There are so many reasons why the current food system needs to change. Climate breakdown, health issues, social justice, and animal rights, all come to mind. If everyone stopped eating meat, dairy and eggs, the food industry’s damaging impact on the planet would all but disappear, and while there are some positive trends, change is not happening fast enough. It’s clear we need solutions that accelerate change and science might just have found the answer in meat and dairy alternative technologies. Today, we are closer than ever to recreating animal products that are identical in every way to their animal-based counterparts, and one technology leading the way is precision fermentation.
What Is Precision Fermentation?
Precision fermentation (PF) is a well-established concept in science. The process, using genetic code and the magic of microbes, allows scientists to recreate naturally occurring molecules without extracting them from the original source. Insulin, once extracted laboriously from the pancreases of slaughtered cows and pigs, has been created using PF since the 1980s. And other health products, such as vitamins and food enzymes, are also often created using precision fermentation.
Only in recent years have scientists begun using this same technology to create alternative proteins. Many people believe that PF has the potential to fundamentally change the food industry and render large parts of animal agriculture completely obsolete. This makes it an incredibly exciting prospect for people, animals, and the planet.
The beauty of precision fermentation is that it actually requires very little scientific intervention and can be applied in simple lab environments, using equipment that already exists for large-scale fermentation. This means it can easily be scaled up to production levels that are cost-effective.
The Precision Fermentation Process
We’ve probably all heard of fermentation. It’s an age-old process used to create products we know and love like bread, beer, wine, and kimchi. Precision fermentation applies the same natural principles with some additional scientific engineering to adapt the outcomes. When applied to creating proteins, the result is a product that is identical to animal-derived products but made solely from microbes.
Using dairy milk as an example, this is how it works:
- Scientists identify the DNA sequence for whey protein present in dairy. This sequence is well known and available to download online!
- They then 3D print the sequence using synthetic nucleotides (the chemical compound that forms all genetic material).
- The resulting product is mixed with microflora (like yeast or fungi), which magically adopts the DNA sequence of the whey proteins and begins to multiply.
- The microflora is then mixed in a tank with sugars, nutrients, and minerals.
- The traditional fermentation process then takes control and creates the protein that we are looking for, in this case, whey protein.
- This whey protein is then used by culinary experts to make products such as milk, cheese, and ice cream.
Pretty incredible right? And that’s not all.
Through PF, proteins (and other molecules) can actually be improved. Scientists can alter the genetic coding and processing to remove undesirable properties from the final product. For example, milk taken from animals contains hormones and saturated fats. Precision fermentation can remove those and create a superior, healthier product that tastes the same.
How Promising Is Precision Fermentation?
Precision fermentation is arguably the most promising alternative protein technology the world has ever seen and it has the potential to render the damaging dairy, egg, and honey industries obsolete in the next ten years. These are the simplest industries to disrupt, as they have dominant protein molecules that can easily be recreated using precision fermentation. They are also the animal-derived products that are most commonly used as powdered or liquid ingredients in foodservice and popular products like ice cream, cakes, and biscuits.
PF can also provide ingredients that will revolutionize meat alternatives, such as cultured and plant-based meats. They can help bridge the ‘taste gap’ and make them indistinguishable from animals’ flesh. Leather, collagen, silk, and many more animal-based products are also being replicated using precision fermentation.
The technology is so promising that thinktank RethinkX believes precision fermentation will account for more than half of protein production by 2030.
Precision Fermentation and Dairy
Precision fermentation can accurately produce both casein and whey. These two ingredients form the basis of all dairy products so if they can be created using PF at scale and become cheaper than conventional dairy, food manufacturers will switch to using them. As you can see, the cost is already falling.
Many companies producing ‘nature accurate’ dairy products without cows have already been approved for sale in the USA and Singapore. Companies are now scaling up, so they can become competitive with the well-established supply chains of conventional dairy.
Precision Fermentation Dairy Companies
These are some leading precision fermentation dairy companies to look out for!
Perfect Day
Perfect Day (USA) is leading the charge for precision fermented dairy. Following FDA approval in 2019, they have launched a large range of dairy products (under different companies) including cream cheese, ice cream, whey protein powder, and milk, which are reaching consumers in stores across the US. It also sells its whey products directly to food manufacturers, including major multinational companies Mars, General Mills, and Unilever.
Those Vegan Cowboys
Those Vegan Cowboys (Netherlands / Belgium) have successfully produced microbial casein for cheese production that outperforms the casein found in cows’ milk. The company claims its cheese products have better stretch, melt, and mouthfeel than cheese made from animals’ milk and plans to gain novel food approval in the US so it can enter the market in 2025.
Fermify
Fermify (Austria) is among one of the first countries to be selling PF casein proteins in the US and says it has a long waiting list for its products. It’s no surprise! Its technology reduces CO2 emissions by 85 percent, water usage by 75 percent, and land use by 98 percent compared to conventional cheese production, making it a highly attractive alternative.
More and more companies producing precision fermentation dairy products are entering the scene every year. Existing dairy giants like Nestle and Danone are also realizing the potential and either investing in PF companies or producing their own products.
