altprotein VietnamResearch / 2026 Public research
Report contents ＋

Part 8 / Sources

Chapter 19

Every source, graded

September 2026 · Second public revision · 18 min read

Evidence lens

All evidence shown. Unlabelled context stays visible.

In this chapter
  1. The external review
  2. Fermentation
  3. Crops and feedstocks
  4. Plant protein
  5. Cultivated meat and cross-cutting
  6. Duckweed, mushrooms and aquafeed
  7. Vietnamese law, regulation and industry data
  8. A closing note

In one paragraph. Sources are grouped by topic. Peer-reviewed sources are separated from grey literature, and industry-funded or advocacy sources are marked as such, because several of the most quotable figures in this field come from organisations that advocate for it. Where a paper was surfaced by search but its full bibliographic record was never independently completed, that is stated, and any claim resting on it should be treated as one step less verified than the rest. A few sources appear under more than one topic.

The external review#

  • Critical Review and Fact-Check of the 2026 Vietnam Alternative Protein Scoping Study, external, undated, received 18 September 2026. The source of the six corrections listed in the revision note and of the unverified figures flagged in chapter 16. Machine-assisted and not independently verified. Its own sourcing includes Scribd mirrors of USDA reports, ResearchGate copies, a commercial market-research page and an issue-level link standing in for a clinical result, so claims taken from it carry a lower evidentiary grade than the rest of this list and are marked as pending wherever they appear.

Fermentation#

Peer-reviewed, Vietnam-connected#

  • Vu, N. T. et al. (2017). Experimental cultivation of Spirulina platensis using My An mineral water, Thua Thien Hue province. Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology 55(5): 548. https://doi.org/10.15625/2525-2518/55/5/9374
  • Do Thi Cam Van and Pham Thi Mai Huong (2024). Recovery of carbon from rice straw for simultaneous production of protein, lipid and carbohydrate by Scenedesmus sp. Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.15625/2525-2518/18692 Contains the 70.7 million tonne rice straw figure rejected in CF-C1.
  • Liên, N. T. T. et al. (2025). Selection of photosynthetic bacteria from the coastal area of Huế City for protein-rich biomass as animal feed. Hue University Journal of Science: Agriculture and Rural Development 134(3B). https://doi.org/10.26459/hueunijard.v134i3b.7797
  • Doan, D. L. N. et al. (2022). Protein extraction from Spirulina platensis with cellulase enzyme assistance. Journal of Technical Education Science 70B: 25-32. https://doi.org/10.54644/jte.70b.2022.1213
  • Nguyen Thi Minh Khanh et al. (2019). New strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae A112 for the production of zinc-fortified biomass. Food Processing: Techniques and Technology. https://doi.org/10.21603/2074-9414-2018-4-114-120
  • Thanh, V. N. (2009). Yeast biodiversity and application in biotechnology: research at FIRI, Vietnam. No DOI located
  • Do, T., Plockova, M. and Chumchalova, J. (2018). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis LTM 32, a new bacteriocin-producing strain isolated from Vietnamese fermented milk. Czech Journal of Food Sciences. https://doi.org/10.17221/6603-CJFS

Peer-reviewed, regulatory and safety#

  • Tan, Y. Q. et al. (2024). Addressing the safety of new food sources and production systems. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.13341 Singapore-authored; treat the description of the Singapore framework as authoritative and the comparative claims as secondary.
  • Hasmin, N. A. et al. (2026). Doctrinal analysis of Malaysian and Indonesian food law for cellular and acellular agriculture products. DOI not resolved.
  • Choi, Y. et al. (2026). Comparative review of safety parameters for novel microbial food ingredients across eight jurisdictions. Abstract only; DOI not resolved.

