A historic milestone for sustainable starch production

We are delighted to share that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission has reached an agreement on new genomic technologies (NGT) – a significant milestone for European agriculture and for Lyckeby. This legislation enables us to utilize Crispr/ Cas9 technology to enhance crop resilience, reduce chemical usage and secure sustainable production for generations to come.

Potato starch is a key ingredient in products ranging from food and dairy to paper and packaging. Until now, a large share of the million tonnes of starch produced globally each year has required chemical modification to meet industrial requirements. The CRISPR/ cas9 technology enable us to reduce both chemical usage and energy consumption. Following this recent political agreement, we are now able to introduce our CRISPR-edited potato, developed in close collaboration with SolEdits.

Together with SolEdits, we have developed a novel “storage stable starch” using a unique CRISPR-based breeding process. By making a few precise genome edits in the potato genome, SolEdits eliminated starch components that previously required chemical treatment. The result is in an optimized starch containing only short-chain amylopectin starch which provides an excellent storage stability without the need of chemical modification of the starch.

Impact at scale:

– Thousands of tonnes of chemicals saved annually in Sweden alone

– A natural, “green-label” starchImproved product quality and shelf life

– Added value for the 600 members of the Lyckeby Group Economic Association – of whom about 440 are active potato growers

For Mathias Samuelsson, Sales Director and Kalle Johansson, Development Manager at Lyckeby, who have been part of this project for many years, this agreement marks a major achievement:

“A modern legislation for plant breeding that enables the safe use of Crispr/Cas9 is very welcome. Now agriculture within the EU will be able to reach the climate goals and for our part it means strengthened competitiveness and that we can reach our sustainability goals.”

– Mathias Samuelsson, Sales Director, Lyckeby 

“This is a milestone for European agriculture and production. After nearly eight years of field trials and multiplication, we are now ready to bring the first Category 1 NGT potato to market.”

– Kalle Johansson, Development Manager, Lyckeby

We will now be able to grow a naturally storage-stable starch, where modifications that were previously carried out during industrial processing can now be achieved directly in the potato field. This allows us to produce highly functional starches while significantly reducing the use of chemicals – representing a major step forward in achieving our sustainability objective of developing the green starch factory.

About SolEdits

SolEdits is a Swedish agtech/deeptech company pioneering precision breeding with CRISPR to create more sustainable, healthy and resilient potato varieties. Founded as a spin-off from SLU, SolEdits partners with leading breeders, food producers and starch manufacturers to reduce chemical use, improve crop robustness and enhance food quality. Learn more about SolEdits here: SolEdits – Plant breeding innovation

Are you interested in learning more about our CRISPR-edited potato? Please contact us to explore potential collaboration.