ICL, a leading global specialty minerals company, announced ICL Food Specialties has joined forces with Protera Biosciences, an AI-driven foodtech start-up and designer of novel proteins, which are used to develop sustainable, highly functional protein-based ingredients for food manufacturers. The partnership follows ICL’s 2021 investment in Protera via ICL Planet Startup Hub, which is the vehicle ICL uses to invest in and collaborate with innovative companies in foodtech and agritech on a global basis.

Through this partnership, ICL and Protera will develop and commercialize sustainable protein-based ingredients using precision fermentation. These clean-label ingredients shall address current market demands and offer a replacement for chemical additives or less appealing ingredients. They shall also improve the sensory properties in plant-based food applications, while positively impacting the world’s food security challenges.

Protera is creating impact through Madi, a deep-learning platform, which can predict and match the structure and functionality of vegetable proteins. It designs proteins from a database of more than 1.5 billion edible protein sequences and applies precise fermentation parameters for producing them. The results address consumer demand for a short list of simple ingredients on food labels.

The new platform also enables the discovery of untapped plant-based proteins with high performance. These new ingredients can replace texturizers, stabilizers, preservatives and more, all based on plant proteins. The streamlining of plant protein development and production makes replacement of animal proteins much easier, thereby helping to further reduce pollutants such as methane and carbon dioxide.