Peer-reviewed, techno-economics and capital cost#

  • Verbeeck, K., De Vrieze, J., Pikaar, I., Verstraete, W. and Rabaey, K. (2020). Assessing the potential for up-cycling recovered resources from anaerobic digestion through microbial protein production. Microbial Biotechnology. Source of the EUR 5,000 per cubic metre figure.
  • Fasihi, M., Jouzi, F., Tervasmäki, P., Vainikka, P. and Breyer, C. (2025). Global potential of sustainable single-cell protein based on variable renewable electricity. Nature Communications. Source of the EUR 8,649 to 14,567 per annual tonne figures. Full text not accessed in this study.
  • Jean, A. and Brown, R. C. (2024). Techno-economic analysis of gas fermentation for the production of single cell protein. Environmental Science and Technology. Source of the USD 2,070 per tonne minimum selling price.
  • Karamerou, E. E., Parsons, S., McManus, M. and Chuck, C. (2020). Using techno-economic modelling to determine the minimum cost possible for a microbial palm oil substitute. Biotechnology for Biofuels. Scenario costs in section 10.6 are abstract-level. This is an oil process, not a protein process. See F-C3 and F-C4.
  • Risner, D., McDonald, K., Jones, C. A. and Spang, E. (2023). A techno-economic model of mycoprotein production: achieving price parity with beef protein. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. Abstract only in this study; see F-G7.
  • Cunniffe, J. et al. (2025). Techno-economic analysis of industrial-scale fermentation for formate dehydrogenase production. Bioresources and Bioprocessing. Source of the USD 120 per kilogram crude against USD 3,600 per kilogram pure comparison.
  • Ferreira, R. da G., Azzoni, A. and Freitas, S. (2018). Techno-economic analysis of the industrial production of a low-cost enzyme using E. coli: the case of recombinant beta-glucosidase. Biotechnology for Biofuels. Source of the USD 316 per kilogram baseline.
  • Purba, R. and Sangsawad, P. (2025). Biotechnology approaches to dairy alternatives through precision fermentation and cellular agriculture. Food Science of Animal Resources. Source of the USD 210 to 310 per kilogram milk protein figure, itself citing Wood and Tavan (2021).
  • Brouwer, G. J. A. et al. (2025). Volumetric mass transfer and dilution rate as key parameters for sustainable industrial syngas fermentation to isopropyl alcohol. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. Source of the USD 3.45 million for 250 cubic metres quotation. Full text not accessed in this study.
  • Vlaeminck, E. et al. (2023). Single-cell protein production from industrial off-gas through acetate: techno-economic analysis for a coupled fermentation approach. Fermentation. Source of the 18 percent utilities and 58 percent facility-dependent cost shares, of the European input prices, and of the stirred-tank against airlift electricity comparison.
  • Humbird, D. (2021). Scale-up economics for cultured meat. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. Source of the shear, oxygen transfer and catabolite accumulation constraints in 12.1.

Peer-reviewed, downstream processing and life cycle#

  • Lina, R., Lépine, O., Jaouen, P. and Masse, A. (2022). Recovery of water-soluble compounds from Tisochrysis lutea. Membranes. Source of the 85 percent biomass and 15 percent downstream cost split.
  • Behm, K., Nappa, M., Aro, N., Welman, A., Ledgard, S., Suomalainen, M. et al. (2022). Comparison of carbon footprint and water scarcity footprint of milk protein produced by cellular agriculture and the dairy industry. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Source of the 5.5 to 17.6 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent and 88 to 5,030 cubic metre ranges.
  • Akinsemolu, A. and Onyeaka, H. (2025). Mycoproteins as sustainable food sources. Discover Applied Sciences.
  • Gnaim, R., Kassim, H., Neidhardt, L., Gassler, T. and Ledesma-Amaro, R. (2026). Navigating adoption barriers for microbial proteins in future food. Nature Communications.

