Cooking Up Tomorrow: How ÄIO’s Product Innovation Team Brings Novel Ingredients to Life

At ÄIO, innovation isn’t just happening in the lab. It’s simmering in the kitchen.

In Q2 2024, we installed our fully functioning food-grade pilot plant, built under HACCP principles. Since then, we’ve expanded our Product Innovation department to explore a crucial question: how do our ingredients perform in real food? From bakery to sauces, meat and dairy alternatives to snacks and confectionery, we test the full potential of our microbial fats and oils in food applications.

The products we work with are novel foods, meaning they’re not yet on the market. But through careful experimentation in our lab kitchen, we can simulate how they will behave under real conditions. The two key ingredients we work with are Encapsulated Oil and RedOil, derived from lipid-rich yeast via fermentation. They offer both functional and nutritional advantages, but understanding how they act in diverse recipes is essential.

This is where culinary meets science.

Hiro Takeda, our Culinary Development Manager, brings a unique perspective to this work. A top chef from Canada with Japanese roots and a strong background in fermentation, Hiro leads the application testing in our kitchen. He describes the work like this:

“Working with food in a completely different context than restaurants brings about new and different creative challenges. At ÄIO, it’s not just about flavour, it’s about diving deep into the nuts and bolts of how ingredients function together.”

Together with Kristina Joarand, our Product Developer, Hiro brainstorms formulations, adjusts ingredient ratios, tests various cooking methods, and evaluates texture, mouthfeel, and flavour. Every formulation is an iteration. Whether testing 2% vs. 5% in a dough formulation, adjusting emulsification properties in a sauce, or exploring flavor dynamics in plant-based meats and dairy alternatives, Hiro combines intuition with scientific rigor.

In-house tastings and partner visits add valuable external feedback, helping us continuously refine and improve. Each session is an opportunity to showcase what these ingredients can do and how they could be used in future products.

Mary-Liis Kütt, our Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Product Innovation department, plays the key role of connecting the dots. She brings together data from R&D, the pilot plant, analytics, and application testing to write our novel food dossier and drive strategic innovation. She also shares our journey on global stages, advocating for a smarter, more sustainable future for fats and oils.

Despite all the advanced equipment, the teams play a crucial role in preparing and conducting every experiment. The process only works thanks to a dedicated, experienced people that bring the work to life each day. It’s their commitment and curiosity that move us forward.

At ÄIO, we believe food innovation is a full-circle process. From a yeast cell to a sauce on the plate, each step matters. And we’re proud to be building the future of food. One idea, one test, and one tasting at a time.

Interested in working with us?

We are always open to collaborations with food developers, researchers, and product teams eager to explore next-generation ingredients. And as we prepare for our Seed A investment round in Q3 2026, we welcome early conversations with investors excited to support a more sustainable and delicious future.

Let’s cook up something great together.