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Sustainable fats and oils start-up Sun Bear Biofuture has completed its first successful production run at less than 10% of the industry’s average set-up cost, utilising its new £25,000 automated pilot facility.

The new plant has production capacity for dozens of kilos of sustainable oils per month, aiming to meet demand for more resilient and stable lipid ingredient supply chains for the food and cosmetic sectors.

While a conventional precision fermentation pilot plant typically costs in the range of £350,000 to £1 million, providing a significant barrier to the food-tech industry, Sun Bear Biofuture’s approach harnesses lower-cost brewery and dairy equipment – enabling the start-up to compete with commodity products like cocoa butter.

Founded in 2022 in Oxford, UK, Sun Bear Biofuture’s mission is to dramatically reduce the impact that fats and oils have on the planet. According to the start-up, its ingredients cut land use by up to 95% and reduce the carbon emissions of similar tropical ingredients, such as palm oil and cocoa butter, by 90%.

Tropical oils have seen significant supply fluctuations in the last five years, fuelling industry efforts to find alternatives with more resilient supply chains. Cocoa butter prices increased by six times in 2025.

In 2024, Sun Bear Biofuture achieved a record cell lipid content of 78%, reflecting the amount of the yeast cell made up of fat, helping to cut production costs. Multiple iterations of designs for the fermentation tank and wider facility took place over the last 18 months, with the final fermentation tank costing less than £1,000 and the downstream yeast biomass processing engineered for efficiency.

Innovation around the downstream processing method of oil extraction has helped drop production and scale-up costs by removing multiple industry-standard pieces of equipment. Additionally, use of solvents such as hexane is not required. A study last year from Greenpeace found that in two thirds of a sample of 56 supermarket products selected, solvents were present.

This month, Sun Bear Biofuture will carry out sensory testing with the Centre for Nutrition and Health at Oxford Brookes University, testing consumer responses to its ingredients in food and cosmetic product applications.

Validation of its low-capex approach unlocks further opportunities to scale and expand its range of fats and oils, such as developing replacements for palm oil. The company is planning its demo plant for 2027, with capacity for hundreds of tonnes annually. The goal is to scale to industrial levels by 2029, then commence global franchising of its process.

Ben Wilding, CEO of Sun Bear Biofuture, said: “Proving our low capex expansion plan was a key goal for this year and we’ve smashed it… The scope to meet customer demand for stable supply chains by producing our cocoa butter and oil range locally, whilst dramatically reducing the impact the industry has on the planet, is hugely exciting.”