Food tech company Shiru is demonstrating the commercial viability of its AI-based ingredient discover platform, Flourish, with two of its ingredients, as the company explores ways to leverage its licensing model to work around supply chain complications.
Launched in 2019, Shiru is producing samples of its potato protein uPro and its fat alternative OleoPro to global consumers with the help of a co-manufacturer, Jasmin Hume, CEO and founder of Shiru, explained.
Shiru developed these ingredients with its Flourish platform, which uses AI to “understand the languages of proteins” by identifying “amino acid sequences that make up proteins and connect them with their functional attribute,” Hume previously stated.
“We have taken an ingredient from inception to lab to pilot to now commercial scale. So that is hugely validating for our technology and for the know-how of our team that we have this under our belt at this point,” Hume explained.
Can food tech solve supply chain issues?
The Trump administration’s trade war with most of the world is complicating supply chains and making food and beverage companies rethink where and how they source raw materials.
Food tech can capitalize on this volatility and show the food and beverage industry an agile way to source ingredients, Hume explained.
“It is moments like this where you are under a bit of a pressure cooker to find new ways of working,” Hume emphasized.
Shiru’s asset-light approach to manufacturing and its licensing model opens up opportunities to manufacture its ingredients outside the US, providing a way to work around tariffs and supply chain bottlenecks, Hume explained.
“With OleoPro, we are initially producing in the United States, but there is really no reason why we would not be able to license the technology in Asia, in Europe, in Latin America, in other geographies where they do not need to be importing this,” Hume said.
Shiru’s next step: Sweetener partnerships
Three months ago, Shiru solicited food and beverage companies to submit proposals to collaborate with them on finding novel sweet proteins.
The food-tech company received numerous responses from their “Request for Partners” campaign and is “now negotiating several contracts with global CPG companies” that operate in the beverage, bakery, dairy and confection markets and do not directly compete with one another, Hume said.
Through these partnerships, Shiru will gather feedback on how its ingredients work in applications while not having to hire a product application specialist or build a manufacturing facility, Hume explained.
“What we want to do is basically leverage their internal expertise, and in exchange, they get an ingredient that is not just like whatever is on the shelf, but it actually is very tailored to performance in their specific application. So, it is really value accretive from both sides,” she elaborated.
Future Food-Tech highlights AI applications in food and beverage
The Future Food-Tech Chicago event will feature discussions on AI's use in the food and beverage industry, including with a session titled "Discovery & Prediction: AI Applications Enhancing Product Development" on the first day of the event. Learn more about the event and register here.