Inside Yumame’s Groundbreaking Fungi-Based Food Revolution

Yumame Foods, a pioneering foodtech startup, specialises in creating minimally processed, fungi-based products through fermentation. Their mission is to offer healthy, sustainable, and locally sourced alternatives to ultra-processed foods. They approached Agilery to help scale their production. Long story short, now their innovation hit the shelves of Coop, Switzerland's largest retailer. 

- The challenge -

Meat alternatives CAN be the star of the plate

The global plant-based food market was valued at over €26 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 18.6%. With 53% of consumers aiming to eat more plant-based foods, taste has emerged as the top factor influencing their choices, followed by health and sustainability. In fact, 67% of consumers consider taste to be the most important factor when choosing plant-based products.

Yumame Foods stands out in this market by offering products that don’t merely replicate meat texture but instead establish a category of their own as the star of the plate.

To meet the growing consumer demand for tasty, plant-based options that go beyond traditional meat alternatives, Yumame Foods needed to rapidly scale the production of three flagship recipes.

Founder Eliana Zamprogna, a chemical engineer with extensive experience in the food industry, recognized the potential of fermentation to create rich flavors and provide a truly sustainable solution for plant-based foods.

The challenge was twofold:

1. to scale production efficiently while preserving the quality of the recipes and minimal processing
2. to protect proprietary fermentation processes while maintaining local, sustainable supply chains

- The solution -

Unique Decisions in the Path to Perfection

Scaling Yumame Foods' production required innovative thinking. After identifying 44 potential small-batch co-manufacturers, instead of a regular co-manufacturing contract, we decided to set up a dedicated facility. This ensured full control over the unique fermentation process, which was a top priority for the client.

Key steps to set up the production included:

1. Facility set-up: Transforming all processes to scale, but still preserving authonomy in recipe handeling. 
2. Equipment setup: Agilery sourced specialised equipment for fermentation, to meet all Yumame’s production needs.
3. Packaging for a longer shelf life: Our fermentation experts rapid-tested numerous packaging materials and formats to achieve solid shelf life. 

Throughout the ramp-up phase, Agilery provided support with logistics, ingredient procurement and staffing to ensure smooth operations. Yumame used the full extent of our in-house team to ensure high quality was met on scale and all necessary certifications were obtained.

Today, you can find Yumame products on the shelves of Coop, Switzerland's largest food retail chains and we couldn't be prouder. 

- Success factors -