Sick of that blue mold on your bread? Protera recently received a $5.6 million boost from investors for its fermented protein that can replace artificial food additives and increase the shelf life of baked goods by 30 days or more.

‍

If you add 50,000 fungal spores to bread, after 20 days it will look like the green thing on the left. Bread made with Protera’s natural protein, on the right, prevents mold from forming.

Consumers want natural alternatives to artificial food ingredients, and they’re willing to pay more for them. That’s what’s driving a sustained increase in the global clean label market, which is projected to reach $51 billion by 2024.

‍

Clean label products are foods that can be labeled as natural, which are perceived by consumers as healthier and safer. While labeling something natural may have little meaning for what’s actually inside the product, consumer perceptions are driving the industry to come up with ways of making natural products using fermentation—the same process used to create bread, beer, and kombucha. The added advantage of fermentation is that you can use it to make ingredients that are better than conventional chemical ingredients.

‍

[...] This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published by Forbes: Read the full article here.