Solar Foods wins NASA food challenge

In Finland,  alternative protein producer Solar Foods has been named the international category winner by the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge.

Launched in 2021 by NASA and Canadian counterpart CSA, the challenge seeks innovations to feed astronauts on long space missions. Solar Foods’ fermentation technology, which produces its Solein protein using air, electricity, and its  proprietary microbe, could help address this key challenge.

In a press release, Solar Foods said the win “provides compelling evidence that producing nutritionally rich Solein in space is one of the most attractive food production solutions for long space missions, where the possibilities to prepare food are extremely limited. Solar Foods is solving this challenge by recreating the Solein bioprocess to fit smaller confines, while drastically improving the water economy of our future spaceships.”