Bioprocessing partnership for future of food and feed

Driving precision fermentation and cellular agriculture

Uzwil (Switzerland), Leobendorf (Austria) June 28, 2022 – Swiss Bühler Group today announces the formation of a new joint venture with Austrian pharmaceutical and biotechnology company ZETA. The new company, Eridia, will engineer food and feed biotechnology plants primarily in the fields of precision fermentation and cellular agriculture. ZETA brings extensive experience in scaling pilot scale to industrial bio pharma. Bühler is a market leader in providing technology and processing expertise for the food and feed industry and is focused on creating more sustainable value chains for its customers worldwide. Eridia, headquartered in Leobendorf, Austria, is a 50/50 joint venture that will develop solutions to meet the rising global demand for food and feed while reducing the impact on the environment.

“Harnessing bioprocessing for the food and feed industry is not new, but it needs to be applied at scale. Technologies such as precision fermentation and cellular agriculture offer the potential to drastically reduce the land and CO2e footprints of food and feed production. This is a potential pathway to produce food and feed for a growing world population whilst respecting the limits of the planet. We want to accelerate the development of this market and better serve our customers. ZETA is a fantastic partner with which to achieve this,” says Ian Roberts, Chief Technology Officer, Bühler. 

The 50/50 joint venture, Eridia will enable Bühler and ZETA to contribute further to the field of precision fermentation as well as to the newer field of cellular agriculture. 

Precision fermentation uses microorganisms as cell factories to efficiently produce valuable nutrients and functional ingredients such as proteins, omega-3 rich oils, or natural pigments. Developed further, it can also be used to recreate animal products such as meat or fish. This new field of cellular agriculture can help alleviate the pressure on ecosystems by reducing the impact of food and feed production on arable land, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions. With cellular agriculture, meat products can be cultivated that are identical in structure and taste to the animal counterpart without raising animals. 

Biotech expertise and experience at scaling

ZETA brings experience in biopharma process engineering, having been the selected supplier for major biotech projects globally. With 1,200 highly qualified employees and 22 subsidiaries worldwide, it specializes in planning, automation, digitization, and qualification of customized biopharmaceutical facilities for aseptic process solutions. ZETA supports the scale-up of fermentation processes from laboratory to industrial production and will apply this expertise to the field of cell culture fermentation for the food industry.

Bühler holds a leading position in the global food and feed industry, contributing to feeding over 2 billion people every day. Bühler brings expertise in processing technologies, a deep knowledge of the cost competitive food and feed markets, and global access to those markets. Bühler is exploring new applications and technology developments in these fields, in line with its target to have solutions ready to multiply that reduce by 50% the energy, waste, and water in its customers’ value chains by 2025.

The new company will have its headquarters in Leobendorf, Austria, but also leverage the Bühler innovation campus in Uzwil, Switzerland. Erika Georget, Head of Bioprocessing at Bühler, and Claudia Neuhold, Business Development Food and Biotech at ZETA, will join the managing team of Eridia.

“We are very excited about the joint venture with Bühler. We see this as an opportunity to bring our expertise in biotechnology to bear in order to provide more sustainable pathways for food and feed production at a global scale,” says Andreas Marchler, Managing Director of ZETA.

“Bühler is simply the right partner for us. We bring our competence and leverage this with Bühler’s market access in order to grow in this exciting segment,” says Claudia Neuhold, Business Development Food and Biotech at ZETA. 

“This is a great opportunity to support our customers in their next steps in developing production for the food and feed system. We see that the existing fermentation space for food is already developing further, and cultured foods are progressing well. Eridia allows us to play a key role in the development of these new food and feed businesses,” says Erika Georget, Head of Bioprocessing at Bühler.

Media contacts:

Burkhard Böndel, Head of Corporate Communications
Bühler AG, 9240 Uzwil, Switzerland
Phone: +41 71 955 33 99
Mobile: +41 79 515 91 57
E-mail: [email protected]

Dalen Jacomino Panto, Media Relations Manager
Bühler AG, 9240 Uzwil, Switzerland
Phone: +41 71 955 37 57
Mobile: +41 79 900 53 88
E-mail: [email protected]

Andreas Pompenig, Teamleader PR & Communication 
ZETA GmbH, 8501 Lieboch, Austria 
Phone: +43 664 808 52 1424 
E-mail: [email protected]

Trade media contact:

Tracey Ibbotson, PR Executive
Bühler UK Limited, London, England
Phone: +44 (0) 1992 537 421
E-mail: [email protected]

About ZETA 
The ZETA Group, with 1200 highly qualified employees and 22 subsidiaries worldwide, specializes in planning, construction, automation, digitization and qualification of customized biopharmaceutical facilities for aseptic process solutions. In addition, ZETA has extensive experience in aseptic process control and process engineering for the food industry (e.g., in the field of cell culture fermentation). ZETA acts as a one-stop shop, combining plant engineering with HVAC and cleanroom design.
ZETA is an industry-experienced partner who can support in the scale-up of fermentation processes in a variety of ways - from laboratory to industrial production. The best prerequisites for developing customized and promising solutions together with the customer. Through its Smart Engineering Services, ZETA creates digital twins of process plants and has thus established itself as a market leader for digital solutions in the pharmaceutical, biotech and food industry.
ZETA is also actively taking steps towards a more sustainable future for the industry as a whole: through ZETA's decarbonization strategies, emissions are specifically reduced during the biopharmaceutical manufacturing process. 

www.zeta.com  
 

About Bühler
Bühler is driven by its purpose of creating innovations for a better world, balancing the needs of economy, humanity, and nature. As a relevant solution partner for the food and mobility industries, Bühler is committed to have solutions ready to multiply by 2025 at the latest that will reduce energy, waste, and water by 50% in its customers’ value chains. Billions of people come into contact with Bühler technologies as they cover their basic needs for food and mobility every day. Two billion people each day enjoy foods produced on Bühler equipment; and one billion people travel in vehicles manufactured using parts produced with Bühler technology. Countless people wear eyeglasses, use smart phones, and read newspapers and magazines – all of which depend on Bühler process technologies and solutions. Having this global relevance, Bühler is in a unique position to turn today’s global challenges into sustainable business. Bühler contributes to safely feeding the world and is doing its part to protect the climate, producing solutions that make cars, buildings, and machinery more energy efficient.

Bühler invests up to 5% of turnover into research and development. In 2021, some 12,500 employees generated a turnover of CHF 2.7 billion. As a Swiss family-owned company, Bühler is active in 140 countries around the world and operates a global network of 103 service stations, 30 manufacturing sites, and Application & Training Centers in 24 countries.
 

www.buhlergroup.com