability (or lack thereof) to simplify the traditional agriculture process altogether by eliminating its use.

It’s important to clarify that fermentation is a general term encompassing a wide spectrum of production methods, from food preservation to engineered microbial hosts that produce a single, defined molecule. As a natural process, fermentation carries a largely positive connotation, but more advanced technologies, such as precision fermentation, lie at the far end of the spectrum, combining modern science, such as genetic modification, with fermentation. Understanding the nuances within the fermentation spectrum is important when choosing ingredients for a finished product.

Where Precision Fermentation Fits in the Ingredient Tool Kit

At its narrowest and most technically accurate, published literature mentions that the true meaning behind precision fermentation revolves around engineering a host organism, typically yeast, to function as a factory for 1 molecule.¹

This aligns with how the process is defined in the food science space, which characterizes precision fermentation as the genetic modification of microorganisms to yield a single, targeted compound, rather than the mixed biological output associated with conventional fermentation.

"Precision fermentation means engineering a host organism to produce 1 specific, defined molecule, where the value is the purity and consistency of that single output," said Etan Bendheim, CEO and cofounder of Liberation Bioindustries, a contract manufacturer that builds commercial-scale production capacity for the category. "That's fundamentally different from biomass fermentation, where the product is the cells themselves or a crude, mixed output."

That difference outlined by Bendheim is relevant because of what precision fermentation is able to access. According to Amélie Decherf, global head of research and development at Gnosis by Lesaffre, fermentation is "the only viable technology" for complex biological molecules, such as proteins, natural polymers, and large molecules, where a microorganism's specificity can't be replicated through plant extraction or chemistry alone.

Gnosis points to its own MyCondro, a nonanimal chondroitin sulfate, and Adonat Premium SAMe as examples of ingredients that this process makes possible. Both illustrate the fact that chondroitin sulfate has traditionally been extracted from bovine, porcine, or shark cartilage, a supply chain carrying contamination risk, and batch-to-batch inconsistency tied to natural variation between animals.

The company’s fermentation-derived version instead uses a bacterial strain engineered to produce a chondroitin-like polysaccharide, yielding a more homogeneous, allergen- and pathogen-free molecule that Gnosis says performs effectively at roughly half the typical dose. SAMe, meanwhile, is inherently unstable and difficult to produce at scale through conventional chemical synthesis, making it a molecule for which a controlled fermentation process offers a more practical manufacturing route than extraction or synthesis alternatives.

For smaller molecules, Decherf noted, more conventional technologies often remain competitive on cost despite advances in fermentation efficiency. It’s all related to complexity. Large molecules like proteins require multistep biosynthetic pathways that are difficult to replicate chemically, which is where fermentation's cost premium pays off. On the other hand, smaller, simpler molecules can often be synthesized or extracted in fewer steps, so fermentation's added infrastructure doesn't always translate into an advantage.

Fungi and Fermentation

Precision fermentation is not the only novel form of fermentation available to manufacturers. Fungi-derived ingredients offer an interesting case study into the possibilities of fermentation. At their core, fungi are grown via fermentation. While mycelium is typically grown on a substrate such as wood or grain, companies can now grow it using a liquid fermentation process. 

MycoTechnology, for example, selectively employs different forms of fermentation. Its Zukora Honey Truffle Sweet Protein, a naturally derived high-intensity sweetener, is produced via engineered yeast (Komagataella phaffii) targeting a single molecule (ie, precision fermentation). According to Sue Potter, PhD, the company's vice president of global regulatory affairs and quality management, the ingredient follows a structured generally recognized as safe (GRAS) approach backed by robust safety, manufacturing, and exposure data.

