Enabling end to end traceability, automation, and data integration from tissue selection to bioprocess scale up.

“SciSure provided us with the capability of storing all R&D and Bioprocess related tasks in a digital format. With the extensive use of the SDK (requires programming skills) we tailored the automation processes towards our specific needs. In R&D and Upstream Processing, those automation applications helped us increase productivity by 60%, 40% respectively, since no tedious tracking of cultures, chemicals, consumables and data integration is needed anymore.”

- Christopher Keim, Head of Process Automation at Food Brewer

About Food Brewer

Founded in 2021, Food Brewer AG is an innovative start up transforming the cultivated food industry through plant cell culture technology. The company produces sustainable alternatives to traditionally farmed agricultural products, including cocoa, coffee, almonds, hazelnuts, and berries, with a current strategic focus on cocoa.

Operating on a B2B model, Food Brewer partners with major players in the cocoa and chocolate market to secure supply chains and expand product portfolios. By cultivating cocoa directly from plant cell cultures, the company enables consistent quality and taste while reducing reliance on traditional agriculture.

Today, Food Brewer employs 21 people, with around half dedicated to R&D and production. Their multidisciplinary team includes experts in plant cell biology, cocoa science, and bioprocess engineering, scaling selected cocoa tissues through multiple stages up to 2,500 liter bioreactors.

The challenge

Building scalable digital infrastructure from day one

From the onset, Food Brewer knew their scientific and production processes would require a robust digital infrastructure. With team members bringing experience from academic and industrial research environments, the need for an electronic lab notebook and digital inventory system was undoubted.

As a pioneer in the Agri and FoodTech space for plant cells, Food Brewer faced several operational complexities:

• Managing proprietary plant cell cultures across multiple scale up stages
• Tracking substances, materials, equipment, and environmental interactions
• Protecting background and foreground intellectual property
• Preparing for regulatory approval processes
• Supporting onboarding as the team expanded
• Ensuring reproducibility across R&D and bioprocess workflows

Without a unified system, scaling operations while maintaining traceability and compliance would become increasingly difficult.

The solution

Implementing SciSure to unify data, samples, and processes

Food Brewer selected SciSure as their digital lab platform and began implementation with a strong structural foundation.

Structured data and experiment organization

The team introduced standardized naming conventions and a clear folder hierarchy across projects, experiments, and datasets. This enabled scientists and senior managers to quickly locate information, while also accelerating onboarding for new hires.

End to end sample traceability with barcoding

Food Brewer implemented comprehensive barcoding across:

• Cell cultures
• Equipment
• Chemicals
• Consumables

This created full traceability from the moment plant material enters the lab, through scale up, downstream processing, packaging, and delivery.

Scientists can now track:

• Inventory levels with automated threshold alerts
• Substance exposure at every timepoint
• Process lineage across production stages
• Production history linked to client experience

This level of traceability has been critical not only for operational oversight, but also for regulatory progression and IP protection.

Automation through the SciSure SDK

Given the novel nature of their processes, Food Brewer leveraged the SciSure Software Development Kit to build custom automation applications.

Instead of manually executing multi step workflows in the interface, scientists can:

• Trigger experiment creation
• Generate or delete samples
• Update sample metadata
• Launch downstream processes
• Start working out of workflow templates

All through a single action, with subsequent steps automated in the background.

Advanced data integration and analytics

Beyond operational workflows, Food Brewer built ETL pipelines to extract and centralize data generated across R&D and upstream processing.

Examples include:

• Screening assay results
• Bioprocess performance data
• Experimental metadata

This information is stored in an internal database, enabling advanced data science modeling and the generation of company wide KPIs across business units.

The results

Productivity gains and scalable digital operations

By combining structured data management, automation, and integrated analytics, Food Brewer achieved measurable efficiency improvements:

• 60% productivity increase in R&D
• 40% productivity increase in upstream processing
• Full culture and material traceability
• Reduced manual tracking and documentation
• Faster onboarding and knowledge transfer
• Stronger regulatory and IP documentation