BOSTON — Motif FoodWorks has opened a new research and development facility in Boston. The 10,600-square-foot space contains laboratories dedicated to analytics, food science, fermentation and test kitchens to aid the startup’s efforts in discovering new approaches to formulating plant-based foods that taste better and are more nutritious than current options in the marketplace.

“Right now, consumers are looking for plant-based meats with a full, satisfying flavor, and plant-based dairy products that are truly rich and creamy,” said Jonathan McIntyre, chief executive officer of Motif FoodWorks. “To get there, we’ll need to upend a lot of the traditional research and development approaches that simply aren’t meeting consumer expectations. The only way to move food innovation forward is to invest in new approaches to R&D that have been ignored by the industry for too long. Our lab space will help us apply food science in a multidisciplinary, holistic way to unlock food’s secrets, creating plant-based ingredients and foods that are nutritious and craveable.”

Motif FoodWorks debuted in February 2019 following its spin-off from bioengineering company Ginkgo Bioworks. The new labs are located in the same building as Ginkgo Bioworks, a major investor and strategic scientific partner to Motif FoodWorks, enabling close collaboration as the young company advances from development to scaled production. To date, Motif FoodWorks has raised $119 million in funding and has built a team of industry veterans across food, science and technology. The company has multiple ingredients in development and is partnering with research institutions to solve the sensory challenges of plant-based foods.

The facility was built during the pandemic and incorporates health and safety protocols.