BFF awards GEA a contract to build new food-grade (precision) fermentation upscaling line

Contract: Food-grade precision-fermentation pilot line with 1,000 L and 10,000 L fermenters, including integrated upstream and primary recovery steps.
Timing: Pre-pilot fermentation facility (10–30 liters) operational from February 2026; pilot installation in 2026 with operations starting in 2027.
Impact: Shared open-access infrastructure reduces scale-up risk and accelerates investment, regulatory and commercial decision-making for New Food innovators.

Ede (The Netherlands), January 13th, 2026 – Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF) has awarded GEA the contract to supply, install and commission a new food-grade (precision)fermentation upscaling line at its facility on the NIZO Food Innovation Campus in Ede. The line — featuring 1,000-liter and 10,000-liter fermenters with integrated upstream and primary recovery steps — is a key element in expanding the Netherlands’ mid-scale fermentation infrastructure and strengthening Europe’s capacity to bring biotechnology-enabled food innovations to market.

The new installation forms part of BFF’s open-access scale-up environment, designed to help companies validate fermentation processes under realistic, food-grade conditions and generate decision-grade datasets to support investors, regulatory and commercial decision-making. The facility will operate alongside BFF’s existing 10–30 liter pre-pilot systems and its 800 liter and 4,000 liter biomass-fermentation lines. Following primary recovery, pilot material can be transferred directly into the existing DSP pilot plant at NIZO, enabling end-to-end validation workflows within the same campus.

Closing a critical gap in the European scale-up landscape

Many precision- and biomass-fermentation projects stall between laboratory proof-of-concept and the first commercial investment decision. By providing shared access to food-grade pilot capacity, BFF supports innovators in overcoming this “missing middle”, reducing risk and accelerating movement from TRL 4–7. BFF’s open-access model serves both food and ingredient biotech companies and technology providers developing new tools for fermentation performance, such as sensing, process-control and metabolic-monitoring solutions. Validating these technologies in real, food-grade environments is essential for adoption by industry.

“Our aim is straightforward: to give the industry dependable, open-access capacity to validate fermentation processes under food-grade, scalable conditions. With GEA supplying this new precision-fermentation line, companies will gain the technical reliability and speed they need to move confidently from lab development toward industrial readiness.”

-Marcel Oogink, Managing Director, Biotechnology Fermentation Factory

 

 

“Food-grade pilot capacity is a critical link many innovators have been missing. By delivering BFF’s new line, we help teams validate their processes faster and more reliably — and we strengthen GEA’s role where biotechnology meets scalable manufacturing. This pilot environment enables application-ready material and decision-grade datasets that support the transition toward commercial production.”

– Frederieke Reiners, Vice President New Food, GEA

 

Financing and strategic context

The expansion of BFF’s pilot capability is supported by the Dutch National Growth Fund program Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland (CAN), with regional co-funding from Oost NL and in-kind contributions from NIZO. Together, these investments strengthen the Dutch position as a leading hub for fermentation-based food innovation and enable companies to advance more quickly toward market entry.

Note for editors

• Site: Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF), NIZO Food Innovation campus, Ede (NL)
• GEA scope: Supply, installation and commissioning of a precision-fermentation pilot upscaling line; integrated upstream to downstream, incl. automation.
• Capacity: Open-access, food-grade pilot capacity for process validation and scale-up with 1,000l and 10,000l precision fermentation system
• Purpose: Open-access, food-grade pilot capacity for process validation and scale-up (TRL 4–7)
• Integration: Primary recovery on the BFF/GEA line; secondary DSP via the existing NIZO DSP pilot plant
• Primary audience / use case:
• Food & ingredient biotech companies and technology providers developing tools for advanced fermentation
• Start of operations: beginning of 2027

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