If you think butylated hydroxyanisole (BHU) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are industrial chemicals, you’d be right.
These petroleum-based compounds are used to make things like rubber, cosmetics, and embalming fluid.
What might surprise you is that you’ve probably eaten them. This is because they are also common food preservatives.
Our food system is utterly dependent on synthetics like these to keep products fresh. Yet evidence on their lethal effects is piling up.
With science now pointing towards the cancer risks of synthetic preservatives, startups are developing “clean label” biobased alternatives that protect food without harming our bodies.
But can bio-preservatives compete with synthetics? As commercial R&D in the area steps up, It’s looking increasingly likely that they can.
No preservatives, no food
To understand the market for preservatives, we have to understand just how crucial they are to the food system as we know it.
Preservatives are essential to the globalised food system that most of us rely on.
Most countries import a significant portion of their calories, meaning ingredients can take months to move from farm to table.
During storage and transit, heat, air, and bacteria can ravage food until it is no longer safe or appetising to eat. Preservatives can stem the tide, keeping them moist, mold-free, or both.
Although natural options exist, synthetic preservatives accounted for almost 70% of revenue in the global market in 2023.
The rise of convenience food has also boosted demand for these chemicals. Ready-to-cook items and processed meats are notorious for synthetic ingredients designed to keep them from spoiling before they reach our plates.
Silent killers
Synthetic preservatives are supposed to keep our food safe and over the short-term, they are very effective at this.
Yet in the long term, these chemicals appear to carry serious health risks. Many experts argue that surging preservative use by the food industry decades ago is now driving a spike in youth cancer rates.
A landmark study published last year also linked common food preservatives to cancer. This is far from an isolated finding. Animal experiments show that common preservatives convert to cancer-causing compounds, indicating one of the mechanisms by which they could be damaging us.
There’s also evidence that these chemicals destroy our gut microbiome, a community of microbes inside our guts that maintain health. Because these microbes regulate digestion, nutrition, immune support, and mental health, a damaged microbiome can have wide-ranging health impacts.
All this accords with intuition. Eating industrial petrochemicals does not seem like a formula for health. But is there an alternative if we still want long-lasting food?
Cost and efficacy rule
Biobased preservatives made from plant matter or biological chemicals are already out there on the market. Yet technical and economic barriers lie in the way of widespread industry adoption.
Synthetic versions have two compelling advantages over emerging biobased contenders.
First, synthetic preservatives are market incumbents. After decades of being manufactured at scale, they can be made and sold at low cost. This boosts their appeal for food companies.
Second, synthetic preservatives are highly effective. Generally, you need a larger dose of bio-preservative to match synthetics, bumping up the cost of using them.
Then there are the complexities of food science. To switch to clean label preservatives, food companies often have to re-formulate recipes – something that also adds costs and risks a consumer backlash.
An appetite for natural ingredients
The barriers to mainstream bio-preservative adoption may seem daunting. Yet the food industry cannot ignore the growing consumer appetite for natural food ingredients.
Some market analysis predicts that demand globally for clean label preservatives will grow at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2026 and 2034. India, China, and Brazil are set to see the highest rates, tracking growth in their overall food markets.
This global trend is spurring companies to invest in bio-preservative R&D. The focus for is making products that are just as effective as synthetics, as well as cheap to make.
Sharpening biobased competitiveness
The race is on to engineer bio-preservatives that can close the competitiveness gap with synthetic chemicals.
One firm making progress on this is UK company BioVeritas. According to the company, its biobased food mould inhibitor has ‘synthetic-equivalent efficacy’ at a cost-competitive price point.
The claim is based on a company study that compared the efficacy of its bio-preservative in baking bread against the industry standard – a petrochemical called calcium propionate.
Calcium propionate is used in the baking industry across the UK, EU, and the US, as well as other countries. Despite the widespread regulatory approval, a 2025 nature study linked the chemical to type 2 diabetes.
