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Biotech

Animal-Free Dairy Milk Set To Finally Hit US Retail Shelves (newatlas.com) 253

Posted by BeauHD from the I-can't-believe-there's-no-cows dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NewAtlas: A new kind of milk will soon hit US shelves but it isn't some plant-based product designed to resemble dairy milk. Instead it is made from whey proteins produced by microflora engineered to spit out exactly the same proteins found in milk from a cow. The unique cow-free milk is the first product from Betterland foods, a new company looking to create novel and sustainable food products. Betterland is working on the cow-free milk with Perfect Day, a company formed in 2014 by two vegans looking to find a way to produce tastier animal-free dairy products.

Perfect Day's big innovation was identifying whey protein as the key element in dairy products that could only be produced by an animal. Every other element could be found elsewhere. So Perfect Day scientists engineered a type of fungus to produce cow whey proteins through a process called precision fermentation. Creating a cow-free whey protein is only the first step in the journey to getting novel animal-free dairy products to supermarket shelves. A series of ice creams using the whey proteins were the first products using Perfect Day's proteins to reach commercial shelves, but according to Ryan Pandya, co-founder of Perfect Day, a cow-free dairy milk was always the main goal. "The two new products are a whole milk and an extra creamy milk," adds the report. "The milk contains eight grams of protein and has 67 percent less sugar than conventional cow milk. It is also lactose and cholesterol free."

While the cow-free milk "will likely still trigger allergic responses" for individuals allergic to dairy, the company argues this new type of milk may be vegan friendly because their whey protein technically isn't an animal product.
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Animal-Free Dairy Milk Set To Finally Hit US Retail Shelves More

Animal-Free Dairy Milk Set To Finally Hit US Retail Shelves

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  • I also can't believe that replacing cows with genetically modified fungi and growing "milk" in fermentation vats is an improvement. It's interesting though.

    • Sustainability. Scalability. ... and probably customization. More or less of various components.

      And, for *some* people, the ethics are a consideration.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Yes, those people wouldn't touch this sort of unethical garbage with a ten foot pole.

        Now people fundamentally divorced from ethics and reality who call omnivores "carnivores" and think that natural order of things doesn't concern humans because they exist outside animal kingdom... Those people may be interested.

        You know, vegans.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        Is this is "sustainable" as walnut milk? Methane farts aside, cows grazing on grass (ok, this rarely happens in the USA but its common in europe) is about as sustainable as you can get.

        • Is this is "sustainable" as walnut milk? Methane farts aside, cows grazing on grass (ok, this rarely happens in the USA but its common in europe) is about as sustainable as you can get.

          With precision fermentation, you give microbes about 2 units of plants to produce 1 unit of protein (that could be meat protein or milk protein). In contrast, you can feed cattle about 100 units of plants to produce 1 unit of protein. Likewise, the amount of water required for precision fermentation is orders of magnitude less than that required for raising cattle. In addition, cows produce methane gas, while precision fermentation does not. Also (when precision fermentation technology matures enough) there

  • Can I get the dairy free animal milk instead?

  • Solving the Wrong Problem (Score:3)

    by Aero77 ( 1242364 ) on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @08:47AM (#62314661)
    Humans drink cows milk because it is readily available and superficially similar to human milk. If you are going to engineer a product that is chemically similar, it should be based on human milk, not cows milk. Both vegans and non-vegans won't drink this. Good science, now focus on the real target.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ebcdic ( 39948 )
      "Humans drink cows milk because it is ... superficially similar to human milk" - do you have any evidence that this is why people drink cows' milk?

      • ""Humans drink cows milk because it is ... superficially similar to human milk" - do you have any evidence that this is why people drink cows' milk?"

        People get brain-washed from early child-age that it's good for you.
        Got milk?

        We have this nice bovine gland-secretion, full or hormones and antibiotics, care for a drink?

  • Moo? (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Crowded ( 6202674 ) on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @08:54AM (#62314675)
    Doesn't it not coming from animals make it non-dairy to start with or did someone splitting hairs get this crap past the idiot check?

