Industry & News

Dutch startup Greencovery closed a €1M round (with up to €3M more committed) from ROM InWest, Brightlands Venture Partners and a private investor to move its cocoa side-stream separation technology into commercial production at its Zaandam site. The mild, water- and energy-light process recovers a fiber ingredient, a soluble fiber and an extract from cocoa processing waste, and the company is targeting an initial 1,000-tonne capacity with a strategic manufacturing partner.

Angry Camel AB patented a milling pre-treatment that finally makes chickpeas compatible with supercritical-CO2 extraction — a solvent-free process already used for soy and rapeseed — opening a path to chickpea protein as a sustainable, allergen-friendly substitute for egg white and lecithin.

AlterBioTech patented a solid-state yeast fermentation method that converts unsold bread and pastries into two saleable products — a nutrient-rich animal feed additive and a carotenoid-rich antioxidant extract for cosmetics — turning a waste-disposal cost into a circular revenue stream.

Elopak's newly published patent details a multilayer PVOH-based barrier coating for paperboard cartons that preserves the moisture/gas protection milk and juice need while replacing hard-to-recycle layers — reinforcing cartons already claimed to cut plastic use ~85% versus plastic bottles.

Freshr Sustainable Technologies patented a naturally-derived, non-migrating antimicrobial microgel — the core of its FreshrPack™ line — designed to extend shelf life for fresh fish, meat, and poultry while remaining fully compostable, tackling food waste and plastic waste together.

Germany's DWI–Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien patented a fiber-spinning method — closer to textile yarn production than 3D bioprinting — that could finally let cultivated meat replicate the aligned muscle fiber and marbling of a real steak, not just ground-meat texture.

17-year-old Ayşe Umay Bahçıvan used leonardite — a lignite-derived soil conditioner known for its water-retention and moisture-absorption properties — to bring a 70-year-fallow, water-source-free plateau in Kahramanmaraş back into cultivation, growing 500 Malatya apricot trees to a 4-ton yield without irrigation. The project was turned into an academic paper with university research support and won first place nationally in Turkey's High School Students Climate Change Project Competition.