Cremer's FermBase Launches Yeast Trace Element Blend

German agrifood giant Cremer Group has launched a new standardized trace element blend for yeast fermentation. The product, called Y-Base Blend, is the first offering from the company's FermBase platform, which was introduced in February.

Gerlis von Haugwitz, product manager at Cremer, explained the product's purpose. "With our Y-Base Blend, we help yeast fermentation companies significantly simplify a complex and error-prone part of their processes," he said. The blend aims to replace the need for companies to source, store, and dose multiple individual salts separately.

Simplifying Fermentation Media

FermBase operates as a competence centre for fermentation media, serving the food, feed, cosmetics, and industrial sectors. The platform addresses sourcing and scaling challenges by connecting companies with carbon sources, nitrogen, minerals, and premixes. Cremer handles the supply chain complexities, allowing clients to focus on research and growth.

The development of Y-Base Blend began after discussions revealed a common industry hurdle. Many fermentation firms work with similar trace element requirements but formulate their solutions individually. This practice leads to higher costs and challenges in reproducibility and scaling.

From 50,000 Combinations to One Blend

The company's research involved analyzing over 50,000 possible trace element combinations. These were narrowed down to 3,300 experiments conducted with different yeast strains. The final Y-Base Blend was selected from nine high-performing formulations tested at a microlitre scale.

In early-access trials with partners, the blend performed comparably across various fermentation processes. It outperformed clients' own in-house blends in more than half of the cases. "The fact that our standardised blend often performed even better than individually developed in-house blends confirms our approach," von Haugwitz noted.

Built for Scalability from Lab to Factory

The product is designed for use from initial research through to mass production. For development, FermBase collaborated with Differential Bio, a spinoff from the Technical University of Munich, which specializes in automated fermentation experiments.

The Y-Base Blend is available in multiple volumes, all with an identical composition. This scalability is central to its design for biotech companies using yeast to produce functional ingredients.

Cremer is targeting companies producing ingredients for food, feed, cosmetics, and technical applications. The launch builds on the group's existing work in alternative nutrition, which includes a facility capable of producing 1,300 tonnes of alternative protein products annually.