Global engineering company GEA has been selected to deliver and commission a precision and biomass fermentation upscaling line for the Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF) at the NIZO Food Innovation Campus in Ede, Netherlands.

The open-access facility provides food and ingredient companies with a food-grade infrastructure to test, validate, and scale products such as animal-free dairy proteins, egg-white proteins, specialty enzymes, flavors, fragrances, and other functional biomolecules. Installation is planned for 2026, with pilot operations targeted for 2027.

“Open-access capacity is the critical development link many innovators have been missing,” said Frederieke Reiners, Vice President New Food at GEA.

“By delivering BFF’s line, we help teams validate their processes faster under food-grade conditions – and as the logical next step from our GEA New Food Application & Technology Center (proof-of-concept) this pilot environment enables application-ready material and decision-grade data sets that de-risk the move toward commercial manufacturing. It also advances Mission 30, where biotechnology meets scalable industrial production.”

Marcel Oogink, Managing Director of BFF Ede, added: “Our aim is straightforward: to give the industry dependable open-access capacity to validate processes under realistic, food-grade and scalable conditions. With GEA supplying this line, companies will gain the technical reliability and speed they need to move confidently from lab development toward industrial readiness.”

Precision and biomass fermentation projects often stall between lab proof-of-concept and the first commercial investment. BFF’s model tackles this challenge head-on, offering a single, coherent validation environment that de-risks tech transfer, accelerates time-to-validation, and supports Europe’s shift toward biotechnology-enabled food production.

Operating as an open-access facility, BFF provides bookable fermentation upscaling capacity, process expertise, and quality procedures for pilot campaigns, generating decision-grade data without companies needing to build their own facilities. By producing trial volumes under food-grade standards, BFF enables sensory evaluation and application testing, giving product teams material ready for end-product development.