From microbes to market: Protecting innovation in precision fermentation

Fermentation has always been at the heart of food and drink production, evolving from ancient techniques to modern marvels. Open your fridge, and you’re likely to find yogurt, kimchi, miso, or kombucha - products teeming with microbiological life, offering distinctive flavours, textures, and nutritional benefits.
The food industry continuously innovates around fermentation. These innovations typically fall into three categories:

1. Developing foods with new, beneficial probiotic species.

2. Using microorganisms’ rapid growth and protein content to produce foods from microbial biomass (e.g., Quorn’s use of filamentous fungi).

3. Engineering microorganisms to produce specific ingredients at scale - known as precision fermentation.

Here, we discuss precision fermentation, its transformative role in the food and drink industry, and how innovations in this field can be protected with patents in the UK and Europe.

What is precision fermentation?

Precision fermentation is biotechnology at its finest. By programming microorganisms like yeast or bacteria with custom genetic instructions, companies can create compounds identical to those in traditional animal or plant products - but with a smaller environmental footprint.

This technique is particularly transformative for making sustainable alternatives to dairy proteins, meat flavours, and sweeteners. Microbial cells are engineered to produce target compounds through carefully designed metabolic pathways. Fermentation tanks act as “biological factories,” churning out these compounds, which are then purified and incorporated into food or drink products.
 

Key examples of precision fermentation in action

Sweegen and Conagen: Together, they developed sweeteners like Bestevia® using Reb M, a compound sweeter than sugar and lacking unwanted aftertaste, produced via precision fermentation.
Impossible Foods: They use precision fermentation to produce heme, a molecule vital for the flavour and aroma of their plant-based meat. By inserting the gene for soy-derived leghemoglobin into yeast, they produce heme at scale.
Perfect Day : This trailblazer uses precision fermentation to produce whey protein for animal-free dairy products, including milk, cheese, and yogurt. Perfect Day’s whey is molecularly identical to that from cows, but without lactose, hormones, or pesticides.
Those Vegan Cowboys: This company based in the Netherlands and Belgium are taking an alternative precision fermentation-based approach to producing cow-free cheese, by producing the dairy protein casein – a major contributor to animal cheese’s characteristic flavour and texture.
 

Patents for precision fermentation – what can they protect?

In Europe and the UK, patents are crucial for protecting groundbreaking technologies in precision fermentation. Inventions in this field are subject to the same standard assessment as other biotechnological inventions; subject matter must be novel (new) and inventive (non-obvious) to the notional skilled person in the art, and must be industrially applicable (have a practical use). Further, although the EPO and UKIPO place certain restrictions around the patentability of biological processes and genetic modifications in plants and animals, microbiological processes are free from any such patentability restrictions. 

Several key aspects of precision fermentation can be protected by patents:

1. Genetic Constructs, Enzymes, and Modified Microorganisms

Unique genetic constructs engineered for precision fermentation can be patented. For example:

• Genes coding for enzymes that boost the conversion of substrates into target compounds.

• Modified enzymes that improve efficiency, functionality, or stability in industrial processes.

Microorganisms genetically altered to include these constructs are also eligible for patent protection, provided they are novel and inventive.

2. Metabolic Pathways

Novel metabolic pathways designed for producing compounds of interest are also patentable. This will usually take the form of claims to methods of producing the product of interest, comprising the use of enzymes that make up the pathway or the genes encoding them. Demonstrating improved product yield, reduced waste, increased substrate utilization or increased energy efficiency can help to establish an inventive step.

3. Fermentation Process Innovations

Fermentation technologies, including apparatus designs and process controls, are also eligible for patent protection. For example, a new gas transfer system for aerobic microbes or an optimized tank design could qualify as a patentable innovation.

4. End Products

Final products from precision fermentation can also be patented if they are unique. That is, if they differ structurally from any naturally occurring products and are otherwise novel over any other previously disclosed non-natural products. For instance:

• A protein with a novel structural modification that enhances stability during food processing.

• Compounds with improved flavour or functional properties compared with natural counterparts.

5. Uses in Food and Drink

The specific use of precision fermentation products in foods and beverages offers another possibility for patent protection. If a particular compound or protein has a novel application, such as in plant-based milk formulations to enhance frothing properties or as a flavour enhancer in beverages, these uses may qualify for protection.
 

Patent tips and outlook

The use of precision fermentation in the food and drink industry represents a groundbreaking shift towards sustainable, animal-free production of essential compounds. Patent protection plays a crucial role in enabling companies to maximise the commercial value of their innovations, which in turn can fuel further advancements. This is especially important considering the number of different aspects of precision fermentation technology which can be the subject of patent protection. Covering as many different aspects of the precision fermentation technology and pipeline as possible can prove extremely valuable for companies looking to stop competitors, broaden cross licensing opportunities and/or reassure investors.

Due to the fast-moving nature of this field, it is crucial to file patent applications as early as possible, to avoid anticipating disclosures from competitors. Further, patent applications should be drafted carefully with the criteria of inventive step in mind. Where possible, multiple technical advantages of the claimed technology should be detailed, preferably showing improvements over existing technologies which are supported with robust data.