Forget Synthetic Meat, Lab-Grown Dairy Is Already Here

The search for sustainable alternatives to meat is emerging in two approaches: the meat-mimicking veggie burger and lab-grown proteins. But in the dairy world, we are limited to plant-based alternatives such as almond milk or cashew butter.

Whether we’re milking cows or slaughtering them, industrial cattle agriculture is horrible for our planet. Many studies have shown this to be a source of localized environmental damage as well as a key culprit in our climate crisis. Our supermarkets are already full of plant-based dairy, and for quite some time too, but now there are many startups who, like the pioneers of cultured meat, want to revolutionize our agriculture system by taking it a step further.

Big Dairy lobbyists, threatened by the already falling milk sales, have been criticizing their plant-based rivals for growing market share. Now, their next enemy is coming from the laboratory in the form of synthetic whey, which may pose an even bigger threat than possibly imagined.

Nowadays, fewer people are drinking cow’s milk, however, they’re still eating yogurt, cheese, ice cream, which all come from a crucial protein called whey. And there’s already a huge market for whey, as demand for whey protein and whey-based products is on the rise thanks to consumer desire for protein in products like bars and shakes.

The U.S. with estimated sales of $10 billion in 2018, is the single largest exporter of whey products. But for all of the popularity, whey still comes from cows, which is increasingly seen as a liability and concern for climate-conscious consumers. We spend billions of dollars on protein for our dairy products, but what if we could get it without using cows?

And that’s exactly what Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi saw within this consumer conundrum. They wanted to be the first to market a non-animal whey protein through their San Francisco area-based company, Perfect Day. Like many other founders of food startups, Pandya and Gandhi are both vegans. However, rather than substituting the delicious taste of real dairy for poor vegan alternatives, they decided to invent their own version of the real thing.

Perfect Day co-founders, Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi.

Changing the process, not the food.

Just 8 years ago, the thought of making real dairy without using cows was simply a moonshot. Today, Perfect Day has not only made that wild idea a reality, but they’re also partnering with groundbreaking brands to begin constructing an entirely new category of animal-free foods.

But, how does Perfect Day do it?

Considering Perfect Day’s mission to make animal-free dairy, they recognized something was missing from current plant-based dairy alternatives — missing that milky magic. So, what is the magic found within dairy?

It all comes down to a small yet super-functional component of milk that makes dairy delicious, nutritious, and versatile. The magic ingredient in our favorite dairy foods isn’t actually the milk itself, but milk protein — specifically, whey and casein proteins. The proteins contribute to the creaminess of milk and the ability to turn milk into other products such as cheese (aka the functionality); the fats in milk contribute to the flavor.

In the traditional agriculture industry, milk is created by artificially inseminating a cow at 13 months of age, bearing the calf 9 months later, removing the calf (to make veal), and then maintaining the cow within a lactating state for two years. By age four, the dairy cow is culled for beef.

Milk is traditionally produced by mother cows kept in a lactating state in an industrial setting. Now, we can make the exact same milk by brewing it from a culture that consumes simple sugars to make milk proteins.

Once they figured out what key ingredients give milk its amazing nutrition and ability to make so many delicious foods, they could create a way to make those foods without cows. The discovery that milk proteins — whey and casein — are the complex molecules perfectly structured to deliver creamy, melty dairy deliciousness made things quite easy moving forward.

All proteins in nature are encoded by specific sequences of DNA called genes. Amazingly, every living creature on earth is made of the same buildings blocks of genetic code. Therefore, to create their animal-free version of milk protein, Perfect Day just had to introduce animal genes (cow in this instance) to an organism that wasn’t an animal.

We can actually obtain the desired cow genes noninvasively, using a few hairs or even a simple cheek swab. At Perfect Day, it’s even easier: they get the genes using a free, digitally published scientific database.

Rather than in mother cows, milk proteins are made in microflora — microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast, or in this case, fungi. Microflora is just an umbrella term that covers all of the microorganisms that can be utilized from across kingdoms to make the molecules desired. Not only is microflora particularly effective at producing animal proteins, but it has a long history of safe use in making ingredients of foods we already eat.

In this case, the genetic blueprint corresponding to whey protein is given to the microflora, enabling it to produce real milk protein — identical to what is produced by cows. Now, as the reprogrammed flora grazes on simple plant-based inputs, they naturally produce milk protein.

To maximize the total amount of protein produced (and for a more sustainable process), the flora is grown in large stainless steel fermentation tanks to brew milk at optimal temperature, pH, and salinity. Fermentation is a natural process you probably already know something about. We enjoy traditional fermented foods at every meal — think bread, pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, miso, kombucha, beer, and wine — and there are hundreds of other fermented foods and drinks enjoyed by cultures across the globe.

Fermentation is central to everything at Perfect Day. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to make dairy proteins from simple plant sugars.

So, how does fermentation work?

