We start at the other end of the value chain
The objective is not simply to maximise biomass. It is to produce an ingredient that performs in a real customer application.
Technology → Biomass → Product → Find a market
A technically successful process can still produce the wrong product for the customer or the wrong economics for the business.
Customer need → Product requirement → Biology & process → Integrated production → Scale
Customer and application requirements are considered early enough to shape what is actually developed.
Bring market requirements into technical development early
NuFoods does not want to develop a technically impressive ingredient and only then ask who might buy it.
Application
What role does the ingredient need to play in the customer's finished product?
Specification
What composition, format, quality, certification and handling requirements matter?
Qualification
What evidence, documentation and process will the customer need before approving a new ingredient?
Optimising one step is not enough
Cultivation, lighting, harvesting, concentration, downstream processing, energy and product quality interact. NuFoods develops the complete process from biology to finished ingredient as one connected system.
The process has to work commercially as well as technically
Growing algae successfully is only part of the job. Product quality, yield, recovery, energy demand, operating cost and production consistency all have to work together at commercial scale.
Technical performance
Can the biology and process consistently deliver the required product?
Operational performance
Can the complete process be controlled, maintained and run sensibly?
Customer economics
Can the ingredient be produced at a cost and scale that works for both NuFoods and the customer?
Energy is part of the process
Lighting, circulation, temperature control, harvesting and downstream processing all contribute to the energy demand of microalgae production. NuFoods treats energy as a core technical and commercial variable within the production system.
Measure. Learn. Refine. Scale.
We know the production platform we are building. Development is used to improve performance, repeatability and integration before the process is carried into larger production.
Measure
Capture biological, process, product and operating performance under controlled conditions.
Learn
Understand what is driving growth, composition, quality, recovery, energy demand and repeatability.
Refine
Improve cultivation, lighting, operating control and downstream processing to strengthen performance and efficiency.
Scale
Carry the refined process forward while maintaining the characteristics that matter to the product and customer.
From approach to ingredient
Why NuFoods
Why we are building another source of high-value microalgae ingredients from New Zealand.
Explore whyTechnology Platform
How controlled cultivation, managed lighting and integrated processing support our approach.
Explore the platform
Products & applications
EPA-rich algal oil and whole-cell microalgae ingredients being developed for nutrition markets.
Explore our productsThe NuFoods thesis
Start with a real customer requirement. Define the ingredient. Develop biology and processing as one system. Build commercial reality in early. Measure, learn, refine and scale.
See how the technology supports it