Transforming plant-based alternatives by harnessing precision fermentation for next-generation ingredients

Global levels of critical food insecurity continue to rise as the projected population is expected to reach approximately 10 billion in 2050. Meeting the growing demands for food protein, improved nutritional quality, and environmental sustainability requires transitioning from animal-sourced products. Plant-based products have emerged as the most prominent and major alternative solution toward improving the current food production system; however, plant-based products come with their flaws. Generating flavorful, nutritious, and high-protein products derived entirely from plant sources typically lacks consumer acceptance. However, the growing field of precision fermentation within food systems offers a substantial field toward enhancing and revolutionizing current plant-based products to derive more nutritious, flavorful, and textural analogs. Precision fermentation entails genetically modifying microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and more to generate specific products such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, and flavonoids. Precision fermentation is critical for closing the nutritional and flavor gap between plant and traditional animal-based products. This process provides controlled production of key ingredients that may improve the final product's safety, quality, sustainability, and sensory value. Currently, the most well-known example of precision fermented products integrated into plant-based foods is the heme protein integrated into plant-based burgers, but there is even greater potential. This review highlights the current production of food ingredients through microbial sources that enhance the organoleptic and nutritional quality of plant-based alternatives. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.