Ajinomoto Teams Up with Singapore’s Fattastic to Advance Plant-Based Fats
Singapore startup Fattastic Technologies has partnered with Ajinomoto Thailand to explore applications for its healthy plant-based alternative to animal and saturated fats.
A fast-emerging player in Asia’s alternative fat field, Singapore-based Fattastic Technologies has begun an exploratory R&D partnership with food conglomerate Ajinomoto Thailand.
The collaboration will focus on the startup’s innovative vegan fat ingredient, FattFlex, which uses encapsulation technology to replicate the mouthfeel, texture and taste of animal and saturated plant-based fats for a variety of applications.
“This exploratory partnership represents an exciting opportunity to investigate new ways for foods to offer products that balance taste, health considerations, and sustainability goals,” said Fattastic founder and CEO Satnam Singh.
Fattastic aims to replace saturated fats in food
A former researcher at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singh founded Fattastic in 2022 after becoming disillusioned with the existing crop of meat and dairy alternatives.
The startup’s proprietary dual-platform approach includes Fattune for oil structuring and OleoTune for the extraction of oleosomes, which are microdroplets for oil storage that are surrounded by a layer of phospholipids and proteins to keep the oil stable during emulsions.
“The Fattune platform transforms liquid plant oils into solid or semi-solid formats that replicate the functionality of conventional animal fats and saturated plant-based lipids like palm or coconut oil, while the OleoTune Platform harnesses naturally occurring oil bodies from seeds to create alternative dairy fats, natural emulsifiers, and replacements for conventional fats,” Singh told Green Queen.
“Their ingredients offer the same functionality as conventional fats – widely used in bakery, confectionery, alternative protein, and dairy applications – but deliver up to 80% reduction in saturated fat content without the deforestation, land use, emissions, or health concerns associated with traditional fats,” he explaind.
FattFlex is the flagship product from the Fattune platform, and can be tuned for specific melting temperatures. It offers low calories, significantly reduced saturated fat content, and the ability to encapsulate flavours and nutrients.
Meanwhile, OleoXact, derived from the OleoTune platform, contains around 35% fat and 7% protein and functions as both an emulsifier and fat carrier. “This makes it an ideal clean-label replacement for dairy cream and processed fats in applications including creams, spreads, beverages, snacks, and dry foods,” said Singh.
Sustainable fats in vogue amid Ajinomoto’s future food focus
The Ajinomoto Thailand partnership will involve the “exploration of more sustainable alternatives to conventional fats” and the application of FattFex trials in food formats to optimise functionality.
According to Singh, trials with Fattastic showed potential for the ingredient as a substitute for conventional fats, given it maintained the same taste while helping reduce saturated fat content.
The firm has received funding from Entrepreneur First, ProVeg incubator, Better Bite Ventures and Space-F, and was part of the Techbite Accelerator Program with Ajinomoto and KX Knowledge Xchange. It was also a finalist in FoodHack’s 2025 FoodTech World Cup.
It is among a number of startups making sustainable alternatives to animal fats and palm oil for the food industry, including Nourish Ingredients, NoPalm Ingredients, Clean Food Group, Äio, Melt&Marble, Lypid, and more. Time-Travelling Milkman is also focusing on oleosomes, and raised $2.3M for its tech this month.
And earlier this month, fellow Singaporean startup Terra Oleo secured $3.1M to scale up production of its waste-derived precision-fermented palm oil and cocoa butter substitutes.
Ajinomoto, for its part, has signed several partnerships with sustainable food brands globally. It is developing plant-based meat products with Daring Foods and its new parent company, v2food, and its Europe arm is working with France’s Standing Ovation to produce animal-free casein proteins.
In Singapore, its Atlr.72 brand has released mooncakes and ice cream sandwiches with Solar Foods’s CO2-derived Solein protein, and the food giant’s Thai division has a commercial deal with Singaporean bean-free coffee brand Prefer.