Partnerships in the food sector rarely make waves in the news, but the recent one between Vow and Nourish Ingredients – two start-ups based in Australia - is an exception.

Vow’s focus is on cultivated meat of exotic animals, such as buffalo, crocodile, and kangaroo. Last year, it held a tasting event, where Australian chef Neil Perry created a cultivated meat menu that included kangaroo dumplings, alpaca chilli tamara and a goat cheeseburger slider, as well as rabbit, lamb and pork.

Nourish uses fermentation to produce fat for all types of alternative protein products, including plant-based meat and dairy.

With this partnership, the two companies joined forces - and technologies - to produce a superior type of meat: tasty, sustainable and healthier.

Fat is a well-known problem in alternative meats. While you simply cannot do without it, plant-based fats are not always the best choice. On the market, there are plenty of options from avocado, soybeans, sunflower seeds, canola, olives, oil palm, coconut tree, etc. Some of these fats are healthier than others, but all of them lack the particular meaty taste consumers love in meat. What's more, they often proceed from non-sustainable sources.

Cultivated meat companies have the choice of growing fat cells together with muscle cells, but this may complicate the process further. Using an alternative source of fat is therefore the best approach.

As a start-up specialised in this ingredient, Nourish is in the best position to fine-tune the development process and create superior types of fats that mimic those from animals, without the unhealthy bits, such as cholesterol and Omega

The reason why this partnership is big news is that it's the first one between a B2C cultivated meat and a B2B fermented fat company. It might be the prelude of the alternative protein industry taking a more decisive turn towards not only hybrid products, but also hybrid partnerships, where full-stack cultivated meat companies outsource part of the process to specialists. 

To learn more about Nourish Ingredients: nourishing.io

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