Israel-based food tech start-up DairyX Foods claims the development is a major advancement in creating dairy proteins, through precision fermentation, but without cows.

The fledgling business has refined a suite of complementary technologies to build the “gelation of its casein micelles”, a component vital to producing real cheese qualities without the animal.

Using the new tech, manufacturers can create a variety of cheeses, including firm, stretchy and creamy in traditional ways, claims DairyX.

While other animal-free caseins are available, “not all produced using precision fermentation are alike”, says head of product development and downstream processing, Dr Maya Bar-Zeev.

“We trained yeast to produce the next generation of casein. DairyX’s patent-pending casein is an advanced form, created to precisely and effectively organise into micelles,” continues Bar-Zeev.

Reduced cost of dairy-free cheese

The business can produce high casein volume yields from its yeast strains in short timeframes, meaning it could become a low-cost product and a crucial factor in upscaling animal-free cheese production.

DairyX will focus on scaling up the production process further and collaborating with dairy companies to help them make replicated cheese and dairy products without the use of cows.

“Another significant challenge dairy companies face is adapting their production facilities to use new ingredients,” says Bar-Zeev. “This is why we created a drop-in replacement for milk that does not require process changes or retooling.”