In the fast-evolving world of alternative proteins, Nosh.bio is making waves with its innovative approach to fermentation-based food solutions. Founded in 2021 by Felipe and Tim, the company was born out of a deep commitment to climate protection and a vision for a more sustainable food system. By harnessing the power of non-GMO fungi, Nosh.bio has developed highly functional and nutritious proteins that can revolutionize the food industry. Their unique fermentation process creates versatile ingredients that can replace meat, dairy, and other food products while maintaining exceptional taste, texture, and nutritional value. Recently, the company partnered with Zur Mühlen Group to launch “Koji Chunks,” the world’s first single-ingredient meat analog. In this interview, CEO Tim Fronzek discusses Nosh.bio’s journey, the science behind their technology, and how they are addressing consumer concerns about ultra-processed foods.
How did the Nosh project come to life, and how has it grown to this day?
Our story began in 2021 when Felipe and Tim crossed paths, united by a shared commitment to climate protection and a common set of values. After months of deep exploration into the alternative protein sector, they recognized the significant role the food industry plays in global greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock-based agricultural systems being a major contributor. This realization inspired them to found Nosh.bio, driven by a purpose rather than just a product. Their goal became clear: to create a more sustainable food system, offering nutritious, tasty, and affordable food for everyone. Since then, the company’s vision has remained steadfast—a world where food is no longer harmful to the planet, animals, and people. Nearly three years have passed since that first idea, and today, we are closer than ever to seeing our products on supermarket shelves across Germany.
How does the fermentation process work to produce highly functional and nutritious proteins from non-GMO fungi?
Our process starts in our labs, where we keep pure stocks of our selected strain. We use this pure stock to inoculate fresh culture medium under sterile conditions. After a couple of days of cultivation, this flask is used to inoculate production-scale fermenters. Our fermentation process is very similar to beer brewing, with the main difference being that our fungi need air to grow, and the process ends much faster. When the fungi deplete all the nutrients in the broth, they stop growing, and we start harvesting the biomass. During our downstream process, we separate the biomass from the broth, and at this moment, a meat-like structure is formed by the densely packed mycelia. This is the wet form of our versatile ingredient, ideal for creating single-ingredient meat and seafood alternatives. In addition, depending on the required application, the result of this process can also be a dry powder: Enhances product functionality in applications such as vegan mayonnaise, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, yogurt, pancakes, protein drinks, bars, and supplements in various industries. At Nosh, we leverage non-GMO koji fungi, to create affordable, nutritious and tasty solutions with functional properties.
How does your technology differ from others in the alternative protein sector? What advantages does it offer in terms of scalability and sustainability?
Our key differentiation points from other mycelium companies revolve around nutrition,
functionality, taste, speed, cost and sustainable impact. Our solutions are naturally tasty, with a natural umami flavor and no off-taste. Moreover, we can wash off the product taste, making it completely neutral. This means we unlock a 100% inclusion rate in meat and seafood analogs without requiring any flavor adjustments, a key differentiation point we have yet to see any other mycelium company deliver. The Nosh ingredient also provides texture naturally through its fiber structure, eliminating the need for extrusion and binders, such as egg whites or synthetic additives (like methylcellulose), commonly used in mycelium-based end products. This allows us to provide a clean, short-label alternative. From a texture perspective, we stand out from other players when it comes to fiber length, with fibers in the centimeters rather than the millimeters currently available in the market (i.e., Quorn’s strain). This means we can provide customers with solutions that truly replicate the ‘bite’ of meat, which is currently lacking in the alternative protein market. We can also modulate our “bite,” allowing for different sensorial experiences, ranging from soft white fish to beef jerky. Furthermore, our solutions provide more than 40% protein on dry matter content and 38% prebiotic fibers, as well as all essential amino acids, essential minerals, and vitamins, with low fat content. We can offer customers solutions that are high in protein and high in fiber, making them attractive from a nutrition perspective. Additionally, in contrast to other fungi strains used for the production of mycelium-based products, our strain harbors a collagen-like domain on its genome, along with the genetic makeup for theoretically producing collagen-like proteins. Such a differentiated biomass provides unique properties compared to other mycoproteins: our ingredients show significantly high oil and water-holding capacities, enabling them to bring unique functionalities and unlock novel USPs in different applications. Indeed, beyond single-ingredient meat and seafood analogues, our versatile ingredient can also be delivered as a powder to cater to a range of verticals in the food industry. Our ingredient stands out by serving multiple functions in the food industry (for both animal-free and conventional products), making it a truly innovative solution in the alternative protein market. It is also fair to say we have only started “scratching the surface” of the potential of our solutions, with many other applications to be developed in the coming years.
Your fermented koji (Aspergillus oryzae) has been used as a key ingredient in various food industries. What are its possible applications?
Our scalable and sustainable solution uses fungi fermentation to produce affordable, tasty, nutritious products. Its versatility allows for creating single-ingredient meat and seafood analogues while enhancing product functionality across various food categories like dairy, bakery, confectionery, convenience, health and wellness and pet food. Today, our main focus is on meat alternatives, but below is a non-exhaustive list of potential applications across various industries. Meat: Chunks, Minced meat, Burger patties. Dairy: Cheese, Dairy. Bakery: Waffle, Pancakes. Confectionery: Ice cream, Chocolate. Convenience: Vegan pesto. We are only at the beginning of unlocking the full potential of our solutions, with many more applications to be developed in the coming years.
