Animal-free dairy start-up New Culture has announced the achievement of a new milestone in the scale up of its fermentation manufacturing process.
The California-based company uses precision fermentation to create what it claims is the world’s first ever animal-free casein, a dairy protein previously only found in animal milk.
According to New Culture, its casein enables it to produce a mozzarella product that has the same taste, texture and nutritional profile as its conventional cow-based counterpart without using any animal ingredients.
New Culture has now scaled up its fermentation process to manufacturing volumes far larger than previous deployment volumes, enabling the production of 25,000 pizzas worth of cheese per run, a significant step forward in its plans to supply animal-free mozzarella to pizzerias across America.
The new large scale of production reduces product costs by 80 per cent, the start-up revealed, keeping it on track to reach cost targets after having exceeded its core technical goals for 2023.
Within three years, New Culture expects its animal-free mozzarella to achieve cost parity with conventional mozzarella, with annual casein volumes that equate to more than 14 million pizzas worth of cheese.
Co-founder and CSO, Inja Radman, said: “Our world-class team at New Culture has solved a string of incredibly complex technical challenges in order to produce our animal-free casein at this scale. We are redefining the boundaries of what’s possible in dairy in a way that isn’t being done anywhere else.”
New Culture’s mozzarella will be first available in 2024 at chef Nancy Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza restaurant in Los Angeles, before expanding to other pizzerias across the US.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
World Beverage Innovation Awards – NOW OPEN FOR ENTRIES!
The awards celebrate excellence and innovation across the global beverage industry. Don’t miss out on having your innovations recognised on a global scale.
Deadline for entries 23 July – enter now!
Don’t get left behind
Start your free Foodbev magazine trial today and join thousands of fellow industry professionals in receiving food and drink trends direct to our business.
Click here to start your free trial
Your privacy We use small files known as ‘cookies’ to enhance your experience of the FoodBev website and analyse site-traffic. Read about how we use cookies or how you may control them in our updated privacy policy and cookie policy. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies. Click the ‘OKAY‘ button at the top right of this panel to accept or click here for more information.