Honey without bees: Dutch food tech start-up develops vegan honey
27.6.2024
Translation: machine translated
Through fermentation with the help of enzymes, the Dutch company Fooditive imitates the stomach of bees - and in this way has created a vegan, bee-free honey.
For many thousands of years, honey has been a highly prized food. The liquid gold is still very popular today: an incredible 1.4 kilograms of honey is consumed per capita in Switzerland every year. An expensive pleasure with prices of CHF 60 per kilo, and much more depending on the quality. Vegans who take it seriously that no animals should be exploited for their food - including bees - are left behind.
The company Fooditive, based in Rotterdam, now wants to remedy the situation and has developed a bee-free honey. Over the past ten years, it has become increasingly difficult for honey bees (Apis mellifera) to collect honey due to the disappearance of pastures, the use of weedkillers and climate change. As a result, production has declined. The Dutch company Fooditive wants to take the pressure off beekeeping by offering an alternative produced in fermenters that imitates traditionally produced honey and works in the same way.
Vegan honey made from apple and peach scraps
The system mimics the metabolic processes in the stomach of a honey bee. The scientists first discovered an enzyme that is responsible for converting plant nutrients into a honey-like substance. Bacteria are used to produce this enzyme, which then converts sugar from apple and peach production waste into a honey-like product. The texture, flavour and viscosity come very close to honey. What is still missing are the health benefits of honey. The team is now trying to develop the next version by replicating the amino acids found in natural honey. They hope to launch it on the market in two years' time.
If this takes too long, but you don't want to eat real honey, maybe another honey alternative is for you.
The colour of vegan honey is unusual. The colour of honey produced by bees is influenced by the nectar of the plants. Fooditive keeps its fruity-tasting honey transparent as they plan to sell it as an ingredient to food companies. <p
Header image: Pixabay/Pexels
Science editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always outside - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.
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