Oil and fat industry biotech

Oil and fat industry biotech applies enzymes to established edible-oil and specialty-fat processing steps — interesterification, degumming, fat splitting — replacing chemical catalysts with biological ones to cut yield loss, energy use or unwanted byproducts. AAK, a global specialty vegetable fats and oils leader, launched ILLEXAO EN 10 in mid-2026, a new cocoa butter equivalent for enrobed chocolate applications that helps manufacturers manage cocoa price volatility while improving formulation flexibility. Novonesis released Quara Supreme, a thermostable enzyme designed to reduce yield losses in water degumming by up to 2% — a traditionally major source of oil loss in vegetable-oil processing — and separately partnered with Thyssenkrupp Uhde to launch an enzymatic fat-splitting process aimed at cutting energy consumption and improving production flexibility and efficiency in fatty-acid production. Bunge holds patents on both a batch process for enzymatic lipid modification and a plant-based intramuscular fat substitute stabilized with the enzyme transglutaminase, while GEA has introduced an enzymatically enhanced degumming solution, GEA eTOP Degumming, extending the enzymatic-replacement trend into processing equipment itself.

Key directions of oil and fat industry biotech:

1. Enzymatic degumming (Enzymatic Degumming): replacing or enhancing chemical degumming of crude vegetable oil with enzymes to recover additional yield and reduce processing losses.
2. Enzymatic fat-splitting for fatty-acid production (Enzymatic Fat-Splitting for Fatty-Acid Production): biological catalysis replacing high-temperature/high-pressure chemical fat splitting to cut energy use.
3. Specialty fat/cocoa butter equivalents (Specialty Fat/Cocoa Butter Equivalents): engineered vegetable fat blends substituting for volatile or constrained commodity fats like cocoa butter.
4. Enzyme-stabilized plant-based fat substitutes (Enzyme-Stabilized Plant-Based Fat Substitutes): transglutaminase and similar enzymes stabilizing plant-oil-in-water emulsions as intramuscular fat replacements in blended meat products.

Sectoral value chain#

[crude oil/fat sourcing] ──> [enzymatic processing] ──> [yield/quality recovery] ──> [specialty fat formulation]
                                                                 │
                                                         (food-enzyme
                                                          authorization)
                                                                 │
                                                                 ▼
[food manufacturer sale] <─── [equipment/process integration] <┘

Value chain levels#

Cross-cutting technologies of the sector:

• Thermostable degumming enzymes (Thermostable Degumming Enzymes): enzyme variants engineered to remain active at the temperatures used in industrial oil degumming.
• Enzymatic fat-splitting catalysis (Enzymatic Fat-Splitting Catalysis): biological catalysts replacing high-temperature/pressure chemical fat splitting in fatty-acid production.
• Enzyme-stabilized emulsion formulation (Enzyme-Stabilized Emulsion Formulation): enzymes such as transglutaminase stabilizing plant-oil-in-water emulsions for use as fat substitutes.

The stack replaces chemical catalysis with enzymatic catalysis at specific, well-defined oil/fat processing steps.

1. Thermostable enzyme degumming (Thermostable Enzyme Degumming):
   • a thermostable enzyme variant survives industrial degumming temperatures to recover yield that would otherwise be lost.
   • case: Novonesis’s Quara Supreme recovers up to 2% additional yield in vegetable-oil water degumming.
2. Enzymatic fat-splitting for energy reduction (Enzymatic Fat-Splitting for Energy Reduction):
   • biological catalysis replaces the high-temperature/pressure chemical process traditionally used to split fats into fatty acids.
   • case: the Novonesis/Thyssenkrupp Uhde enzymatic fat-splitting process is explicitly aimed at cutting energy consumption in fatty-acid production.
3. Transglutaminase-stabilized fat-substitute emulsions (Transglutaminase-Stabilized Fat-Substitute Emulsions):
   • the enzyme transglutaminase stabilizes a plant-oil-in-water emulsion to function as an intramuscular fat substitute.
   • case: Bunge’s patented plant-based fat substitute combines plant proteins and oils in exactly this enzyme-stabilized emulsion format.