Peer-reviewed, substrates and biomass protein#

  • Karimi, S., Mahboobi Soofiani, N., Lundh, T., Mahboubi, A., Kiessling, A. and Taherzadeh, M. J. (2019). Evaluation of filamentous fungal biomass cultivated on vinasse as an alternative nutrient source of fish feed: protein, lipid and mineral composition. Fermentation 5(4): 99. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation5040099 Results table read directly to correct F-C2. The methods have not been examined, and the headline 118.5 g/L figure is unusually high: see the caution in 10.1 and action 12.
  • Sukara, E. (1989). Production of single cell protein from cassava by microfungi. https://doi.org/10.14264/259505
  • Santos, J. et al. (1983). Production of fungal protein from rasped fresh cassava roots using 200- and 3000-litre fermentors. Animal Feed Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-8401(83)90051-2
  • Jin, B. et al. (2001). A bioprocessing mode for simultaneous fungal biomass protein production and wastewater treatment. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.486
  • Nitayavardhana, S. and Khanal, S. (2010). Innovative biorefinery concept for sugar-based ethanol industries: production of protein-rich fungal biomass from vinasse. Bioresource Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.07.048
  • Nair, R. B. and Taherzadeh, M. (2016). Valorization of sugar-to-ethanol process waste vinasse. Bioresource Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.09.074
  • Souza Filho, P. F. et al. (2018). Vegan-mycoprotein concentrate from pea-processing industry byproduct using edible filamentous fungi. Fungal Biology and Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40694-018-0050-9
  • Souza Filho, P. F. et al. (2018). Edible protein production by filamentous fungi using starch plant wastewater. Waste and Biomass Valorization. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-018-0265-2
  • Uwineza, C. et al. (2021). Evaluation of the cultivation of Aspergillus oryzae on organic waste-derived volatile fatty acid effluents. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212489
  • Ahmed, S. et al. (2017). Fungal biomass protein production from Trichoderma harzianum using rice polishing. BioMed Research International. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6232793
  • Tong, S. et al. (2023). Efficient mycoprotein production with low CO2 emissions through metabolic engineering and fermentation optimization of Fusarium venenatum. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c08509
  • Xue, M. J. et al. (1992). A pilot process of solid-state fermentation from sugar-beet pulp for the production of microbial protein. Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering. https://doi.org/10.1016/0922-338X(92)90161-M
  • Additional substrate studies surfaced by search and cited in sections 10.1, 10.2 and 10.8 but not independently verified: "Candida tropicalis able to produce yeast single cell protein using sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolysate as carbon source"; "Cultivation of Candida utilis on cassava peel hydrolysates for single-cell protein production"; "Protein enrichment of cassava pulp by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida utilis as alternative feed resource"; "Production of single cell protein by a local Trichoderma reesei in solid state fermentation"; "Use of cereals and other starch-rich by-products in fungal protein production"; "D-amino acid oxidase production from cassava glucose syrup by Trigonopsis variabilis". Bibliographic records for these remain incomplete.

Peer-reviewed, precision fermentation hosts and titers#

All surfaced in the precision fermentation search. Records are author and year only.

  • Claes et al. (2024). OPENPichia: licence-free Komagataella phaffii chassis strains and toolkit for protein expression. Nature Microbiology.
  • Aro et al. (2022). Beta-lactoglobulin and ovalbumin in Trichoderma reesei.
  • Biermann et al. (2025). Microorganisms. Beta-casein in Pichia pastoris GS115 and alphaS1-casein in Bacillus subtilis.
  • Wang et al. (2020). AlphaS1-casein in E. coli BL21(DE3) on wheat-straw hydrolysate.
  • Garcia-Calvo et al. (2025). Ovalbumin in Komagataella phaffii via CRISPR/Cas9 integration.
  • Jin et al. (2024). Ovalbumin in S. cerevisiae, glucose-limited fed-batch.
  • Beck et al. (2025). Ovomucoid in Komagataella phaffii.
  • Shao et al. (2022). Soy leghemoglobin in Pichia pastoris, 10 litre fed-batch.
  • Tian et al. (2024). Soy leghemoglobin in Kluyveromyces marxianus, 5 litre fermentor.
  • Bae et al. (2025). Soy leghemoglobin in S. cerevisiae and K. phaffii.
  • Zhang et al. (2021). Porcine myoglobin in K. phaffii X33 with hemin feeding.
  • Sun et al. (2025). Porcine myoglobin in K. phaffii under the PGCWm-121 promoter.
  • Xue et al. (2022). Bovine and porcine myoglobin in S. cerevisiae.
  • Nielsen et al. (2023). Review stating the threshold above 50 grams per litre for cost-efficient food protein manufacturing.
  • US patent 9924728B2. Recombinant beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin production in Pichia pastoris / Komagataella phaffii and their use in food.