    This is *EXACTLY* the same thing as non-meat meat. STOP trying to make something that tastes like something else - it's never right and ultimately costs more for something less.

    Soy Milk and Almond Milk are 'popular alternatives' that do well because they're not TRYING to taste like actual cow milk. My preference is Skinny Cow since I need to stay nonfat and it tastes good to me.

    Almost everyone will switch to Krill patties or pickled bamboo chutes if they're inexpensive and yummy without you trying to sell it as something else.

    • Yeah, it's an interesting question regarding "dairy" and I imagine the dairy industry would dislike such a product being marketed that way. I think fermented products is a step in the right direction, much of what makes milk special is the microbiome living in the gut of the cow. I'd agree that avoiding trying to reach parity with animal products is probably a solid idea, especially since many substances fall short once you start to look at details like protein efficiency.

    • 'Engineered' food is a lot more profitable than whole food. Look at what a box of cereal costs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      STOP trying to make something that tastes like something else - it's never right and ultimately costs more for something less.

      Meanwhile the market for fake meat keeps growing every year. You can cry "STOP" all you want of course but how about you try just letting people eat what they want instead of crying about it?

      • No kidding. I love my Impossible burgers regardless of their health qualities and I don't care what anyone else thinks.

        It's strange & disturbing to me how many meat eaters bitch about people eating meat substitutes they enjoy and then turn around and complain about how all vegans are loudmouths who are trying to force their opinions on everyone. And I'm not even vegan.

  • Perfect Day scientists engineered a type of fungus to produce cow whey proteins...The company argues this new type of milk may be vegan friendly because their whey protein technically isn't an animal product.

    Really makes one wonder how many vegans will have no issue with "biologically engineered" bacteria to make animal-equivalent proteins. The ones I've met have very strong opinions about GMO foods as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pr0nbot ( 313417 )

      I'm not a vegan but would prefer to eat fewer animal products for the usual reasons (health, animal welfare, eco etc).

      I object to GMO not on technical grounds but ethical ones around IP and the perverse incentives there would be for private companies owning GM tech and where those would lead.

      I'm not obsessive about all this but I do use quite a lot of milk so if I could find a substitute that tastes reasonable, has fewer calories and isn't an eco-disaster I'd be up for it. Unfortunately most fail on the fir

  • Is vegan a way of eating that is intended to be more healthy or merely avoiding animal based foods, but the same food created from non-animal sources is ok? This milk sounds like a GMO based product - is that magically OK? As DOW said "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry," or is it one of "The miracles of science?"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      I'm not sure if the concept that it could be about both or either passed you buy or you just forgot to include them. I doubt there are many people who eat vegan who do it with no interest whatsoever in animal welfare, purely because you could clearly eat healthily while drinking a bit of milk in a cup of tea every so often or having a few slivers of chicken every few days but that's no reason to think that people aren't also influenced by what they see as healthy dietary choices.

      The GMO point is very rel

      • I'm not sure if the concept that it could be about both or either passed you buy or you just forgot to include them. I doubt there are many people who eat vegan who do it with no interest whatsoever in animal welfare, purely because you could clearly eat healthily while drinking a bit of milk in a cup of tea every so often or having a few slivers of chicken every few days but that's no reason to think that people aren't also influenced by what they see as healthy dietary choices.

        Yea and/or would have been a better choice of words since I did not mean to arbitrarily exclude it being both.

        The GMO point is very relevant though; my experience, which involves working with brands that produce vegan products, is that there is a huge overlap in the vegan and the anti-gmo/natural demographics. However there is also a very large demographic out there that is buying cows milk because that is what they are used to, and for that demographic a direct replacement may well be attractive if the price is right.

        I suspect, as with anything, there is a wide range of what an individual considers vegan; starting with vegan vs. vegetarian. And if tehy are like any other broad group with many subgroups, much argument over who is pure and correct.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm not a vegan but I know a few, and they say it's a combination of environmental reasons (meat farming generates a lot of greenhouse gas), animal welfare reasons, and only occasionally health reasons.

