PEPTIDE MANUFACTURE

Purchasing a 25 kg hide for the purposes of manufacturing a bit of leather used to be a pretty inefficient process. Consulting the 1999 paper (by UNIDO) showed the industry that 60-70% of that 25 kg is water, leaving collagen, keratin, glycosaminoglycans, fat, and a few minor components.
The hair, epidermis, and fat are removed to leave a collagen skeleton that is tanned, softened, filled, and coloured to produce around 8 kg of leather that is sold to a leather product manufacturer. Not all hides and skins are of high quality, and not all hides should be entering the leather industry. The experiment of the 1990s to early 2000s to make leather a commodity to compete with plastic was a resounding failure. Premium quality, sustainable leather is the only pathway forward for a sustainable leather industry – it is too ethical and connected to too many agricultural practices to not have enough turnover to monetise the sustainability initiatives. Fact, a leather industry starved of capital will not be able to afford the costs of sustainable leather-making (clean technologies, traceability, EUDR commitments, DPP, and upstream animal welfare support).
Recent advancements in cell culture technologies for alternative protein production are addressing key challenges in cost, scalability, and sustainability. Here are some notable developments.

Cost-effective and sustainable culture media
With the mass balance considerations given above, can the tanneries see themselves as more of just leather makers, to factories that can add significant value? Is it even feasible that in the future tanneries will see their starting material as too valuable to put into low margin leather?
Serum-free media innovations, CellulaREvolution, a UK-based startup, has developed a peptide-based coating that enables continuous, serum-free cell culture, reducing reliance on other animal-derived components and lowering costs (especially if using “waste” hides). Plant-based growth factors, BioBetter utilises tobacco plants as bioreactors to produce essential growth factors like insulin and transferrin, offering a scalable alternative to traditional methods. Finally, upcycled agricultural by-products, researchers are exploring the use of agricultural waste, such as rapeseed meal and lupine waste, to create nutrient-rich culture media, promoting sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Why is it not possible that tanneries could convert their protein waste (hair and collagen) into value-added upcycled by-products that can be used in other fermentations?

Innovative cell sources and scaffolding
The use of insects may have been rejected by the general public as a direct food source, but insects have the ability to eat other human wastes like leather trimmings, cutting waste, and raw flesh etc. The insect grown on that waste, can then be fed to other animals like crocodiles or alligators (the meat of which humans will eat). Insects and their cells in particular could be used to express proteins in fermentation reactions to produce other proteins that could be useful for food production. Insect-derived cells, as they are known, like those from the tobacco hornworm, can be cultured without serum or specialized growth factors, simplifying the cultivation process and reducing costs. Those cells must be supplied with a low-cost amino acid source, preferably with the traceability and care that is required for any food that is going to be consumed by humans. Less duty-of-care, albeit the correct level for the animal farmed is required for the growing of food for other animals. Livestock, like pigs and chicken could forgo the impactful soya feed and other food that is transported significant distances.

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Proteins are also required in other areas, plant-based scaffolds, where the National University of Singapore has developed edible, plant-based scaffolds using common waste proteins (they used plants), facilitating the growth of cultured meat in a more sustainable and cost-effective manner. Finally, nanocellulose hydrogels, that are often wood-derived nanocellulose hydrogels, provide a biodegradable and tuneable environment for 3D cell cultures, enhancing tissue engineering applications – these could easily be derived from grown peptides or crude peptides directly from keratin or collagen hydrolysates.

AI and bioprocess optimisation
Machine learning applications, where artificial intelligence is being employed to optimise various aspects of cultured meat production, including cell line development, media formulation, and bioprocessing, leading to increased efficiency and reduced experimentation time. These are dominated by animal-free thinking relying very often on costly plant extraction and sourcing programmes. The animal (especially waste) industry needs to get on top of this allowing the creation of animal protein options, beyond livestock sources – companies like Cargill and Tyson foods have invested in cell manufacturing.
Jellatech's cell-based gelatine, has raised $3.5 million to produce cell-based collagen, aiming to reduce reliance on livestock allowing them to focus on gelatine from animal wastes or hide/skin inputs. Jellatech at the moment is focusing on animal-free gelatine, but it will soon realise how expensive alternatives can be. Aleph Farms' Cultivated Collagen, an Israeli company, is expanding its product line to include cell-cultured collagen, produced from cow cells without the need for animal slaughter and they will rely on amino acid sources.
UK's alternative protein hub is an area the UK has invested over £91 million. Alternative protein research, establishing hubs like the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA) to drive innovation in sustainable food production. Tanneries, likewise, could do something that does similar developments in, to stimulate a valuable source of protein.
A valuable approach to industry has always been to examine who controls the starting materials, whether it is mining or agriculture and to try and work on securing that resource and then beneficiating that resource into higher value products. The leather industry has a valuable option to examine their inputs and to decide whether they want to steer their starting materials through to leather or through to other valuable products. The power this enables is significant. The diversion of raw hides and skins (and their wastes) from the formal leather industry will starve the leather industry of low value inputs and will immediately eliminate a number of low-grade tanneries. Raw material cost is prohibitive to low barriers-of-entry industries. When the leather price and supply do not favour tannery profitability, like seen during the covid era, companies could choose higher valued gelatine or other products going forward.
Tanneries that make non-leather alternatives, beneficiate their wastes, and manufacture their own chemistry for processing will really be the material companies of the future.

In the next issue: This article hinted at the gelatine industry becoming an ally of the leather industry again. LIRI and other venerated Southern African institutions had good relationships with the gelatine industry and even ran joint seminars in the past. Gelatine manufacture is in demand again - giants like Gelita and JBS have increased investment in these sectors and are sending or acquiring low grade hides for the industries.