SCP — The BP Protein Process

Abstract

The entry of BP into the nutrition business represents an interesting case study for all those associated with biotechnology. Following a technical breakthrough in the late 1950s, successful R & D over the next two decades was stymied by a failure to get the product licensed in the country of production, Italy. Nevertheless, the associated market developments provided BP with a substantial business in the nutrition industry; in 1985 a turnover of nearly £1000 million was achieved, with a profit of £37 million.

Editor’s note: SCP, the abbreviation for single-cell protein, was first coined by Prof Carrol Wilson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in May 1986, to avoid the unpleasant connotation of ‘bacterial’ or ‘microbial’ terms in food usage. It is now taken to mean all forms of micro-organisms and micro-life used as protein food.