    • Foods sourced from factory-farmed animals tend to be extremely unhealthy. IMO, it is best for everyone to avoid them insofar as possible.

      People adopt vegan diets for many reasons. The above tends to be one of them, but there are many more. For instance, in my case, because I cannot properly digest most animal-derived foods. This also means I can't digest chemically-similar substances even if they are plant-based, such as tropical and/or hydrogenated/interesterified oils and fats. It also means that the

  • Shelf Life? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by holophrastic ( 221104 ) on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @09:03AM (#62314715)

    Can't believe an article about milk doesn't mention shelf life.

    In the last five years, I've started drinking all sorts of milk, in addition to cow's milk. Hemp milk was by far the best (nice and grassy), with oat being a decent second. I won't say that they are better than cow's milk as a straight beverage, but I will say that they are better than cow's milk as a flavoured beverage, or as a flavour, or in coffee (if your coffee is so bad that it needs anything added to it).

    But in covid, they have a shelf life of years, which made it very very easy to keep ten liters lying around.

    So what's the shelf-life of fungus milk?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Powder milk will be fine for decades if you store it in sealed dry and cool environment. Flash heated milk preserves for something like half a year in room temperature in a sealed container.

      • Powdered milk is, unfortunately, the most disgusting thing I was ever forced to consume as a child. To be fair, my knowledge is thirty-years old -- which is pretty much how it tasted.

        I've never heard of flash heated milk. Is that something I can DIY?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by HiThere ( 15173 )

          I think that "flash heated" is the same as "ultra-pasteurized", in which case, no, you can't do it yourself. It involves really rapid heat/cool cycles to particular temperature points in a sealed sterile container.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Can't believe an article about milk doesn't mention shelf life.

      You want dog's milk. Nothing wrong with dog's milk. Full of goodness, full of vitamins, full of marrowbone jelly. Lasts longer than any other milk, dog's milk.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • Dog's milk is bad...
        The real deal is she-wolf milk.
        Romulus and Remus grew up with it, and put the bases of an empire that thrived for close to a millennium.

  • Given that dairy is linked to a lot of health issues (osteoporosis and heart disease in particular) and isn't actually tolerated by the vast majority of people in the world (congestion, inflammation, bloating, gas, etc. are all common reactions), why try to re-create it?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      The primary intolerance of milk is lactose intolerance, the natural loss of enzymes needed to digest lactose that all infants are born with. This can be suppressed by constant ingestion of milk, as for most people as long as you keep taking in lactose, enzymes continue to be secreted.

      And osteoporosis link for milk is that if you don't drink enough of it, you're going to suffer loss of calcium and may develop osteoporosis. I.e. the link is that "drink milk to avoid it". Heart disease on the other hand is lin

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by printman ( 54032 )

        The primary intolerance of milk is lactose intolerance, the natural loss of enzymes needed to digest lactose that all infants are born with. This can be suppressed by constant ingestion of milk, as for most people as long as you keep taking in lactose, enzymes continue to be secreted.

        Lactose is only one small part of it - most cheese has no lactose (consumed by bacteria in the cheese making process) yet many have an inflammatory response. Whey protein isn't easy for the body to assimilate (one of the reasons it is constipating) and if it gets through your intestinal wall before it is digested you'll get an immune response, causing inflammation.

        And osteoporosis link for milk is that if you don't drink enough of it, you're going to suffer loss of calcium and may develop osteoporosis. I.e. the link is that "drink milk to avoid it". Heart disease on the other hand is linked to ingestion of far too much fat. Not really related to milk, so much as being obese because of totality of life choices.

        Um, no. Humans cannot assimilate the calcium in milk (it isn't in the right form) and in order to deal with the acidity your body draws on your c

        • Seconded.