How are you addressing consumer concerns about ultra-processed foods, and what strategies are you using to educate consumers on the benefits of fermentation and the nutritional value of your products?
At Nosh, it is extremely important for us to support consumers in understanding that our solutions, and therefore the products that our clients can create with our solutions, are non-GMO, derived from a natural ingredient, and produced through a simple, natural process: fermentation. We have a completely dedicated product development team that works closely with early customers to support them in developing new products and applications with our ingredients. We understand that our solution is quite unique, and we need to ensure enough support to help them integrate this solution in their process lines. We want to be a drop-in solution for the industry. Take our Koji-powered meat analogue as an example. While we are, in partnership with food manufacturers and ZMG at first, creating a new category of products, it is important to remind stakeholders that Koji has been used for millennia in the food and beverage industry. Therefore after internal and external work, we have decided to reflect both the fact that koji and food already share a long history and the simple, natural approach we follow at Nosh by naming the first product we will launch with Zur Mühlen Group ZMG simply as Koji chunks.
To follow on the above, the communication around Koji Chunks and mycelium-based products will focus on the fact that the product is made through Koji fungi fermentation, highlighting that it’s a natural and non-GMO process. We have already and will keep communicating around “single-ingredient meat analogue,” along with important claims like no-additives and non-GMO. End-consumer insights show a strong demand for less processed products with superior taste, texture and our clean, high nutritional value and short label is critical for consumer appeal. For this reason, we will emphasize the ingredient list showcasing that it consists only of our Koji Chunks and marinade. We are also considering phrases like “that’s all” and “only single-ingredient meat analogue” to further stress the simplicity and transparency of the product. Koji Chunks offer a long-fiber, muscle-like texture that closely mimics meat, increasing acceptance among consumers, especially the growing number of flexitarians and meat reducers.
You recently collaborated with Zur Mühlen Group to launch “Koji Chunks.” What are the distinctive features of this product, and what are your expectations for its market launch?
Through our unique solutions, we are able to support our commercial partner in unlocking the world’s first single ingredient meat analogs. The Koji chunks are the first application of this new category of products. We unlock when it comes to single ingredient meat analogs. Koji Chunks—the world’s first single-ingredient planet-friendly meat—made with a natural process, delivering meaty texture, rich flavor, juiciness with high protein at an affordable price. Our ingredients deliver a natural meat-like structure without the need for the chemical additives commonly found in meat alternatives on the market. While we don’t replace binders like methylcellulose, we provide a clean, simple option for achieving exceptional texture. This means we can support our partners in creating end products with our ingredients, water and some marinade for example. This streamlines greatly the preparation process for end products thereby resulting in lower costs, while also responding to consumers’ demands for less processed food products. When it comes to market launch, our aim is to support our commercial partner in launching a product that will be available to the mass public, and get one step closer to . our vision: to create a world where food is no longer harmful to the planet, to animals or to people. We are planning to launch in Germany as our first entry market in the next couple months, with several touchpoints in PR activities and marketing events to create the buzz and expectation”.
Are you collaborating with restaurants or food companies to integrate your ingredients into their products? If so, what feedback have you received so far?
Our primary focus is collaboration with food manufacturers that can drive wide distribution of end products created using our Nosh ingredients. Aside from our collaboration with ZMG, another partner whom we are able to publicly disclose is Barilla, where we support in unlocking clean-label applications. We are also in co-product development with a range of large and mid-sized food manufacturers, with a primary focus on the meat analog space across a range of applications. Separately, aside from our primary focus and given our B2B business model, we are also developing commercial relationships with partners operating at various stages of the food value chain: ingredient providers for instance, or retailers who have product development capabilities. As we are committed to generating positive impact at scale in our mission to fight climate change, we are looking to work with large actors first and foremost, as exemplified with both our publicly announced partnerships with ZMG and Barilla. Catering and foodservice are two other channels that are of interest to us in the context of large chains with international reach. Nevertheless, we are keen and excited to partner with restaurant chains for local activations and to support broadening the exposure of the wider public to the products that can be created with our delicious, nutritious and clean-label solutions”.
How do you see the evolution of the alternative protein sector in the coming years, and what role do you intend to play in this industry?
The food industry, valued at $9.09 trillion in 2024, has a significant environmental footprint. Agriculture consumes 38% of the world’s land, with 29% dedicated to animals—either grazing or growing their feed. Animals dominate the food system, and food dominates our planet. Food, agriculture, and land use account for 34% of global emissions, with meat production being a key contributor to greenhouse gases and responsible for 80% of deforestation. As the population is estimated to grow from 8.16 billion in 2024 to 10.3 billion by 2080, emissions from food production continue to rise and the increasing demand for protein will place further strain on land, water, and ecosystems. Addressing the food system challenge is crucial and creating a sustainable food system is critical. I believe that animal-free products offer a transformative solution, capable of cutting emissions by 50% and reducing land use by 75%, offering a transformative solution for our planet. At Nosh we believe in this transformation to building a more sustainable food ecosystem by focusing on creating tasty, affordable and nutritious solutions for the average household. This is what we are trying to achieve with Nosh, our purpose drives everything we do, and we work tirelessly to fulfil our vision: A world where food is no longer harmful to the planet, to animals or to people.
