Solein

 
 
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POSTED: May 8, 2024
 
 
 
 
 

Bryan Alexander sent me a note yesterday asking if I had heard of Solein, the new Finnish protein made out of air. I had indeed.

I had bookmarked three articles over the last three years but never got around to posting any of them. Byran nudged me and so here they come, neatly bundled together into a healthy info stew.

In April 2021 the website Food Ingredients 1st published an article saying that

Finnish food tech company Solar Foods is accelerating the production of alternative protein made from air and electricity, edging closer to bringing its pioneering climate-friendly Solein to the plate. This comes after receiving €10 million (US$11.9 million) in funding from The Finnish Climate Fund.

In an exclusive interview with FoodIngredientsFirst, CEO Dr. Pasi Vainikka talks about reaching €35 million (US$41.6 million) in total financing, the development of the company’s demonstration center.

The article goes onto say that

Funding Solar Foods was the first investment by The Finnish Climate Fund and helps to keep the company on-track to “turn sci-fi into reality,” as the team produce nutritionally complete protein using carbon dioxide in the air and electricity as its primary raw materials.

The loan will be used to build the demonstrator facility, including the Solein Experience Hub and a future-food bar.

This provides an entirely new level of transparency in food production, notes Dr. Vainikka. This production facility, presently being designed, is scheduled to begin operations in early 2023.

“We are happy that we can soon put the Solein protein on the plates of consumers. Our first production facility will be located in Finland, and it will be the world’s first commercial facility to produce food by using carbon dioxide and electricity as its raw materials,” he continues.

A year or so later, in September 2022, Natasha Lomas wrote in TechCrunch, that “Nutritionally speaking, Solein resembles some existing foodstuffs — sitting between dried meat, dried carrot or dried soy in terms of the blend of vitamins, amino acids, proteins (overall, it’s 65% protein)”. She went on to describe the process in more detail.

Last year The Guardian caught up in an article by Jasper Jolly called Eating light: Finnish startup begins making food ‘from air and solar power’. Among other things it addresses the reactions of the meat lobby, and Vainikka’s response. He argues that

these fears are misplaced. He wants “coexistence of new and old”, with artisanal, high-quality farms remaining alongside cell farming that can deliver cheap, bulk foods. He argues it is “the opportunity of the century for the meat industry” to focus on quality rather than churning out as much cheap (and heavily subsidised) meat as possible. And plant agriculture will also remain, he argues.

“The future is not powder: the main body of food will still come through plants,” he says. The occasional “salami with the cultural heritage, that can remain. The meat in your lasagne during lunch will be done by cellular agriculture.”

Logical though this may appear, we live in a world in which the Meat Lobby has made huge efforts to ensure that Oatly cannot describe their main product as “oat milk” because “this might confuse consumers”.

If solein works, in that the factory can make it at scale at an affordable price, then stand by for The Labelling Wars to enter a new phase.