          As with other factory-farmed animals, most dairy cows tend to be extremely unhealthy, due to the conditions of their confinement. Their milk, also, is designed to feed baby cows, not baby humans and especially not adult humans. It also tends to contain numerous substances that can harm us. Lactose, as you mention, is only one of them, and my kids, who don't eat dairy at home but do enjoy cheese elsewhere, have grown intolerant to it, even though many cheeses contain low amounts of lactose if any

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Given that dairy is linked to a lot of health issues (osteoporosis and heart disease in particular) and isn't actually tolerated by the vast majority of people in the world (congestion, inflammation, bloating, gas, etc. are all common reactions), why try to re-create it?

      Dairy and meat availability is linked to higher stature, intelligence and life expectancy. Nutrition is still a bigger issue for the majority of the world than too much of a good thing.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by printman ( 54032 )

        Given that dairy is linked to a lot of health issues (osteoporosis and heart disease in particular) and isn't actually tolerated by the vast majority of people in the world (congestion, inflammation, bloating, gas, etc. are all common reactions), why try to re-create it?

        Dairy and meat availability is linked to higher stature, intelligence and life expectancy. Nutrition is still a bigger issue for the majority of the world than too much of a good thing.

        Meat, yes, dairy no. Dairy consumption only started around 6000 years ago while humans have been eating meat for a lot longer, at least 2.6 million years. Humans, like all mammals, are not supposed to be drinking milk once they can eat food, and we certainly don't need milk that is formulated to produce an 800-1000kg cow.

        Agriculture and learning to preserve meats were bigger changes for "modern" humans that allowed people to stay in one place and have food throughout the winter months.

        • are not supposed to be drinking milk once they can eat food

          Who adjudicates what people are supposed to eat/drink?
    • To me at least - one of the strangest aspects of veganism is the seeming desire to imitate non-vegan foods. Rather than go through all the trouble of making pretend bacon, or this pseudo milk product, just eat the raw materials as they are.

      What I find interesting about this is that they use the term "microflora" for the creation of synthetic whey. It is not plant based - it is fungal based. And over the years - fungi, which are in their own kingdom.

      What is more - while once considered plants - over tim

      • Now if I were an ethical vegan, I would not consume any products created by fungi, because there is a big question mark as to what exactly they are.

        This is one of the strangest comments I've seen today. They are fungi. Even if you read some of the astoundingly dubious articles about fungi intelligence, that only applies to mycelial networks, not single celled one and even then, the mushrooms only grow out from the network as fruiting bodies.

        Because if a person offhand decides they are plants - they are wron

    • Exactly, as a vegan for over 30yrs, and seen so many cases why we shouldn't be drinking the milk from other species....I'm confused why anyone thinks this is a good idea.

      Cow's milk is completely unnecessary, offers relatively little helpful nutrition (and very common in plants, that's what cows eat after all), and is an extremely common allergen. 'Yeah, let's make more of that!'

      Not to mention the 'uncanny valley' effect, just like in video, it'll be the same thing with food: the closer it gets, the worse it

  • If we don't eat them or drink their milk what are all these cows going to do to earn a living?

    • The day the Vegans win, to celibate their victory billions of animals will be set free and die a slow painful death, as they were domesticated and bred to produce goods, and live with human assistance. Animals like pigs will grow feral, and be a threat to the local ecosystems and people as well.

      While especially Americans should eat less meat, and animal products for environmental and health reasons. Cutting it all off is just a bad idea, it should decline to a set of small farms, where the animals are trea

    • Thanks. As an ex-dairy farmer now I'm picturing a line of cows standing around waiting for their welfare checks. In jaunty hats. 'Cause out of work peeps need jaunty hats.

    • Haven't you heard of the Universal basic income ?

  • "No f*cking chocolate." - George Carlin

  • Perfect Day performed animal testing on this, so if dish soap or cosmetics that's tested on animals isn't vegan, how is this?

  • If they're Vegans, they have to get the consent of the microflora to use the products of their bodies, or they're violating the entire Vegan ethic. Since it's impossible to get informed consent from a microorganism, this is not a 'Vegan' product, and the scientists who created and marketed it are frauds, it's just as bad as taking milk from a cow.

    The above is said about half-sarcastically, but that is the way Vegans think -- which just illustrates how ridiculous Veganism is, and why it should be disregar

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