2nd Nature—a startup using AI to identify high-value ingredients from abundant ag side streams—will launch its first products for commercial sampling this quarter: non-caloric natural sweeteners and umami flavor enhancers that help firms reduce sodium.
The tech creates a path to more rapid commercialization of natural ingredients by using AI to search for small molecules, fibers, peptides, enzymes, and proteins based on functional property prediction, says cofounder and CEO Effendi Leonard, PhD.
“Our AgWaste Portal identified these compounds in the byproducts of crops like wheat, soy, rice, peanut, and corn that food manufacturers already process in massive quantities and currently pay to dispose of their side streams.
“What’s exciting is that these ingredients are hidden in plain sight and we can produce them at scale and at low cost,” adds Leonard, who started his career at gas fermentation firm Calysta and has since worked at synthetic biology co Ginkgo Bioworks, crop protection firm Provivi, and plant cell culture startup Ayana Bio.
“We have developed internal training sets to map the molecular universe in ag side streams to predict their functions.”
The AgWaste Portal combines machine-learning taste prediction models, embedding- and structure-based algorithms, and sequence similarity searches, adds Leonard, who cofounded Cincinnati-based 2nd Nature in 2023 with Reed Doyle and David Groshoff.
“The beauty of this tool is that it can score the utility of these different models differently so that we achieve an optimum discovery of the molecules, which increases our success rate or accuracy of the model.”
The business model
The business model may vary depending on the project, but 2nd Nature will work with partners at each stage, including food processors that generate side streams, CDMOs that can extract the functional ingredients at scale, and ingredients suppliers or flavor & fragrance companies that can help get them to market, says Leonard.
While its core focus is AI-powered ingredient discovery, it has also developed an optimized process for extracting the ingredients from ag side streams, he says.
“We have our own downstream processing units. Once we understand the most effective method to extract a particular ingredient from a particular side stream, we can then do a technology transfer to a third party CDMO that can scale it up for us, but we still own the technology.”
As for equipment, however, “everything is off the shelf,” he says. “The key is to be able to combine and optimize different methods to produce the highest yield and the best purity level. And that’s where we come in by testing different parameters simultaneously in our small-scale unit operations.”
2nd Nature will also do the legwork on putting together GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) affirmations for the ingredients.
There are three steps in the collaboration process, he explains. “The first is discovery, which is where we use our AI search for particular ingredients, specifying their function, and our customer pay us an onboarding fee.
“In the second step, we physically isolate the [promising] ingredients and test them to make sure that they function as they should. And again, our partners pay us for that service.
“Then, once the ingredient is validated, and we all agree that we’re going to bring that to market, we will then give our partner an exclusive opportunity to build that with us. And this is where we deploy our hardware to optimize the process.”
The first ingredients
In the high-intensity natural sweetener space, options are currently limited to stevia and monk fruit, although some sweet proteins such as brazzein are becoming available, says Leonard.
However, all three present challenges, and formulators are always looking for better options that can perform in a wide range of products, provide sweetness without a bitter or lingering aftertaste, and meet clean-label requirements… all without breaking the bank.
“It depends on the formulation, but we’ve identified both proteins and small molecules that are 50-100 times sweeter than sugar, that are clean tasting, and as far as we have tested them, don’t break formulations,” claims Leonard.
And as they can be sourced from abundant side streams rather than exotic fruits or expensive bioreactors, pricing could be very competitive, he adds.
As for performance and stability, he says, “We haven’t yet tested them in all formulations, which is one of the reasons why we’re making samples available to qualified manufacturers.”
For the non-sodium umami flavor enhancers, which can help firms reduce salt, he says, “People have been searching for options that don’t rely on MSG. Our ingredient enhances salt and would be categorized as a flavor enhancer. We also found Kokumi [which enhances savory, salty, and sweet flavors].”
AI for ingredient discovery
While Brightseed (disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor) uses AI for ingredient discovery, it typically starts with a human health indication and then looks for a molecule that will activate a particular receptor, for example. It then uses AI to help identify the optimal way to produce it at scale from plants or precision fermentation.
2nd Nature, in contrast, is focusing on functionality, performance and taste and then searching for ingredients that can provide it within ag side streams, says Leonard. “To our knowledge, we are the first and only company using AI to look into side streams for ingredient discovery. We cover the entire universe of ingredients, small molecules, peptides, proteins, and fibers.”
A patent filed by 2nd Nature covers a broad field of use, enabling applications across food & beverage, wellness, home & personal care, and medicines, and reflects the platform’s ability to orient its AI toward any waste stream to identify valorization routes, says Leonard.
Further reading:
Scindo raises $5.4m seed round for AI-powered enzyme discovery platform
🎥Shiru CEO: AI-powered protein discovery started in biopharma, but food is next…
Brightseed and Haleon partner to harness AI for small molecule discovery
