Page 54 - FoodFocusThailand No.199 October 2022

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include, for example, the type of cells, suitability of culture
medium, steps, procedure, and personnel qualifications.
Undoubtedly, Thailand boasts a competitive edge in terms of
biological diversity, but its main obstacle is the enormous and
ever-increasing costs of machinery, energy, and logistics,
along with the lack of qualified, knowledgeable personnel that
can conduct proper research and analysis of the components
of each type of fruit waste to determine how such elements
can be structurally modified and turned into novel products.

Further Application and Future Action Plans
Following its expansion strategies, Fruita Biomed Co., Ltd. is
planning to build a machinery-manufacturing plant to boost
its production capacity since its current PHA production relies
on imported bioreactors, which pushes the costs to rise higher.
Hence, the initiative of manufacturing its own bioreactors will
different designs of containers with varying degrees of heat enable the company to improve its production capacity and
resistance. The production costs of our bioplastics are not any keep costs down. The capacity is to be enhanced within the
higher than those of their counterparts manufactured next year. The quantity of fruit waste will be upped from 3,000
elsewhere. The term “Fruit plastic” refers to the plastic made tons to 30,000 tons for the projected PHA production of
from our fruit waste, which is branded by Fruita Biomed as 6,000 tons per year, an estimation based on the continuous
“FruitPlast.” These bioplastics were created in the body of rise in international consumer demand for bioplastics, which
living bacteria so they can be compatible with other living is projected to grow by 10 times within the next five years.
cells and humans or Biocompatible; therefore, it is suitable to Moreover, there will be projects and joint investments that
use as a medical material, medicine ingredients, or cosmeceutical provide financial support to the researchers whose works are
in the form of a Bio-Composite or Nano carrier. not yet fully commercially applicable due to a lack of funds or
access to adequate manufacturing facilities that are ideal for
Sustainability and Reuse of In-plant Energy the production of quality and standardized products. If the
“Since there are multiple types of reusable energy and waste products are to be introduced into the global market, they
in our factories, the company has identified which areas of the should at least be standardized enough to receive international
factories need, for example, thermal energy, and it turned out certificates from Europe or China. An agreement with
that some types of culture medium require such energy. That researchers will be made to arrange for the co-development
has prompted us to reuse some forms of energy. To illustrate, and co-research projects on biodegradable plastics, including
the temperatures of foods and beverages are reduced by PHA and plastics made from other types of fruit waste.
cooling towers, and the thermal energy extracted in this
manufacturing process is transferred for reuse in other parts Ever-advancing Progress of Fruita Biomed
of the factories. Additionally, cool water waste from chillers and Although the company is now producing bioplastics mainly
cold storage is piped to other places for further usage as well. for exports to overseas countries, such as the USA or the
Furthermore, raw materials are also reused across the entire Middle East, it is also planning to further expand the production
chain. Banana peels, which are leftovers from the production capacity to satisfy both the international and domestic
of banana juice, for example, are used to produce the packaging markets. In addition, there are some new projects that Fruita
for a said drink. Of course, our company always focuses on Biomed is currently developing, several of which are in the
making full use of raw material waste from the manufacturing process of R&D, such as alternative, plant-based milk and
processes to develop and create novel products,” affirmed lab-cultured, cell-based meat. These will be the high-quality
Mr. Rakchai. food ingredients, odor, or biological chemicals with specific
properties produced by synthetic biological production or
Obstacles and Challenges called Synbio ingredients. These projects aim at applying the
If analyzed deeply into the overall bio-industry, the production company’s existing know-how, expertise, and machinery for
of these bioplastics faces a range of obstacles and challenges, further use in other areas so that the company can, in the
which come in two forms: hard and soft assets. The former near future, become the hub that commercially sources and
mainly comprises the factors such as machinery, sterilization, supplies parent cells, raw materials, and culture media for
and control of bacteria in the factory. The machinery, in the production of alternative milk and lab-grown meat.
particular, comes with hefty price tags, thus elevating the costs
in general. The intangible part is to build a knowledge-base in
the science technology and engineering team. The soft assets
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