Optimizing Sourdough Strains for Bakery Products with Il Granaio delle Idee

IGDI will leverage Ginkgo’s Adaptive Laboratory Evolution technology to improve its sourdough starter culture product

We’re so excited to announce our new collaboration with Il Granaio delle Idee (IGDI)!

IGDI has identified a new sourdough bakery strain that can improve the flavor and aroma profile of baked goods via its starter culture product, Pater®. This collaboration will leverage Ginkgo’s Adaptive Laboratory Evolution (ALE) technology to accelerate the growth rate of IGDI’s selected strain.

Lactic acid bacteria helps give sourdough its distinctive taste. IGDI has used its proprietary technology to develop a product, Pater, that keeps lactic acid bacteria dispersed in flour, viable and stable over time. Pater is a shelf stable, dried baking mix that can be used to make sourdough en masse, enabling artisanal and industrial bakers to expand their potential offerings of sourdough-based products. Bakers can use Pater to enhance the flavor, fragrance, structure, and color of bread, improve digestibility, and extend bread freshness. Additionally, Pater can produce natural emulsifiers, and can thus lessen the reliance on chemical additives used widely in the baking industry.

IGDI would like to incorporate a new strain in Pater to further improve the flavor and aroma of baked goods. In order to grow this strain economically, IGDI will leverage Ginkgo’s ALE technology as it seeks to evolve the strain towards a higher growth rate. Ginkgo uses ALE as a fast, powerful strain development tool that can adapt strains to industrially-relevant conditions without gene editing.

“Our collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks represents a significant milestone in our entrepreneurial journey. We’ve watched Ginkgo excel in the food and nutrition space for years, and we couldn’t be more excited to work with them. Ginkgo’s impressive ALE technology shows promising potential to rapidly improve the growth rate of our strain, and distinguish Pater within the market. Together, we’re enhancing product quality, empowering bakers with innovative solutions that elevate their craft, and preserving the expression of culture and identity in food.” - Federico Allamprese Manes Rossi, founder and CEO of Il Granaio delle Idee

“This collaboration underscores Ginkgo’s commitment to innovation within the food and nutrition industry. We’re thrilled to support Il Granaio delle Idee’s vision by leveraging our strain optimization tools and powerful ALE technology to elevate their sourdough product to advanced levels of quality and efficiency. We welcome opportunities like this to help customers improve their products with Ginkgo’s diverse strain optimization capabilities.” - Simon Trancart, Head of ALE at Ginkgo Bioworks

To learn more about Ginkgo’s ALE technology, read an interview with Ginkgo’s Head of ALE, Simon Trancart (here), and watch Ginkgo’s Foundry Theory video, Fitter Microbes Faster with Automated ALE (here).