COCONT
Creation date: 2023
Field: plant processing by fermentation
Status: SAS
Staff: 5 people (CEO, R&D engineer, quality technician, communications manager, production manager)
Production site: Saint-Beauzire (63)
Support : Paris&Co (Life for Good), Rungis&Co, Végépolys, Innov’Alliance
Website: cocont.fr
meeting with:
Louis Fanget CEO of Cocont
>> LinkedIn
From sports coaching to fermented foods
Louis Fanget didn’t see himself as a food engineer. Initially attracted to sport, he set up a platform to put coaches and athletes in touch with each other in high school. An express STAPS course later, he branched out into entrepreneurship and health nutrition. He co-founded Solaine, which formulates and markets seaweed-based plant-based products, with the aim of creating a new generation of local, additive-free, non-ultra-processed plant-based products… without the guilt-inducing rhetoric.
The idea of creating Cocont came from the realization that there were no manufacturers in France capable of industrializing production. Louis Fanget has surrounded himself with the right people. Cocont brings together 12 shareholders with varied expertise and solid entrepreneurial experience.
A credible alternative to ultra-processed foods
Where many plant-based brands reproduce the appearance and texture of meat at the cost of complex ingredients, Cocont takes the opposite approach. Short recipes, identifiable ingredients and transparency of taste.
Cocont is now the industrial and technical arm of food companies and farmers wishing to diversify their offer by proposing finished products incorporating their raw materials. No subcontracting, no supermarkets, and a clear strategy: mastering processing to enhance the value of local produce.
Fermentation to unlock plant proteins
Today, only 30% of the proteins consumed are of plant origin, whereas the figure should be 50%. Cocont aims to help achieve this goal by replacing ultra-processed vegetarian products. Cocont develops and produces custom-made products for brands committed to plant-based nutrition, focusing on fermentation. The aim is to produce finished products with improved nutritional values.
In fact, COCONT has joined the Nutriferments consortium, whose aim is to use the fermentation processes developed by its members to manufacture, on an industrial scale, new fermented plant foods with high Nutrition-Health added value, to be consumed as the heart of a meal.
The consortium comprises Nutrifizz, Néobiosys, COCONT, Institut Pascal, Unité de Nutrition Humaine (INRAE), UCA and Unité Mixte de Recherche sur le Fromage.
It was supported by the regional “R&D Booster” program to the tune of €850,000 over two years.
Cocont has also benefited from European support via the “Biotech4Food” program.
Biotech4Food is a European project whose aim is to support the ecological transition of agri-food businesses through the use of innovative biotechnologies to create new circular agri-food value chains.
Local scale… but XXL ambitions
Louis Fanget’s philosophy is to work with local cereal and pulse production, creating additional outlets for farmers or offering the possibility of processing and adding value to surplus production.
Cocont currently produces 5 tonnes per week at its pilot site in Saint-Beauzire. By 2027, a 1,000-ton-per-year plant is planned – a 3-million euro investment supported by Rebond industriel- France 2030, which should eventually generate sales of 9 to 10 million euros.
“Pilot tools allow us to learn by doing. We want to remain anchored locally, but with production capacities capable of meeting growing demand.
The five-fold increase in volumes may seem significant, but the department’s schools alone serve 20,000 meals a day, which represents 2 tonnes in a single order. There are no longer any holdouts when it comes to plant-based products. Everyone has accepted the need to diversify their diet, without stopping eating meat, but by eliminating ultra-processed foods. This message is being heard by chefs.
COCONT is responding to two major challenges:
– Reducing the carbon footprint of protein to efficiently feed the planet
– Promoting healthy, local and sustainable food for all, in line with the objectives of the Egalim law.
10 years from now?
Two plants, and a foothold in Europe
The vegetable protein market is booming. For Cocont, 10 years from now, the creation of a second plant in the North of France would make sense to stay close to the agricultural basins. At the same time, the company, having been integrated into Biotech4Food, is one of 10 European companies with high impact and development potential.