Grey literature and primary sources#

Industry-funded or advocacy-funded, marked as such:

Government, regulator and official statistics:

Professional advisory, independent of the alternative protein sector but commercially motivated:

Company first-party material, unaudited:

Crops and feedstocks#

Government, regulator and official statistics#

Industry and trade data#

Peer-reviewed#

  • Beňová, D., Mareš, K., Hutla, P., Ivanova, T., Banout, J. and Kolaříková, M. (2021). Energy potential of agri residual biomass in Southeast Asia with the focus on Vietnam. Agronomy 11(1): 169. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010169 Source of the 97 million tonne rice straw and 9 million tonne rice husk figures, and of its own caveat that availability data are lacking. The percentage shares attributed to it could not be confirmed; see CF-C2 and open question CF-G8.
  • Research and development prospects for the sugarcane industry in Vietnam (2022). Sugar Tech. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-022-01113-7 Cane area, tonnage, mill count and crushing capacity for 2020/21.
  • Karimi, S. et al. (2019). As above in the fermentation list. https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation5040099
  • Do Thi Cam Van and Pham Thi Mai Huong (2024). As above in the fermentation list. Source of the 70.7 million tonne rice straw figure rejected in CF-C1.

Peer-reviewed, records incomplete#

Cited as the basis for specific numeric claims used here. Author and year only.

  • Srianta et al. (2021) and Rachamontree et al. (2019). Cassava pulp and peel composition; furfural and HMF inhibition thresholds.
  • Ezebuiro et al. (2015). Cassava peel and bagasse composition.
  • Andres-Meza et al. (2024). Cassava processing wastewater starch and nitrogen content.
  • Adebami et al. (2025). Rice bran and bagasse carbohydrate content.
  • Evangelista et al. (2021) and Cedeno et al. (2025). Rice straw composition and post-pretreatment sugar concentration.
  • Khan et al. (2020), Martiniano et al. (2020) and Mabia et al. (2025). Molasses sugar profile and mineral content.
  • Perez-Contreras et al. (2025). Vinasse composition.
  • Wichitchan et al. (2014). Fresh cassava root storage limit and chip inventory modelling. The chip loss figure from this source is rejected in CF-C4.
  • Massamby et al. (2026) and Ejilane et al. (2025). Cassava moisture, starch and fermentable content.
  • Zohri et al. (2022). Molasses storage sugar loss and the 40 degree Celsius ceiling.
  • Formann et al. (2020). Molasses and vinasse seasonal availability of 200 to 240 days.
  • Essien et al. (2018). Rice straw ensiling moisture windows and storage life.
  • Karmakar (2026). Rice straw dry matter loss in storage.
  • "Study on the potential of rice straws as a supplementary fuel in very small power plants in Thailand". Thai residue use shares for 2015/16.
  • "Hydrothermal carbonization and gasification technology for electricity production using biomass". Philippine straw burning share and rice husk price.
  • "Alternative uses of crop stubble". Punjab straw and wheat straw burning shares.
  • "Impact of alkaline pretreatment to enhance volatile fatty acids production from rice husk". Rice husk incineration shares.

Plant protein#

Government and official statistics#

Peer-reviewed#

  • A narrative review on rice proteins: current scenario and food industrial application (2022). PMC9370113. Adjudicates the rice bran lysine question in NP-C2, including the 24 to 43 percent against 4 to 8 percent albumin comparison. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9370113/

Peer-reviewed, records incomplete#

Titles as returned by the search; author and year records are incomplete.

Rice bran protein extraction and functionality: Effect of different stabilisation treatments on preparation and functional properties of rice bran proteins. Optimization of extraction process parameter for rice bran protein concentrate and its utilization in high protein biscuit formulation. Effect of microwave and enzymatic treatment on the recovery of protein from Indian defatted rice bran meal. Comparison of two methods for the extraction of fractionated rice bran protein. Dual-stage ultrasound application for rice bran protein extraction. Feasibility of ultrasound-assisted optimized process of high purity rice bran protein extraction. Effects of ultrasound extraction on the physicochemical and emulsifying properties of rice bran protein. Impacts of electroextraction using the pulsed electric field on properties of rice bran protein. Solid-state fermentation for the enrichment and extraction of proteins and antioxidant compounds in rice bran by Rhizopus oryzae. Extraction of heat-stabilised defatted rice bran protein by solid-state fermentation using heterofermentative microbes from traditional Asian starters. Valorization of agricultural wastes for the production of protein-based biopolymers. Effects of high hydrostatic pressure pretreatment on the functional and structural properties of rice bran protein hydrolysates. Functional properties of rice bran proteins extracted from low-heat-treated defatted rice bran. Effect of extraction methods of rice bran protein on their functional properties. Comparative study of fractionation technologies and their impact on the nutritional and functional properties of maize and rice fractions. Determination of adequate method for protein extraction from rice bran and the substitution of dried skim milk with protein concentrate from rice bran in early weaned pigs. Development of functional beverage with rice bran protein (Hom mali 105).

