Europe is expanding the ways it produces food protein. The decisive industrial questions concern usable ingredients, reliable production and the cost of turning biological potential into food people choose to buy. Europe’s alternative protein sector is reaching an important industrial milestone. In September 2026, the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking reported that the PLENITUDE mycoprotein facility in Sas van Gent, the Netherlands, was operational and had made its first commercial supply in 2025. Its potential capacity is 10,000 tonnes a year. That establishes a route into commercial production, although capacity alone does not show how much product a plant sells. The distinction matters for a sector often discussed through factory announcements and ambitious forecasts. An ingredient must be produced consistently, perform in a recipe, meet relevant safety requirements and reach a buyer at an acceptable price. These conditions connect biology with engineering and food manufacturing. They also explain why a larger fermentation vessel, by itself, cannot settle the question of competitiveness. Different proteins require different industrial systems Alternative proteins encompass several distinct production routes. Plant …