To address this, Hyfé uses waste sugar water from food manufacturing.

“Our goal is to scale our technology so that we can achieve price parity, which is why we use upcycled sugar water,” says Ms Ruiz. “Up to half of the cost of fermentation can be attributed to sugar, so upcycling can make a meaningful difference to the cost of production.”

Affordable alternatives to wheat are gaining attention, particularly after a year of disruption to the grain market.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted our dependence on the wheat harvests that flow from the region.

Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. The war has disrupted that flow of food. In July this year, wheat prices were almost 25% higher than in July 2021.

Record high food prices have triggered a global hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions.

According to the World Food Programme, the number of people facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled in just two years, from 135 million in 53 countries to 345 million in 82 countries today.

On top of that, we are starting to see the impact of climate change. Crops are suffering under the effects of extreme weather.

A 2021 report from Chatham House warns that unless we drastically reduce global emissions, by 2050 staple crop yields could decline by nearly a third.

Harvard University scientists say even if we do manage to limit global warming to 2C, as set out by the Paris Agreement, 60% of the world’s wheat production will be under threat by the end of the century.