News and Updates

Ben Wilding had the pleasure of representing the Sun Bear team at Food Matters Live in Dublin. Sitting on a panel discussing the notion of the circular economy was the perfect platform to talk about how we use upcycled feedstocks to produce our alternative fats and oils.

Getting to join in the Tastes of Better sessions with IFF, AAK and Kerry was a highlight. Experiencing the innovations coming from these businesses was delicious and eye opening.

We’ve been based at Oxford Brookes University’s campus since day one. They’ve been wonderful hosts and we have worked with so many different departments, from Life Sciences, to Nutrition and Health, and to the Business School. It is always a pleasure to support the courses where we can - this week we’re out giving presentations to the life sciences students and the nutrition students. It pays to invest in our future.

The whole team had a great time at the inaugural HEAT Festival at the Harwell Science Campus, just outside Oxford. Hundreds of climate-focused folk gathered for talks, drumming, music and connections. Of course there was a pitch competition, which Ben was dressed as a bear for…sadly no photographic evidence but we assure you it happened :)

One of our favourite things at Sun Bear Biofuture is product development and testing. We’re a biotechnology company, which means a lot of time spent working at scales you cannot see with the naked eye and waiting for data back to validate the success or failure of our R&D.

So it’s such a joy when we can see the product we’re making in different use cases, such as our fantastic new lip balm.

It was such a pleasure to catch up with old and new friends at Future Food Tech London. Our CEO, Ben Wilding, discussed alternative raw ingredients and their importance to stabilising future supply chains. Whilst this was going on our CTO, Ben Williams, had the pleasure of pitching at NutrEvent Lille too - it was a busy week.

We know we’re good in food (95% of sensory testing participants prefer our cookies to palm oil baked cookies) but how are we in other products - cosmetics?

Equally good. The testing data and the feedback from 30 people that have now tried our moisturiser and hair serum have both been very positive. We like a bit of qualitative and quantitative here at Sun Bear HQ.