Plant molecular farming delivers a new way to produce scalable, profitable animal-free cheese that fulfills authentic cheese cravings
Food-tech start-up NewMoo, Ltd. makes its debut in the ‘happy cow’ space by using plant molecular farming (PMF) to produce casein proteins for making cheese. Caseins comprise about 80 per cent of the proteins in dairy milk. The resulting product allows cheesemakers to deliver the same genuine cheese experience as traditional dairy cheese via a cost-effective, animal-free, and sustainable pathway
Until now, cheese alternatives have struggled to offer consumers the real cheese experience, nutrition, and price. Cheese analogues do not contain the key dairy proteins, and caseins, necessary to precisely recreate the sensory properties of dairy cheese.
The scientists at NewMoo discovered a way to express casein proteins in plant seeds that can grow abundantly through traditional field agriculture. After three years of stealth, NewMoo unveils proteins that match dairy proteins in nutrition, composition, and function.
The start-up’s technology and concept are built on exclusive research and intellectual property derived at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel. The innovation allows for the expression of two or more caseins within a single plant via a novel approach to plant molecular farming. The seeds are then sown in outdoor fields. After harvesting the plants, the NewMoo casein liquid base is produced through a unique development process that yields hormone-free liquid casein naturally free of lactose and cholesterol and that replicates the functionality of dairy cheese.