Louis Dreyfus Invests in Food Innovation

Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) announces its participation in the financing of Motif Ingredients, a Ginkgo Bioworks food ingredients spin-off just launched.

Motif Ingredients aims to provide next-generation, alternative proteins and other sustainable ingredients to plant-based food developers.

Using Ginkgo Bioworks’ platform for biological engineering, the new company will leverage biotechnology to create novel solutions for alternative foods that are more sustainable and affordable, without compromising on taste or nutrition.

“We are excited to partner with Motif as a key step into the innovative food solutions space,” says Kristen Eshak Weldon, LDC’s Head of Food Innovation & Downstream Strategy. “The move is part of LDC’s strategy of pursuing innovative or disruptive solutions to help respond to changing consumer demand and to address the challenge of feeding a growing world population sustainably. We are convinced that Motif’s next-generation, plant-based ingredients will play a key role."

Consumer demand for plant-based foods, such as meat substitutes or non-dairy milk, continues to gain momentum thanks to a growing awareness of and appreciation for the health and sustainability benefits of plant-based diet options.

Food companies are rapidly innovating to keep up with demand, though obstacles remain to creating alternative products that maintain the taste, health profile and integrity of their animal-based counterparts. Using biotechnology and fermentation, Motif Ingredients will offer proteins derived from dairy, egg and meat that provide the nutrition and taste that consumers demand, at an accessible price that mass scale food markets require.

In parallel, LDC continues to explore other opportunities to help transform the world’s food system toward the safe, sustainable production of the proteins essential to human life.