Blog Post
Natural Vanillin. Reimagined.
Why is large scale production of natural vanillin so challenging, and how is AI-powered biotechnology changing the game?
Imagine cutting your R&D timeline by two-thirds, reducing costs by up to 70%, and delivering an unparalleled vanilla flavour—all while meeting the most stringent sustainability requirements and ensuring the world has a stable supply of its favourite natural flavour.
That is our goal with Sustainable Natural Vanillin.
The Vanillin Industry's Hidden Challenges.
For years now, flavourists and procurement professionals know the painful reality of the vanillin market all too well.
“Oil Fields in Bakersfield” by Babette Plana1
Synthetic vanillin: It's cheap. But the environment pays the price.
On the cheap end of the market is synthetic or artificial vanillin. 80% of all vanilla flavoured products use it. Synthetic vanillin is made by chemically synthesizing guaiacol or lignin using concentrated acid. These chemical processes are energy intensive and produce toxic waste byproducts that are hard to dispose of. Most of the guaiacol comes from petrochemical sources and leaves an undesirable leathery aftertaste.
”Guaiacol substance photo” by Rillke2
“Tropical Cyclone Freddy near Madagascar - 21 February 2023” by Pierre Markuse3
Vanilla vanillin: It’s natural. But is it sustainable?
On the natural end of the market is natural vanillin extracted from vanilla beans. It makes up 1-2% of the market. Vanilla orchids are painstakingly difficult to farm. It takes 40,000 flowers to produce 50 kg vanilla beans to extract a piddling 1 kg of vanillin. Did we mention all the flowers need to be pollinated by hand within a 24-hour window? And, keep your fingers crossed and hope the crop doesn’t get wiped out by a tropical cyclone like Cyclones Gamane in March 2024 and Enawo in 2017. Both storms hit Madagascar vanilla farms hard, destroying 100% of the crops in some areas. With global vanilla (and natural vanillin) supply severely impacted, prices soared. At the time of writing, another cyclone Dikeledi ravaged Madagascar.
Hand-pollinating a vanilla flower
Bio-vanillin: It’s green. But seriously, who can wait six years?
An emerging way of producing vanillin is with biotech—bioengineered enzymes ferment ferulic acid from rice husks to produce vanillin. Unlike chemically processed vanillin, bioconversion is mild. Low energy use. No hazardous chemicals. No toxic waste. Using only natural ingredients and natural processes.
Natural vanillin made from a renewable agricultural waste product
It’s natural. It’s sustainable. It’s scalable. But it takes nearly six years to go from R&D to end product, making it uneconomical.
Until now.
AI x Biotech. Finally The Paradigm Shifts.
By harnessing artificial intelligence to optimize enzyme development and improve the bioconversion process, we’ve cracked the code of mass producing natural vanillin sustainably.
Here’s how Orchidlinn vanillin ex-ferulic acid outperforms every alternative on the market:
- Orchidlinn vanillin’s scent profile is almost identical to vanilla vanillin. What’s different is Orchidlinn vanillin can be mass-produced ensuring stable quantity, quality and pricing.
- Compared to other mass-producible vanillins such as other fermentation- and eugenol-based vanillins, Orchidlinn’s aroma far surpasses them in terms of aroma persistence and slow dissipation at the same concentration level.
- At a mere 0.01% concentration, Orchidlinn delivers twice the aromatic intensity of competing products. More savings for you!
Efficiency Is Sustainability
Our breakthrough isn't limited to flavour. AI x Biotech is transforming large scale vanillin production:
- 60-70% reduction in R&D costs
- 40-50% decrease in end-product pricing
- Increased enzyme reusability
- Zero toxic waste
- Minimal energy consumption
- 100% natural ingredients and processes
- Circular economy
What’s more sustainable than the energy, resources, time and money that never gets used?
Natural Vanillin Shortage? Never Again.
For a food or flavour company, yo-yoing supply, quality and price of any ingredient such as vanillin, has a great impact on business.
Our goal is simple: Stable supply. Stable quality. Stable pricing. Sustainable. Natural Vanillin.
We’re happy to announce: We are now production ready.
Our new factory can produce 120 metric tons of FEMA GRAS and EFSA approved ‘Natural Vanillin’. That’s 15x times more than similar technologies!
