Tetra Pak expands New Food offering with Swan Neck Bio collaboration to simplify fermentation and cut contamination risks

Tetra Pak expands New Food offering with Swan Neck Bio collaboration to simplify fermentation and cut contamination risks

(IN BRIEF) Tetra Pak has partnered with Swan Neck Bio to help food producers simplify and de-risk fermentation scale-up. The collaboration introduces DIRINOC™, a storable and certified starter culture that allows direct inoculation, removing the need for on-site propagation and cutting contamination risks. Integrated into Tetra Pak’s New Food ecosystem and available at its Technology Development Centre in Sweden, the solution enables flexible seed preparation options and supports more predictable yields. The approach reduces equipment costs, shortens development time, and provides greater confidence to companies working with biomass or precision fermentation products. By combining Swan Neck Bio’s inoculum technology with Tetra Pak’s engineering expertise, the collaboration offers a turnkey pathway for bringing fermentation-derived foods to market faster.

(PRESS RELEASE) LAUSANNE, 10-Sep-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Tetra Pak has taken another step in supporting the next wave of food innovation by teaming up with Danish biotech firm Swan Neck Bio. Together, the two companies are tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in fermentation-based food production: seed preparation.

The collaboration brings DIRINOC™, Swan Neck Bio’s concentrated and storable starter culture, into Tetra Pak’s New Food portfolio. Instead of building a seed train on site through multiple propagation stages, producers can directly inoculate their fermenters with a reliable, quality-certified inoculum. This streamlined approach lowers contamination risk, reduces waste, and makes production output more consistent.

For many companies developing biomass or precision fermentation products, contamination and unpredictable yields are the main reasons scale-up efforts fail. By outsourcing the seed stage to DIRINOC™, businesses can cut back on costly equipment, avoid delays, and achieve faster returns on investment. The option also provides flexibility: producers can still run their own seed trains if they choose, but now have an alternative that removes complexity from early-stage production.

The new solution is already part of the ecosystem at the Tetra Pak® New Food Technology Development Centre in Karlshamn, Sweden, where pilot-scale trials are underway. There, producers can experiment with both equipment and inoculum approaches before committing to full-scale operations, ensuring facilities are designed around proven processes.

“Our goal is to give food innovators more control and less risk when scaling fermentation,” said Rafael Barros, Director of New Food at Tetra Pak. “Partnering with Swan Neck Bio means our customers can spend less time managing seed trains and more time fine-tuning processes, improving product quality, and accelerating commercial launches.”

Troels Prahl, Co-founder and CEO of Swan Neck Bio, added: “By combining our inoculum expertise with Tetra Pak’s engineering and food manufacturing capabilities, we’re helping the New Food sector overcome a critical hurdle. Together we can shorten development timelines, cut contamination risks, and give producers confidence to scale up sustainably.”

With this collaboration, Tetra Pak reinforces its role as a partner for emerging food technologies, offering producers an integrated pathway from pilot testing to full commercial production.

Media Contact:

PR Agency Contact:
Ellie Carsley
Brands2Life for Tetra Pak
Tel: +44 207 592 1200
tetrapakcorporate@brands2life.com

SOURCE: Tetra Pak