IN Brief:
- Ayana Bio and Brevel have secured $1.25m to develop plant-cell bioactive ingredients through illuminated fermentation.
- The project combines controlled plant cell cultivation with fermentation infrastructure that integrates light.
- The partnership targets more consistent botanical ingredient production outside conventional agricultural supply chains.
Ayana Bio and Israeli fermentation specialist Brevel have secured $1.25m in BIRD Foundation funding to develop plant-based bioactive ingredients using plant cell cultivation and illuminated fermentation.
The partnership brings together Ayana Bio’s plant cell cultivation and synthetic biology platform with Brevel’s fermentation infrastructure, which integrates light into the production process. The companies will use the funding to test whether the combined approach can improve the growth and productivity of plant cell culture systems used to produce high-value botanical compounds.
Ayana Bio grows plant materials through controlled cell cultivation rather than field agriculture. Its work includes plant cell lines linked to botanical compounds such as sage-derived rosmarinic acid, saffron-derived crocins, and marigold-derived carotenoids including zeaxanthin and lutein. Brevel has developed illuminated fermentation technology originally focused on photosynthetic organisms and microalgae, with the platform scaled into larger production volumes.
Botanical ingredient supply remains exposed to crop volatility, regional growing limits, climate pressure, contamination risk, adulteration, and variation in active-compound levels. Controlled indoor production gives manufacturers a potential route to ingredients with tighter specifications, more predictable availability, and reduced dependence on seasonal harvests.
The project sits within a wider shift in food ingredients toward biomanufacturing and controlled production systems. Fermentation-derived proteins, enzymes, cultivated fats, cell-culture ingredients, and bioactive compounds are all moving through industrial development, although each category faces a different technical and commercial path. The common thread is a search for ingredients that can be produced consistently, scaled reliably, and specified with greater precision.
Plant cell cultivation is suited to high-value compounds where conventional sourcing is constrained or inconsistent, but it is not a simple replacement for agriculture. The process requires bioreactor control, growth media optimisation, contamination management, downstream processing, energy assessment, and product-specific cost validation. Active levels, sensory impact, regulatory status, stability, and formulation performance still determine whether an ingredient can be used commercially.
Illuminated fermentation adds a further engineering layer. Light can influence biological productivity, but it also affects vessel design, energy use, heat management, light distribution, and scale-up economics. A process that performs well in laboratory or pilot equipment must remain efficient in larger production systems where energy, cleaning, maintenance, and uptime become central to the cost model.
New ingredient supply routes have been gathering attention across the sector, including the use of offshore wind infrastructure to open new routes for seaweed ingredient production. The Ayana Bio and Brevel project follows a different technological path, but it reflects the same movement away from single-source dependence and toward more diversified ingredient systems.
The commercial case is likely to be strongest where botanical compounds are expensive, supply-sensitive, or difficult to standardise through extraction alone. Food and beverage producers are under pressure to deliver functional and natural-positioned products while managing quality variation and supply disruption. Controlled production could reduce batch variation, improve traceability, and lower exposure to agricultural shocks.
Regulatory and consumer acceptance will also shape adoption. Plant cell culture can support nature-derived positioning, but manufacturers will still need clear documentation around production methods, processing aids, residual materials, safety, and labelling. Ingredient suppliers that can combine technical performance with regulatory clarity will have an advantage as more advanced production systems move toward commercial use.
The next phase will test whether the combined platform can deliver yields and economics strong enough to compete with existing botanical sourcing and extraction routes. If it succeeds, plant-derived bioactives may become one of the more practical applications for advanced fermentation in food ingredients, particularly where the target compounds carry high value and conventional supply is inconsistent.
