Shiru, a trailblazing AI-Powered FoodTech company, has successfully commercialized its first food ingredient, OleoPro™, developed using its patented AI discovery system. The ingredient heralds a significant advancement in the creation of sustainable and health-conscious alternatives for traditional food products.
OleoPro™, a plant protein-based fat ingredient, was officially introduced to the market in June 2023. The unique ingredient, a product of Shiru’s advanced AI-Powered FoodTech, allows for a staggering 90% reduction in saturated fat in alternative protein food products, enhancing their overall technical performance and offering a satisfying, fatty mouthfeel that closely mimics animal fat. It also maintains its form at room temperature and browns when cooked, similar to traditional fat.
The company’s first commercial partner for OleoPro™ is Griffith Foods, a globally recognized food ingredient solutions provider. Griffith Foods was the first to generate revenue for OleoPro™, strengthening the collaboration between the two companies and underscoring the potential of Shiru’s AI-Powered FoodTech in developing best-in-class alternative protein products.
CEO and founder of Shiru, Dr. Jasmin Hume, highlighted the pivotal role AI plays in food innovation, stressing that Shiru’s AI-Powered FoodTech is revolutionizing the industry by streamlining the cost and time cycle associated with food innovation.
Established in 2019, Shiru began as a synthetic biology firm working in tandem with multinational ingredient manufacturers on research and development (R&D). Since its inception, the company has leveraged AI and machine learning to drive down molecule discovery costs and rapidly scale, swiftly identifying high-functionality, commercializable, and natural proteins for food from a vast database.
The integration of AI into synthetic biology by Shiru represents a significant leap forward in the field. This blending of biology with engineering, combined with AI, has the potential to induce sweeping changes across various industries, including medicine, agriculture, and energy, within the next few years.
Dr. Ranjani Varadan, Shiru’s Chief Scientific Officer, underscored the importance of AI as a key to making sustainable proteins both scalable and affordable. This development in AI-Powered FoodTech marks not just an important milestone for Shiru but also represents a potential paradigm shift for the alternative protein industry as a whole.
Image provided by Shiru
