Californian precision fermentation leader The Every Company has partnered with ADM to expand the production of its animal-free egg white protein to the US.
Weeks after extending a deal to quadruple the production of its precision-fermented egg protein in Europe, The Every Company will now begin manufacturing its ingredient in the US, too.
The San Francisco-based startup has partnered with food processing giant ADM to produce its animal-free egg white protein, OvoPro, at the latter’s Clinton, Iowa facility on a commercial scale.
The plant is set to come online next year, and the partnership will leverage ADM’s leading precision fermentation production capabilities and The Every Co’s patented technology to create future-friendly proteins.
According to The Every Co, it marks the first US site with precision fermentation capacity at this scale. Last month, it expanded its manufacturing partnership with pharmaceutical manufacturer Huvepharma to produce OvoPro at its subsidiary Biovet’s nine-million-litre fermentation facility in Bulgaria.
The combined annual production volumes are under wraps, but Arturo Elizondo, co-founder and CEO of The Every Co, confirmed that both facilities use the same feedstock and fermentation process to produce the protein.
“The ADM partnership is specifically built to drive a substantial increase in production, taking OvoPro to [a] much larger scale to meet surging demand for protein and protein fortification across food segments, particularly in the US,” he told Green Queen.
Ingredients like OvoPro the ‘only way’ to meet protein demand, says ADM
Precision fermentation involves inserting a specific DNA sequence into microbes to teach them to produce the desired molecules when fermented. The Every Co engineers Komagataella phaffii (a yeast strain) to produce multiple proteins.
OvoPro is a recombinant ovalbumin protein that can replace egg whites’ functionality in a range of applications, while OvoBoost is a highly soluble, taste- and texture-neutral protein equivalent to glycoprotein.
In addition, the firm has developed an animal-free pepsin that acts as a digestive protein. Each of these ingredients has been approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration.
It has been focusing on OvoPro to tackle the egg shortage and rising prices in the US (in some states, a single egg set Americans back $1 over the last couple of years). It functions as both a functional binding agent and a protein-boosting ingredient across baked goods, bars, snacks, confectionery, and pasta.
For any precision-fermented protein to be successful, scalability is the tallest hurdle to overcome. “Manufacturing has been a major bottleneck in our industry, largely because wholly owned facilities are often +$200M and have multi-year lead times,” Elizondo told Green Queen last month.
It’s why it has opted for a co-manufacturing approach. “With the right partners, we knew [we] could scale much faster and much more capital efficiently – paramount for our sector,” he said.
“Traditional protein sources like eggs will always be a critically important part of diets around the world, but it’s also clear that the only way to meet the growing global demand for protein is to add innovative new ingredient options that can expand the supply of high-quality protein,” Kris Lutt, ADM’s VP for innovation and growth, said following its partnership with The Every Co.
“Through this agreement with Every, we’re strengthening the global protein supply chain while demonstrating how ADM’s industry-leading precision fermentation capabilities can complement existing production, expand supply and help customers innovate,” he added.
“We look forward to working with Every and other partners as we continue investing in Clinton, advancing our precision fermentation capabilities, and supporting innovation and value creation across the entire food supply, from farm to store shelf.”
The Every Co doubles down on capacity expansion for egg proteins
The Every Co’s egg white protein presents several operational advantages to food producers seeking alternatives to a highly volatile egg supply chain. The ingredient is shelf-stable for up to 24 months, does not require cold-chain transportation or storage, and offers favourable inclusion economics due to its high purity.
It’s priced to either be competitive with or cheaper than battery-caged commodity eggs on a cost-in-use basis, with several multinational customers validating that the switch to OvoPro has saved them money compared to conventional eggs.
The protein is already featured in products stocked at Walmart, Target and Amazon. And the demand is explosive, with the company securing annual orders worth 550% of its 2025 order volume within the first four months of this year. That necessitates industrial-scale partnerships like those with Huvepharma and ADM.
“We’re thrilled to work with ADM to significantly expand production of OvoPro to service our multinational customers,” said Elizondo. “The global surge in demand for protein fortification across almost all major food segments – especially in the US – requires incredible scale and reliability. Our partnership with ADM enables both.”
He added: “For food formulators seeking to expand and strengthen their supply chains, OvoPro provides a reliable, price-stable protein that delivers functional performance and protein content, helping provide manufacturers with confidence in product quality, supply security, and cost stability.”
In Europe, The Every Co has been manufacturing with Huvepharma for three years now. In 2025, it was producing several tonnes of its product at a 63,000-litre industrial facility. It had already doubled its capacity at the start of 2026, with plans to further double it next year.
It’s now running steady-state production and delivering tonnes of product to customers regularly. The new phase of expansion in Bulgaria is helping further optimise batch costs and prepare the partnership for future growth, as the startup onboards additional proteins from its fermentation platform.
Backed by investors like The Odyssey star Anne Hathaway, the company has raised $288M to date, including a $55M Series D round in November. It has additionally partnered with Dutch animal-free dairy startup Vivici and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to explore setting up an industrial-scale precision fermentation facility with a four-million-litre capacity.
It is one of only two companies to have received regulatory approval for precision-fermented egg proteins in the US. The other, Finland’s Onego Bio, has been locked in a bitter legal battle with The Every Co, with the latter asking a Delaware court to sanction the former for “improper duplicative litigation”, after an identical case was thrown out in Wisconsin. (The Delaware dispute is ongoing.)
