In a bid to turn the top and tails of fish into quality ingredients for human consumption, Denis Asia Pacific works with IPI and the team at Sunvisiae Biotech.
In the world of tech, smartphones often take the spotlight, but beyond developing more efficiently powerful phones, the industry has also greatly improved one of life's greatest joys: food. With new technologies, farmers and suppliers have found ways to reduce food waste, one of the food sector’s most pressing issues. In fact, one platform in China has helped cut food loss and fuel expenses by mapping out optimised transportation routes to farms' customers.
Along with this, more companies in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Denis Asia Pacific, have developed novel ways to further reduce food waste. As a group, Denis focuses on meeting essential human needs sustainably and has developed technology in food, health sciences, and other consumer goods.
More recently, the group has been processing whole fish by cutting off the fish's heads and tails. However, instead of simply discarding them as unusable pieces, Denis Asia Pacific plans on upcycling these by-products full of good nutrients. While the group is well-established in both tech and food industries, they remain open to innovating to achieve their ultimate goal - turning the discarded parts of fish into food ingredients suitable that are tasty and enjoyable.
To accomplish their objective, Denis Asia Pacific connected with IPI. Through IPI, they were able to collaborate with Sunvisiae Biotech—an SME led by IPI tech expert Dr Anli Geng. Sunvisiae Biotech's expertise lies in microbial strain development and fermentation, which they initially used to generate biofuels.
“Innovation in our company is what drives us towards excellence,” shared Jimmy Yeung, Industrial Operations Director. “The sky is the limit but to reach it you must be aware of what is available. IPI is the perfect partner for us to see what is available in the innovation landscape and to connect with the innovators of today and tomorrow.”
Sunvisiae Biotech recognised that their microbial fermentation technology also had uses outside of biofuels and shifted their focus to providing consultancy services on fermented food and microbial fermentation. This new direction perfectly aligned with Denis Asia Pacific's objectives, and the two companies are now working on upcycling seafood processing waste into food and food ingredients.
Currently in the early stages of the partnership, Sunvisiae Biotech is developing a prototype to gauge the project's feasibility. Afterward, Denis Asia Pacific hopes to create scaled-up protocols they can implement in their industry.
This opportunity greatly benefits Sunvisiae Biotech as well and allows them to get better insights into the food manufacturing industry. The company feels that working with MNCs would potentially provide them with access to high-level food manufacturers, giving them more opportunities to solve industrial problems.
Denis Asia Pacific is also confident in the partnership, stressing that "Dr Geng is knowledgeable and responsive to our requests. We are still at the early stage of the partnership, but it looks promising,” said Jimmy Yeung. “During our discussion, she showed her enthusiasm in developing microorganisms and upcycling food waste via fermentation. We felt that her domain of expertise was something we did not consider initially and it was worthwhile to test it with her.”