One of the biggest challenges to replacing synthetics like these is that companies usually need to use more bio-preservatives compared to a synthetic product for the same effect. This imposes a cost on using natural alternatives.
However, BioVeritas’ product may have broken the efficacy barrier. Its study found that its bio-preservative has the same efficacy as the petrochemical incumbent. The company says that the product works as a 1:1 replacement for the calcium propionate, lowering the cost and complexity of switching..
BioVeritas is also aiming for a product with a competitive price point. This is possible thanks to its business model as a generalist biotech company. Alongside preservatives, the company makes biochemicals for various industries. A wider range of products and end markets allows the company to spread costs and risks.
Another factor keeping costs down for BioVertias is that their factories can use a diverse feedstock base. Their inputs are cheap and abundant byproducts from the food and agriculture industry.
With a multi-product infrastructure that isn’t too fussy about its inputs, BioVertias has constructed an enviably low-cost manufacturing set-up.
Innovating with bacterial gases
An emerging biobased food preservative is bacterial gases. In Argentina, BioBlends is pioneering this technology, which it describes as a “a game changer in terms of how we are currently preserving food.”
The company was founded by three women with a background in academia. The initial boost came from GRIDX, a company builder and VC firm in Latin America that invests in different deep tech biotech companies.
BioBlends in effect harnesses certain bacteria to combat others. The production line starts with raising living bacteria in a broth-filled bioreactor, which caters for all their nutritional needs.
As the bacteria grow, they secrete functional volatile organic compounds, or gases, with food-preserving properties. The gases that BioBlend uses fight super-resistant food bacteria strains that do not respond to ordinary preservatives.
Unlike many biotech companies working with functional bacteria, these are not genetically engineered strains. The company has selected natural microbes isolated from agricultural environments in the north of Argentina.
Despite their GM-free microbes, the company does not go in blind when it comes to formulating their product.
The company uses bioinformatics, a form of data analysis that can yield insights into which microbes produce compounds with particular properties.
Using this information, the company is able to blend bacterial gases in such a way that the resulting product is more effective than the individual gases that make them up.
Right now, BioBlends are working on getting their first minimum viable product developed with a focus on the bakery sector.
Clean condiments
Commercial dips and sauces are notorious for long ingredient lists and synthetic additives. Canadian firm Chinova Bioworks could change that with Chiber – a clean-label, natural fibre preservative that prevents yeast, mould, and bacterial buildup.
According to the company, Chie improves quality, freshness, and shelf life in drinks as well as dips. By 2025, it was working with almost 1000 companies across Canada and the US.
All of Chinova’s products draw on a raw material called chitosan. This natural anti-microbial substance is produced by crustaceans, insects, and other organisms, including fungi.
The chitosan used inside Chiber is derived from the stems of white button mushrooms that were destined for the compost bin. Waste feedstocks like this minimise both production costs and the resource and environmental footprint of the end product.
Hunger for change
Startups are investing in bio-preservative R&D in anticipation of a booming market for natural preservatives.
Their first priority is removing the cost and efficacy barriers that discourage food companies from replacing synthetic ingredients with natural alternatives.
Growing investment and partnerships in the area mean biobased preservatives are becoming more effective all the time. Innovative methods of formulating bio-preservatives in new ways are also lowering costs, making it easier for food companies to make the switch.
On the demand side, cultural shifts and new scientific evidence are driving up interest. Yet new regulations may also boost the market.
This is nowhere more visible than in the US where in February, the US Food and Drugs Agency launched a safety assessment of the petrochemical preservative BHA.
Meanwhile, the Make America Healthy Again movement is pushing US states to phase out a plethora of synthetic food additives.
The spotlight on the health risks of preservatives won’t be going away anytime soon, making clean label products a biobased segment to watch.
The post Cancer fears drive R&D into biobased food preservatives appeared first on World Bio Market Insights.