Mung bean, pea and soy protein: 22 papers cited; individual records not extracted.

Press cake proteins: 31 papers cited; individual records not extracted.

Protein quality: 43 and 48 papers found in two sub-queries, 22 cited on the mung bean follow-up; individual records not extracted.

Carbon-to-nitrogen co-feeding: 14 papers cited; individual records not extracted.

Note on completeness. Individual bibliographic records were not pulled for every search in this round: the volume of cited papers exceeded what was worth extracting before the findings were triaged. Every numeric claim in chapter 11 carries the source title the search returned, and readers should treat those claims as one step less verified than the rest of the report. This is the largest single weakness in this report's evidence base, and no external review has tested it.

Cultivated meat and cross-cutting#

Trade and industry

Cell lines, via the external review, unverified

  • ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (2023). Continuous thymus cell line from Pangasianodon hypophthalmus, designated PHT, accession NRFC-078. Also a gill cell line, PHG. Accessions not independently confirmed; see CS-C3.
  • PmLyO-Sf9, a continuous hybrid line from Penaeus monodon lymphoid cells fused with Sf9. Not independently confirmed.
  • US Food and Drug Administration "no questions" letter to Wildtype for cell-cultivated coho salmon, 28 May 2025. Date and form taken from trade coverage via the external review, not from the letter; see CS-C1.

Peer-reviewed, records incomplete. Individual records were not extracted for this round beyond Humbird (2021). Every numeric claim in chapters 12 and 13 rests on a source the search named but that was not independently catalogued here.

Duckweed, mushrooms and aquafeed#

Government, regulator and institutional

Peer-reviewed and research literature

  • Men, B. X. and colleagues (1996). Duckweed (Lemna spp) as replacement for roasted soya beans in diets of broken rice for fattening ducks on a small scale farm in the Mekong delta. Livestock Research for Rural Development 8(3). Can Tho, May to July 1995; 38.6 percent crude protein; performance and economics. https://www.lrrd.org/lrrd8/3/men831.htm
  • Nutrient removal by duckweed from anaerobically treated swine wastewater in lab-scale stabilization ponds in Vietnam (2020). Science of the Total Environment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720313668

Trade, industry and press

Vietnamese law, regulation and industry data#

A closing note#

This report is a scoping study, not a business plan. Its purpose is to establish what is known, what is not, and what the cheapest next step is in each case.

The most useful thing in it is probably chapter 17 rather than the ranking in chapter 5. Eleven of the open questions close with a single letter, phone call or download.

And one thing this revision taught, which is worth passing on. An external review found four places where this report had overstated, and in all four it had overstated in the direction of its own recommendation: the feed approval timeline, the size of the aquafeed market, the investment incentive thresholds, and the ease of the self-declaration route. None changed the ranking. All four would have been quoted by somebody. An internal audit had checked this report against itself, found twenty-two other issues, and found none of these.

A document checked against itself cannot catch a bias it shares. That is the argument for making the phone calls: the people on the other end have no stake in what this report recommends.

Published by altprotein.vn. Outputs from this work are intended for bilingual publication, for an open audience of potential entrepreneurs and policy readers. The findings are written in plain sentences, with terms defined in chapter 1 and idiom avoided, so that they survive translation into Vietnamese.

Two standing instructions apply before any figure here is quoted elsewhere. Incomplete bibliographic records should be completed first. And the figures marked unverified or pending in chapters 15 and 16 should not be quoted, in either language, until someone has opened the source.