1. They start with a sterile, empty bioreactor and fill it with growth media — a highly nutritious liquid containing the plant-based sugars microflora thrive on. The media also contains water, oxygen, nitrogen, salts, minerals, and vitamins.
2. Next, they inoculate the growth media using the microflora. In other words, the microflora is added to the mixture in a controlled environment inside the bioreactor. The temperature, pressure, pH, and stirring action are adjusted precisely to give the flora the perfect conditions to eat, grow, and multiply. In that process of consuming sugar and increasing exponentially, the flora also gives off copious amounts of the desired milk proteins.
3. The fermentation process ends when all the sugar is consumed and the flora stops multiplying. The broth — which now contains water, microflora, protein, and leftover growth media — is drained from the bioreactor. The whey and casein protein is then separated from the microflora, filtered, purified, and finally dried. The process is sterile and safe from the very start to the end, finishing with an extremely pure protein powder ready for use by food makers.

A Better Whey

Perfect Day’s animal-free milk proteins are identical to the ones found in cow’s milk and are even Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA. Also, since only pure protein is being made, not whole milk, there isn’t any lactose, cholesterol, hormones, or antibiotics present at all.

Their product is a protein like no other in the world.

1. They are some of the purest proteins in the food industry, packed with more nutrition per gram than anything else we know of, and performing exactly as expected in traditional dairy processes and recipes.
2. There are ZERO animals involved in the process, meaning there is no chance for contamination by deadly bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli — which live in the gut and feces of animals. There is also no opportunity for contamination by other common milk contaminants such as blood or pus. Because of this reduced risk of contamination, products produced using this approach could have a longer shelf life and require less pasteurization.
3. It is also much easier to maintain a stable supply of milk made using flora and plant-based fats. Traditional milk supply varies upon environmental factors and the spread of disease. However, Perfect Day’s method is much less prone to such uncontrollable forces.
4. They’re also using a very simple organism. For instance, yeast — a type of flora — doubles every couple of hours. However, a cow only produces milk after approximately two years. Using this much simpler and direct system for producing milk and various other dairy products, less land and water inputs will be required, fewer waste products will be generated, and a safer working environment for milk producers will be established.
5. Using a flora-based system to produce milk also opens the possibilities to do things we could never do before. For instance, since the components being produced are being chosen, scientists can tailor the milk mixture to exclude lactose or cholesterol. We can also alter the flavors and formats our foods might have by changing the proportions of components to make milk that is more protein-rich, creamy, or flavorful.

And that’s not all…

Perfect Day’s approach allows us to enjoy the foods we love without compromising our climate future. Every silky, delicious product made with Perfect Day, is one step closer towards a kinder, greener tomorrow.

Compared to traditional production methods, Perfect Day reduces…

1. water demand by at least 96% and up to 99%
2. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 91% and up to 97%
3. non-renewable energy use by at least 29% and up to 60%

That’s up to 99% less water used, 97% fewer greenhouse gasses emitted, and 60% less non-renewable energy consumed. No animals — but, still the same dairy we know and love.​

To put this in perspective, if Perfect Day’s partners used their protein in place of conventional dairy protein just 5% of the time, together we would save the equivalent of:

Water…

Greenhouse Gas Emissions…

Non-renewable Energy for…

A Perfect Partnership

To help reduce climate change risks on a global scale, we need to think bigger.

When Perfect Day started on this journey, they aimed to provide the world with sustainable table-ready and everyday foods like milk, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt, all from humane sources. However, in the first years of development, they realized that the market they were planning to enter was bigger than expected. Simply making their own line of consumer packaged goods was not enough to bring the groundbreaking transformation our current global food supply chain is begging for.

In fact, most of the global supply of milk isn’t used as milk — it’s actually turned into other ingredients and foods we love. Milk’s versatility can be harnessed in many ways. Next time you’re at the grocery store take a look; you’ll find dairy-based ingredients and products in almost every aisle. Now that the magic that makes dairy, dairy is identified, the food makers who create our favorite food products have access to the tools needed to truly transform the industry at scale. These proteins can be used in all sorts of processed goods — lending functionality and boosting nutritious quality in everything from salad dressings and condiments to soups and beverages to baked goods, snack foods, and more.

These proteins are not just familiar to the food industry but widely regarded as the gold standard in food formulation. Therefore, an animal-free version of these proteins is huge for all food makers, big and small, in and out of dairy.​

We need to impact the entire food supply chain.

Perfect Day stopped looking at themselves as simply a new competitor among the plethora of already existing dairy alternatives fighting against Big Dairy, but rather a force of the future where they could empower all sorts of food companies to create kinder, greener products to the consumer. A future that strengthens dairy supply chains while protecting from threats associated with the catastrophic and changing climate. And a future where consumers have options without compromising taste or harming the planet and animals.

Their first commercial partners were makers of sumptuous, premium ice cream. Now, they’re beginning to expand retail partnerships to offer gelato, cream cheese, cake mix, and sports nutrition products — with even more categories to come. By bringing animal-free dairy ingredients to both new brands, and brands we already know and trust, we’ll transform every aisle of the grocery store.

Forging the Future Together

To address big challenges of our lifetime, like climate change, we have to think bigger; and that has way more impact when we put our heads together. People should feel empowered to enjoy the dairy products they love — the same familiar ingredients filled with delicious taste and luscious texture. And in the process, the world will become a more sustainable, greener place as we make milk protein nutritionally identical to that of protein from a cow, using flora fermentation instead of animals.

Together we’ll make high-quality, sustainable foods available to more people than ever before with this simple yet innovative approach, without compromise.

Read my other articles to learn about the problems with the agriculture industry and how cellular agriculture is solving that.

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