Scientists have developed an eco-friendly alternative to palm oil that could be on the market by the end of 2025.
Palm oil – along with other tropical oils such as shea, coconut oil, cocoa butter and soybean – is known to be problematic for the environment.
These oils compete with rainforest for land, so contribute towards deforestation, loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and air and water pollution, in Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.
But we use a lot of palm oil in our food and cosmetics. In fact, it has been estimated that around half of all packaged products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil, listed under dozens of different ingredient names, including everything from glycerine to stearic acid.
So, for more than a decade, scientists at the University of Bath – led by chemical engineer Prof Chris Chuck – have been searching for an alternative.
Now, they seem to have found a possible solution: a yeast called Metschnikowia pulcherrima.
“It grows on grapes,” Chuck told BBC Science Focus. “It’s used in the organic wine industry already. When you get nice blackcurrant notes in your red wine – mainly from South Africa, where they really like it – that’s thanks to Metschnikowia.”
This yeast naturally contains about 20 per cent fat, but Chuck’s team used a process called ‘directed evolution’ – similar to selective breeding but using environmental pressures too – to encourage that percentage to increase.
“Now, about half of it is pure fat,” said Chuck. “Not to fat-shame a yeast, but it’s very fat. And we managed to get it to grow much quicker as well.”
It doesn’t take much space or complicated equipment to grow this oil – just a big vat. The yeast is fed food waste – such as from bread or potato factories – that has been deconstructed to create sugars.
Once it has grown to be as dense as possible, the yeast cells crack open, releasing the oil, which is then refined in the same way as other edible oils.
Following this, the non-oily half of the yeast can be turned into other food ingredients, such as natural emulsifiers and beta-glucan: a heart-healthy fibre found in oats.
By changing the environment in which the yeast grows, the scientists are able to alter its taste, texture and nutritional profile, making it more or less saturated, to replicate a variety of fats.
“If we do this correctly, we can stop tropical forests from being cut down,” said Chuck. “Currently, we are using land the size of Argentina to cultivate edible oils – one of the top five biggest countries in the world.”
And demand is growing. The palm oil industry was valued at $50.6 billion (£37.3 billion) in 2021, and it’s projected to grow to $65.5 billion (£48.3 billion) by 2027.
“We need some forest left to be the lungs of the planet,” Chuck said. “We cannot cut the whole thing down.”
At the same time, replacing some tropical oils with yeast-based oils could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“These tropical plants produce more CO2 than they produce oil,” said Chuck, adding that the yeast-based oil emits 95 per cent less carbon dioxide in comparison, and it can be grown almost anywhere.
“What these precision fermentation technologies allow you to do is situate them locally,” he explained. “We could put this in a suburb of Birmingham, take waste from the factories in Birmingham, make the oil, and then put it back into the local environment.”
This yeast-based oil is almost here. Chuck said it might appear in cosmetics by the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, and in food shortly after that.
Read more:
- The surprising science of the wild yeasts in your sourdough starter
- How your weekly shop could help prevent a mass extinction
- Why are fats solid at room temperature but oils liquid?
About our expert
Prof Chris Chuck is a chemical engineer at the University of Bath, UK. As well as the co-founder of food-tech startup business Clean Food Group. He is also involved in the Reaction and Catalysis Engineering research unit (RaCE), the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT), the Water Innovation and Research Centre (WIRC), the Centre for Bioengineering and Biomedical Technologies (CBio) and the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change.
