Joint fermentation force sets out to create new solutions for a climate-friendly food system

Danish bioscience company, Chr. Hansen, partners with David Zilber, former Head of Fermentation at Noma, to democratise fermentation and create new solutions for a climate-friendly food system.

Given Chr. Hansen’s fermentation expertise and strong sustainability profile, there is an obvious match between the company and David Zilber to unite their fermentation forces. The idea is to deliver a fruitful mix of drive, scientific knowledge and purpose, and not the least contribute to a resilient and tasteful food system.

Fermentation is a technology that has been used for thousands of years. Yet even today, we have not explored its full potential in terms of addressing global challenges such as a sustainable food production, fighting food waste and climate change.

“At Noma, I felt like I had accomplished everything I had set out to and more. Also, the pandemic really made me think about the shape of the world from a new perspective. I wanted to take the values and tenets that I believe into the next level and scale them up to affect real change in the food system,” says David Zliber.

A common vision to create sustainable and healthy solutions

Chr. Hansen and David Zilber has a common mission, which they strive to accomplish. The mission is to create sustainable and healthy solutions. For this, there lies a great potential in the 40,000 microbial strains of Chr. Hansen.

Fermentation is according to David Zilber a hugely underexplored domain of life. “There’s so much richness within the natural world, so many organic molecules to be created. What flavors might people not have tasted? There’s so much work to do and to me, microbes figure as a keystone in those solutions and Chr. Hansen seems like the ideal partner. Fermentation is undergoing a democratization, and that’s something we both want to help accelerate.”

Pushing the boundaries of fermentation

Chr. Hansen is also excited about this collaboration between David Zilber and their scientists. “We are thrilled about welcoming David to Chr. Hansen. He has gained distinctive experience in the exciting world of fermentation, which is basically the biochemical breakdown of a substance by microbes, both preserving food and creating unique flavors, textures and enhanced nutrition,” says Laurent Hubert, vice president in FC&E, Head of Food & Beverages, Chr. Hansen.

Together, they seek to push the boundaries of fermentation and focus on delivering ground-breaking innovation with new tastes, experiences and crops. The aim is further to improve the sensory experiences of their customers and create fast-track prototypes production in fermented plant bases. Here, David Zliber will grow his ideas in his own fermentation kitchen to bring some unique solutions to the table for the benefit of the planet.

Source: Chr. Hansen