It smells and tastes like vanilla, but it’s not. And yet, the aromatic liquid that comes out of the test tube is completely natural. Its secret: the fermentation of yeast. In the Lesaffre R&D laboratory, in Marquette-lez-Lille (North), we love playing the sorcerer’s apprentice to shape the food of tomorrow. “We are in the process of starting the industrialization of this new vanilla flavor in the south of France. The product will not be available for individuals but intended for the food industry,” announces Christine M’Rini Puel, former doctor who became head of research at Lesaffre.
This company has been working on the fermentation process for 170 years. A world leader in yeast production, it was founded in these suburbs of Lille even before Louis Pasteur identified the role of yeast in fermentation. At the time, in the 1850s, it was simply a matter of producing gin and grain alcohol. The selection of yeasts, which would come later, would make the fortune of the Lesaffre family.
“An alternative to a chemical synthesis product”
Today, a third of the breads kneaded in the world are made with yeast manufactured by the northern giant. And the annual turnover will swell to 2.7 billion euros in 2022. But after having made a fortune in bread, the company is now banking on diversification into industrial biotechnologies, well-being and health and, of course, the food industry, as for this “new age” vanilla, “made in Lesaffre”. “This vanilla is a typical example of an alternative to a chemical synthesis product,” says Christine M’Rini Puel. Because for the French Yeast Trade Union Chamber (CSFL), the objective is to supplant products from petrochemicals through the “Ferment of the future” operation. A program financed by the State to the tune of 48 million euros.
“France is the world leader in the yeast sector. It is about developing research to find new useful food applications,” insists Diane Doré, general secretary of the CSFL. Are biofertilizers, biofungicides, resins, biofuels, probiotics and even postbiotics from yeast fermentation products of the future? Especially since this fermentation phenomenon is almost infinite.
Microscopic fungi with superpowers
One thing is certain, yeasts are magical microorganisms, microscopic fungi with superpowers. “In their function and in their genetics, they probably contain everything that is at the origin of life on earth,” underlines Christine M’Rini Puel. And Lesaffre has a collection of 10,000 strains. A hidden treasure that the company carefully keeps safe from curiosity.
But this treasure is set to multiply in the years to come. “Five years ago, we could study 10,000 strains of yeast and bacteria per year, today, with the modern technology of our biofoundry, we can study 100,000 per day. This shows a change in scale for research,” says the R&D manager.
According to Antoine Baule, vice-president of the “Ferment of the Future” division, “new technologies make it possible to decode the yeast genome in one day, whereas in the 1990s, it took ten years for a single genome”. Dizzying progress which will perhaps make it possible to identify new micro-organisms capable, thanks to natural fermentation techniques, of “accelerating the agricultural and food revolution”.