MALMÖ, SWEDEN – AAK has invested in a company working on technology designed to produce fats and oils without the need for arable land. Green-On, a food technology startup based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has a concept based on “power-to-food” technology, which bypasses traditional agricultural production to create raw materials directly from carbon dioxide, renewable energy and water.
Green-On produces the same molecules as plants and cows but in a laboratory. The company makes customized saturated fat for use in products such as baked foods, cheese, ice cream, chocolate and shortening. Green-On also makes mono- and diglycerides that may be used as emulsifiers in food products.
Malmö-based AAK will provide expertise in fats and oils as well as its facilities to support Green-On. AAK’s partnership with Big Idea Ventures, initiated in March 2021, made the collaboration possible. Big Idea Ventures has a protein fund that focuses on plant-based and cell-based meat, seafood and dairy products as well as ingredients and technologies that facilitate growth in those categories.
“There are today, besides palm oil, very few plant-based oils with which we can create the functionality of solid, high-melting fats, which are used in, for example, plant-based meat, bakery and confectionary applications,” said Karsten Nielsen, chief technology officer at AAK. “This technology provides the exact part of the fat that is needed to create the functionalities of future food production and with a much lower environmental impact than any other known technology today, making it a perfect fit with AAK’s strategy.”