However, most of the food tech supplier’s platform, including its ClearIQ flavor modifier, is powered by mycelium-based biomass fermentation instead. Rather than engineering a host to excrete 1 target molecule, biomass fermentation cultivates the fungal cells themselves, with mycelium as the end product. More specifically, mycelial strains are cultured in a liquid medium, with environmental conditions continuously adjusted to optimize the fermentation process and achieve the ideal end product. The harvested cell mass is the ingredient, not a compound purified out of it.²

Ranjan Patnaik, PhD, MycoTechnology’s chief technology officer, said the company deliberately avoids drawing sharp definitional lines in how it talks about that work. Citing a 2025 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations systematic review³ that catalogued dozens of competing precision fermentation definitions, he described how MycoTechnology prefers to focus on the positive food and beverage outcomes for consumers over "being dictionary authors," pointing to consumer research describing the process as being "like brewing beer, but instead of alcohol, you get tailored ingredients that are the same as those found in nature.”

Recently, Nammex introduced a freeze-dried Lion’s Mane mycelium powder cultivated through a proprietary submerged liquid fermentation process, which is then precision freeze-dried post harvest. The ingredient is manufactured through an exclusive partnership with Novelara and produced by Grape King Bio. The ingredient is positioned as an alternative to mycelium ingredients grown on grain substrates, which Nammex argues ultimately becomes incorporated into the finished product. The ingredient, called ErinaPrime, is standardized to 1% erinacine A, and, compared to the average Lion’s Mane sample, tested 90 times higher in erinacine A content. 

This kind of technology illustrates the potential efficiencies of biomass fermentation and precision fermentation. MycoTechnology, for example, scaled through an asset-light model, partnering with CDMOs and equipment manufacturers as opposed to building in-house capacity, an approach Patnaik said has become more viable as the fermentation ecosystem has matured. 

The Resource Story Is Real, but Uneven

The sustainability angle around fermentation of less land use, less agricultural dependency, and more resilient supply chains, shows up in myriad conversations about the category's future. How much of that holds up is dependent on which end of the fermentation spectrum is being discussed.

Patnaik is bullish, describing mycelium fermentation as enabling "meaningful decentralization of supply chains while significantly reducing dependence on traditional agricultural inputs such as land, water, and fertilizers," with adoption pace gated mainly by regulatory clarity rather than production capacity.

Bendheim is more skeptical, at least on the timeline. "The industry has been overindexed on R&D and underindexed on steel in the ground," he said, pointing out that fermenter volume alone doesn't make an ingredient salable if the downstream finishing capacity, particularly spray drying, doesn't scale alongside it.

For Nammex, fermentation represents an opportunity to bring novel ingredients to market without disengaging from agriculturally sourced fungi that are the core of its business.

Closing Thoughts

Fermentation's promise for the ingredient industry is honest. This includes access to molecules that may be difficult or impossible to source conventionally, along with the potential for more resilient, less agriculture-dependent supply chains. That promise looks different depending on which fermentation process is actually behind a given ingredient.

Precision fermentation trades an entire agricultural supply chain for a bioreactor, but that benefit is gated by finishing infrastructure rather than research. Mycelium-based biomass fermentation sacrifices some of that efficiency for scaling flexibility. And for mushroom cultivation, the agricultural dependency hasn't disappeared; it's moved upstream into years of cultivar development. Each process solves a different part of the resource equation, not all of it.

References

1. Rice D, Singh R, Priya H, Valerozo J, Anal AK. Transforming plant-based alternatives by harnessing precision fermentation for next-generation ingredients. J Sci Food Agric. 2025;105(15):6296-6305. doi:10.1002/jsfa.14168

2. Finnigan TJA, Wall BT, Wilde PJ, Stephens FB, Taylor SL, Freedman MR. Mycoprotein: the future of nutritious nonmeat protein, a symposium review. Curr Dev Nutr. 2019;3(6):nzz021. doi:10.1093/cdn/nzz021

3. Sturme M, van der Berg JP, Kleter G. Precision Fermentation With a Focus on Food Safety. Food and Agriculture Organization; 2025. doi:10.4060/cd4448en