Finnish Company Uses Microbes to Make Food from Air
Imagine growing food out of thin air.
It's probably impossible, but a Finnish company has done something close.
Solar Foods makes Solein, a yellow, protein-rich powder that's produced by feeding microbes carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen taken from the air.
The microbes are also fed small amounts of nutrients like iron and calcium. Solar Foods describes the method as similar to the way bacteria and yeast are used to make wine.
The company has been using Solein to make products such as snack bars and chocolate gelato, with Solein replacing the milk in gelato. The yellow powder was approved in Singapore in 2022, and it's there that small amounts of these products have been sold and tested.
But in April, Solar Foods opened a factory that can produce 160 metric tons of Solein a year.
As Solar Foods CEO and co-founder Pasi Vainikka said: "While we have been able to offer consumers a small taste, finding a Solein-based food in your local supermarket has not been possible. Soon it will be."
The company has entered into an agreement with Japan's Ajinomoto Group to develop and test more foods in Singapore, and Solar Foods is looking to get Solein approved in more markets, including the US and the European Union.
The Finnish company says growing Solein takes just 0.1% of the land and 1% of the water needed to produce a similar amount of protein from beef. And the powder can be produced anywhere — even in space — meaning we could produce much of the protein we need without using good land to raise animals to eat.
However, Vainikka doesn't see his powder replacing real meat and plants. Rather, as he told The Guardian in April, he sees them all coexisting to meet our food needs. Solein could be used to add protein to cheap foods, while most of our food would come from plants, with small farms producing high-quality meats.
