Plant-based start-up Fooditive Group is using peas via precision fermentation, an arm of cellular agriculture, to produce vegan casein. This is with a view to eradicating factory farming.

According to the company, it is the first vegan casein available for the food industry.

How does it make vegan casein?

The Dutch firm uses technology to re-create the same protein formula found in cow’s milk while being “animal-free.” It does this by copying the DNA of the beta-casein in cow’s milk.

Fooditive Group says the casein can be used to create plant-based milk, cheese, yogurt, and meat.

Founder and CEO Moayad Abushokhedim revealed: “Making healthy and affordable food for everyone means that we simply need to target every aspect of our diet, and animal-free products should definitely be a part of it. 

“Delivering ingredients that have been produced sustainably is the main key to a long-lasting future that can support the growing human population.”

As of now, firms can sign up to join the “extensive” list of food developers keen to use the product. Some of them are allegedly “big players in the dairy industry.”

Fooditive will roll out the products in 2022 but has not yet confirmed a set date.

The end of meat and dairy as we know it

Precision fermentation may be a relatively new term, but it’s already been dubbed to blow up the alternative protein space within the decade.

For example, billionaire businessman Jim Mellon predicts it to cause the “end” to meat and dairy, provided we allocate more infrastructure to propel it.

The way we currently produce dairy and meat is resource-intensive, whereas Mellon anticipates the roll-out of factories utilizing cellular agriculture instead.

“We already have the products. All we need is the scale, the money, and the will,” he claims.

You can sign up for Fooditive’s Products here