A Startup is Making 'Real' Milk, Cheese, and Ice-cream Without Cows

9/21/2021 11:13:00 AM

Alternative dairy startup producing real milk without cows.

U.S. startup Perfect Day develops innovative alternative dairy products with the same taste and ingredients as real milk only by synthesizing milk protein without real cows.

Just as yeast is added to inflate bread, and brewer's yeast produces alcohol, Synthesis of milk protein by injecting DNA sequences into yeast strains.

We've grown used to oat milk and soya milk — now a food-tech startup is taking alternative milk to the next level.

California-based Perfect Day uses fungi to make dairy protein that is "molecularly identical" to the protein in cow's milk, says co-founder Ryan Pandya. That means it can be used to make dairy products such as cheese and yogurt.

Perfect Day has assembled the gene that codes for whey protein in cow's milk, and introduced it into a fungus. When the fungus is grown in fermentation tanks, it produces whey protein, which is then filtered and dried into a powder used in products including cheese and ice cream — which are already on the shelves in the United States and Hong Kong.

By removing cows from the equation, the production of milk is "dramatically more efficient," says Pandya, producing up to 97% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional dairy.

The next product in development is cream cheese, due to be released later in 2021, says Pandya.

Perfect Day isn't the only company looking to science for sustainable dairy solutions. California startup New Culture is also developing cheese products without cows through a fermentation process, and TurtleTree Labs is creating milk — including human milk — from cultured cells.

According to figures from the Good Food Institute — a nonprofit that aims to boost innovation in alternative proteins — $590 million was invested in fermented alternative proteins in 2020, and $300 million of that went to Perfect Day.

Plant-based milk accounted for 15% of US milk sales in 2020 and is expected to grow, says Mirte Gosker, acting managing director of the Good Food Institute in Asia Pacific.

One challenge for companies is getting regulatory approval, and another is the higher price of innovative products, says Gosker.

"We're developing the kinder, greener way to make your favorite foods starting in the dairy aisle, and we can't do that alone," says Pandya.