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MeliBio’s ‘bee-free’ honey to hit the European market

MeliBio, a startup developing honey without bees, rolls out its first plant-based sweetener products to the European market in partnership with Slovenian food maker Narayan.

Headquartered in California, and founded in 2020 by Darko Mandich, an entrepreneur in the honey industry, and Dr Aaron Schaller, a molecular biologist, MelliBio is dedicated to using food science and precision fermentation to create a bee-friendly future through the development of honey-like products. As the company continues to explore using precision fermentation to make nature-identical honey, it has launched a plant-based honey on the market that is made without the use of synthetic biology.

In 2021, one year after the startup launched, Fi Global Insights interviewed Mandich. At the time of the interview, Mandich was tight-lipped about the details of MeliBio’s process. The company was working to optimise production, having recently closed a pre-seed round raising $850,000, which was to be channelled into expanding the R&D team and preparing for industrial scale-up. In 2022, MeliBio competed in Fi Europe’s Startup Innovation Challenge, where the company was named a finalist under the Most Innovative Food or Beverage Ingredient category.

This year, almost three years after the initial interview and two after the Startup Innovation Challenge, MeliBio has introduced bee-free honey to the market. In January of this year, MeliBio announced a strategic partnership with Slovenian food manufacturer Narayan to introduce its plant-based honey alternative to European markets, including Austria, Switzerland, and the UK.

Under this partnership, MeliBio's ‘bee-free’ plant-based sweetener will be sold under ALDI’s private label brand Just Veg! in Austria and Switzerland, as well as the Better Foodie brand in the UK. The partnership includes a $10 million, four-year deal aimed at distributing MeliBio's products to 75,000 stores across Europe.

‘Bee-free’ sweetener does not use precision fermentation

The first versions of MeliBio products are 100% plant-based and are inspired by the characteristics of light clover honey and acacia honey. MeliBio’s first plant-based product Mellody was launched to the US Market in 2022. According to Mandich, its plant-based honey matches culinary honey as a 1:1 replacement in terms of taste, nutrition, and applications. “To achieve this level of product integrity, we start with the same plants that bees visit in nature and turn them into plant-based honey that matches the original,” Mandich said.

The formulation contains 80% fructose and glucose and 18% water. The remaining 2% comprises a blend of plant extracts, where the product gets its flavour. In the US this includes red clover, jasmine, passionflower, chamomile, seaberry, gluconic acid, and natural flavours, while in Europe, the plant extract blend is slightly different.

MeliBio wants to fix the honey and bee-product supply chain

Bee populations worldwide face unprecedented declines due to various threats, including habitat loss, pesticide exposure, diseases, and climate change. MeliBio’s co-founders recognised the urgency of addressing these challenges and wanted to provide a sustainable and ethical solution by producing honey without bees.

Mandich told Ingredients Network that MeliBio’s vision is to build a world where both humans and bees thrive. He believes the industry for honey and bee products is not sustainable and its reliance on invasive species of Apis Mellifera (honeybee) — which also suffer from many of their own issues such as colony collapse disorder — is creating supply chain and environmental issues. He said: “MeliBio is here to fix that supply chain, introduce a predictable and secure value chain, and avoid what's happening with industries such as cocoa and chocolate by putting technology in place of endangered and important pollinators that we truly need to give them a break if we want to keep our planet alive.”

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Plant-based honey is sustainable but has limitations

MeliBio recognises the limitations of a solely plant-based approach, acknowledging that not all types of honey could be replicated using this method and that the resulting product may not be identical to honey produced by bees.

When the company first emerged on the scene, it pledged a precision fermented honey — a product that on a molecular level is identical to honey coming from bees — but switched to a plant-based product with the release of Mellody. Mandich said the pivot to launching plant-based products came after feedback from chefs in the US and Europe. “They believe our plant-based honeys are great culinary alternatives to non-sustainable, commercially made bee-made honey. We responded to the call of the market and decided to serve that need,” he said.

Plant-based honey does offer a sustainable and cruelty-free alternative to bee-produced honey, but beyond looking and tasting like honey, there are distinct properties that honey ‘flavoured’ products fall short in. Alongside fructose and glucose, bee-made honey has trace amounts of enzymes, amino acids, vitamins B and C, minerals, and antioxidants. Many of these antioxidants are classified as flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory properties, that may provide some health benefits.

New partnership with Pow.bio may advance precision fermented honey

MeliBio’s initial concept of precision fermented honey would set the company apart from others in the plant-based honey space, and after four years of research and development, MeliBio has an update on its precision fermented honey.

Mandich said: “We are excited to announce a partnership with San Francisco Bay Area-based Pow.bio that will take us to the next step of bringing fermentation-powered products into the market. Our Capex-free approach and world's class scientific team of people coming from leading universities such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard is a combination we believe will set an example of a successful food tech commercialization.”

Pow.bio is a precision fermentation startup that combines traditional fermentation techniques with AI-driven optimisation, to create a highly efficient and scalable fermentation platform.