Microbial foods as scalable platforms toward a circular protein economy for sustainable nutrition

초록

Protein is essential to human health, but current supply remains dominated by animal-based sources, with substantial environmental and social costs. Supported by rapid biotechnology advances, microbial foods, from edible microbial biomass to fermentation-derived ingredients, are emerging as a sustainable, circular-driven alternative. However, real-world viability depends not only on technical feasibility but also on the extent to which sustainability is embedded into scalable routes. In this review, we mapped four decision layers shaping performance and footprint at scale. Core barriers arise from diverse but interconnected dimensions, including difficult-to-source and standardized feedstocks, fragile strains with weak food-grade specification control, limited engineering tractability of non-model organisms, energy- and cost-intensive downstream processing, and constrained valorization of residual streams under safety and regulatory rules. Overcoming these barriers will not be enough for a circular protein economy toward sustainable nutrition unless consumer acceptance, performance in real food matrices, and fit-for-purpose governance are addressed together. © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

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