Engineering group GEA has been contracted to supply and commission a precision and biomass fermentation upscaling line for the Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF), located at the NIZO Food Innovation Campus in Ede, Netherlands. The installation is planned for 2026, with pilot-scale operations expected to begin in spring 2027.
The facility is intended to support food and ingredient companies in validating and scaling fermentation-based processes for applications including animal-free dairy proteins, egg-white proteins, enzymes, flavors, fragrances, and other functional biomolecules.
Addressing the ‘missing middle’
The BFF project is designed as an open-access model. It offers bookable fermentation capacity under food-grade standards, providing developers with access to infrastructure that bridges the gap between laboratory proof-of-concept and the first commercial manufacturing steps. This intermediate scale, sometimes referred to as Europe’s “missing middle,” remains a bottleneck for companies developing fermentation-enabled food products.
Marcel Oogink, Managing Director of BFF, said the facility aims “to give the industry dependable open-access capacity to validate processes under realistic, food-grade and scalable conditions.” He added, “With GEA supplying this line, companies will gain the technical reliability and speed they need to move confidently from lab development toward industrial readiness.”
The pilot line will include a 1,000-liter and a 10,000-liter fermenter, with an integrated flow from media preparation through fermentation, cell harvest, and downstream processing. GEA will also provide commissioning and validation support. This setup is designed to generate what the parties describe as “decision-grade data sets” while maintaining strict confidentiality over organisms, formulations, and commercial parameters.
End-to-end capability on a single site
The new facility complements existing infrastructure on the NIZO campus, including pre-pilot and biomass fermentation assets as well as a downstream processing (DSP) pilot plant. This configuration allows for fermentation, primary recovery, and large-scale concentration and purification to be carried out on a single site.
Frederieke Reiners, Vice President of New Food at GEA, stated: “Open-access capacity is the critical development link many innovators have been missing. By delivering BFF’s line, we help teams validate their processes faster under food-grade conditions… this pilot environment enables application-ready material and decision-grade data sets that de-risk the move toward commercial manufacturing.”
