An ever increasing awareness of climate change and the need to modify our behaviour to address it, is leading to a huge demand for more sustainable food sources. A wide range of innovative approaches are being developed to address this demand and are predicted to change the face of food and agriculture over the next decade. Programming microorganisms to produce complex molecules, known as precision fermentation, is being applied to many food sources including dairy and egg proteins, sweeteners, gelatin, vitamins, and many more. Other novel protein sources such as lupin, algae, mycoprotein and insects are receiving significant attention and there is also a focus on lab-cultured meat. Running alongside these approaches is the development of techniques to achieve a meat-like texture for these protein sources including 3D printing, shear cell technology and extrusion.
Our patent attorney team has a particular interest in this area of technology both from a scientific perspective and also in its role addressing climate change. We have a long history of working with biotechnology companies involving the full spectrum of molecular biology techniques including genetic engineering, cell culture and fermentation technologies. What also sets us apart from other patent attorney practices is that we work alongside food regulatory experts and so we are able to provide companies entering and operating in this sector with a complete package of legal advice.
For start-up companies in this industry, we invite you to apply for our Life Science equIP programme, which provides a range of benefits to assist companies in scaling-up.
