General Mills moves into the emerging ‘animal-free’ dairy category with a brand called Bold Cultr – a lactose-free cream cheese alternative utilizing dairy proteins from Perfect Day made via microbial fermentation (without cows).

While plant-based cheese is getting better all the time​​​, say animal-free startups, it has only captured a tiny fraction of the cheese market because products still don’t deliver for many consumers, who would like to make more sustainable or ethical choices, but aren’t willing to compromise on taste, nutrition, or performance.

Making ‘real’ dairy cheese without cows, they argue, offers the best of both worlds: more sustainable and ethical products that don’t involve industrialized animal agriculture, but still deliver the nutrition and functionality of ‘real’ dairy.

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According to a recent lifecycle assessment,​​​ Perfect Day’s non-animal whey protein produces up to 97% fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than whey protein from cows.

Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, with the right set of instructions, an army of microscopic little food factories can now make animal proteins without animals, from collagen and egg albumin to whey protein if you feed them sugar and put them in a fermentation tank.

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