Precision Fermentation and Eggs
The egg industry is huge and shockingly cruel. Currently, billions of hens are farmed in cages often no larger than a letter sized piece of paper. Eggs are taken from these hens and liquified or powdered for foodservice, baked goods, beverages, and other food products. Thankfully, precision fermentation is already producing egg products that can outperform eggs from animals. When these reach price parity with conventional eggs, which they soon will, billions of hens will be spared a life of misery.
Companies Using Precision Fermentation for Egg Production
US company EVERY is creating precision fermented liquid and powdered egg white products with incredible success. In 2023, its product was fully approved for sale in the US and showcased at Michelin star restaurant Eleven Madison Gardens.
Finnish start-up Onego-Bio is also creating precision fermented egg white products with and has just received $40 million in funding to begin launching its products in the US.
Meat and Seafood from Precision Fermentation
Precision fermentation cannot produce animal muscle cells like cellular agriculture can. However, it can produce proteins, vitamins, and fats that can vastly improve the taste and texture of meat alternatives, such as cultured and plant-based meats.
Meat Companies and Precision Fermentation
Korean startup Millennial Flavor Town has announced the launch of its marbled and shredded beef products. It uses a patented fermentation process to transform a base of soybeans, mushrooms, red beet powder, rice koji, and olive oil (among other fats) into high-protein, cholesterol-free beef alternatives.
Swedish company Melt & Marble produces sustainable animal fats through precision fermentation. It has a focus on beef fat but is also exploring fats used in cosmetics. In 2024, it reached a 10,000 liter production milestone and hopes to enter the meat alternative market in 2025.
Companies like Impossible Foods have already been using FDA-approved heme-iron, created using precision fermentation, to give their products a naturally meaty flavour and aroma. Belgian start-up Paleo has recently been funded to scale up its myoglobin production for six different meats: chicken, beef, pork, lamb, tuna and—believe it or not—mammoth!
Honey from Precision Fermentation
Farming bees for honey is an ethical and environmental problem. Bees are essential for our own survival as they pollinate the planet’s flora, which allows us to breathe oxygen, grow food, and enjoy our planet’s natural beauty. There are over 20,000 species of wild bee, and we factory farm just one of them for honey. Those billions of farmed bees put huge pressure on their wild cousins, outcompeting them for resources and spreading disease.
Thankfully, precision fermentation company MeliBio has already created the perfect honey without endangering bees or the planet. Its product tastes exactly the same as honey made by bees and has incredible scalability potential. If you don’t believe us, watch this!
Other Products Made by Precision Fermentation
There are so many other ways that precision fermentation can spare animals from exploitation and slaughter.
- Collagen, gelatin, leather, and both ground and tissue meat, all currently derived from slaughtered cows, could all be replaced with PF.
- Vitamins and minerals such as B12, iron, omega 3, vitamin D and calcium, can all be created and used in fortified foods and supplements.
- Silk and other materials made from animals can be produced cheaply and more sustainably.
- Squalene, taken from sharks, and many other animal-based pharmaceutical substances can be used to create cruelty-free medicines and vaccines.
The list goes on. If you feel like geeking out, check out this precision fermentation periodic table from RethinkX.
Government Approval for Precision Fermentation
Precision fermentation represents an opportunity for much faster regulatory approval than other meat alternatives. Scientists have been using the technology for years to produce enzymes and amino acids for the food industry, which means regulators are more familiar with the content of applications as they come in.
Singapore is leading the way with regulatory approvals, as its government is particularly open-minded regarding novel food ideas. As a result, many precision fermentation companies are locating themselves in Singapore, including a large-scale manufacturing facility which allows start-ups to scale up faster and easier than ever before. The University of Singapore also has three alternative protein hubs.
The US is also a leader in precision fermentation, with FDA approvals of PF proteins rising every year. In 2023 and 2024, precision fermented dairy, egg, honey, and meat products reached consumers for the first time in Singapore and the US, and many more are due in 2025.
Europe is taking longer to catch the wave but is not far behind! Many people believe the appetite for precision fermentation is there, but outdated and lengthy approval systems are getting in the way.
Consumer Appetite for Precision Fermentation
It’s not just legal approval that matters. There has to be a market for the products! Some consumers are voicing concerns about the use of genetically modified ingredients in precision fermentation but this is largely a misunderstanding. Although PF does use genetic modification to tailor the microorganisms to the needs of the final product, the microbes are not present in the final product. They are filtered out and either reused or disposed of.
Initial studies suggest precision fermentation is much more palatable to consumers than other alternatives. The technology has been used for food ingredients like enzymes, vitamins, and natural flavorings for years now with no pushback from the public.
Of course, animal agriculture lobbies will try to demonize any new products that threaten their profits. But we must not let them continue to cause climate breakdown, deforestation, pollution, and animal suffering when ethical and sustainable products exist.
The Future of Precision Fermentation
Precision fermentation is the most exciting animal-replacement technology we’ve seen in a long time, and easily the most viable. It is one very promising part of a many-faceted disruption of animal agriculture and prospects look good for rendering animal-derived dairy and eggs obsolete in the next ten years.
RethinkX is positive about the outlook. It predicts that the number of farmed animals in the world will drop dramatically as the disruption via PF and cellular agriculture grows. It believes the number of cows in the US could drop by 50 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2035, with the rest of the world close behind. This means that people can continue to eat the products they know and enjoy without the devastating impacts caused by animal agriculture.
