The US company Perfect Day bioengineers cow’s milk protein for cream cheese and other dairy products
Photo: Perfect Day
You have recently started at the Technical University of Munich a professorship in, if you translate it, cellular agriculture. Why cellular and what’s agriculture about it?
Cellular because it is fundamentally about using biotechnological processes to produce alternatives to conventional agricultural products – above all animal products. This starts with individual proteins that are produced in bioreactors by bacteria or fungi, and then eventually extends to entire tissues – i.e. pieces of meat that are to be produced from cell cultures. And agriculture insofar as we want to substitute some of their products, i.e. research possible alternatives to established products. Without the numerous known complications for the environment – think of animal welfare and climate change, among other things.
Bioreactors need energy and nutrient solutions. Is that really less harmful to the environment?
Such a radical change naturally causes a lot of skepticism. In many cases this is still appropriate. We’re still pretty much at the beginning. Fortunately, there is some research looking at the effects. However, not enough.
Some kind of technology assessment?
Yes, exactly. You would have to involve them relatively early on. Then you can avoid dead ends. And yes, the devices consume energy. And there are certainly studies that take a critical view of the energy consumption in large-scale tissue and cell cultures. Some say that this is only possible if we rely more on renewable energy sources.
There are already examples of meat from cell cultures, for example from Israel and the Netherlands. Outrageously expensive so far. Is it possible to estimate when such products could become competitive?
This is difficult, especially since the active companies do not necessarily communicate the status of their technology to a large extent. In Singapore, there are already fried chicken pieces that actually consist of just over 50 percent cultured chicken cells. You can buy them, but in my opinion they are more like marketing, a test product that is not yet commercially worthwhile. Our experience with cell cultures comes from the pharmaceutical industry. These were completely different tasks, mostly specialized, high-purity target molecules produced on a small scale. And now it’s suddenly about large quantities for the food industry and therefore about cost efficiency.
The meat from the bioreactor is still a dream of the future.
It’s not just about meat here. Individual proteins can also be of economic interest. There’s a lot going on in the US right now. Biotechnologically produced nature-identical cow’s milk proteins in products such as drinking milk, cream cheese, cheese and ice cream have been on the market here for about five years.
That would be vegan cheese, so to speak, which would still be like milk cheese?
Exactly. This US company uses genetically modified mushrooms in a bioreactor to produce original milk proteins of the kind we know from cows. As a test, they started with milk ice cream, which is quite expensive – three packs for $60. However, it sold out quickly. And now they are represented in several thousand supermarkets in the USA with their products. They now supply whey protein and casein, the main components of milk, to other companies, which then produce vegan baking mixes, for example. Basically, we still have a problem with novel food in Europe, so overall it’s difficult to place something like that on the market.
Aren’t such vegan products just as easy to produce purely plant-based and possibly also with a better climate balance?
Milk is something very special, with special properties that are otherwise hardly known from natural products. It is precisely the casein in milk that provides complexing and gel formation, which has the specific properties that are important for the texture and sensory properties of cheese. This is something very rarely found in plants. There is a protein in soy that behaves at least similarly. Other than that, there really isn’t anything that really compares. I also see the potential to use plant-based products to produce alternatives to animal products. For example, the burger patties made from a soy mixture, supplemented with nature-identical ingredients that are responsible for the characteristic meat taste, made with genetically modified bacteria. Personally, I also see great potential for so-called precision fermentation, i.e. precision processes for the production of certain natural substances with bacteria or other organisms. In any case, I don’t believe that we can now completely replace animal-based foods with biotech products. There will continue to be people interested in the various foods. The proportion of vegetarians and vegans is definitely increasing. But I don’t see us replacing one with the other in the near future. It’s already clear: there are plenty of traditional meat products, substitute products, and plant-based products.
Let’s stick to the burger patties. Most plant-based and biotechnological alternatives to meat or fish are currently some form of minced meat product. Why?
Ground beef is a very practical target because, sensorially speaking, it is easier to produce based on substitutes. On the other hand, a piece of meat that needs to be cut, that is fibrous, that has this particular texture, would be a challenge. Meat is not just made up of muscle cells. There are also fat cells and connective tissue that make up the special properties.
So looking at the US, you’re more likely to see a breakthrough in dairy. Also because of the various intolerances?
In addition to lactose intolerance, there are also milk allergies. And there we have a very, very powerful tool if we can adapt individual proteins for allergy sufferers. One could go even further and incorporate additional properties that are beneficial to health. The most well-known example, which is also being discussed critically, are certain peptides, very small fragments of proteins that are said to have a positive effect on blood pressure. Or a special bodybuilder’s milk.
Germany is not necessarily one of the pioneers in this field. Where do you see any realistic chances that we could still play our part economically or at least scientifically?
You are partly right. But after all, I’m the first professor in the world for Cellular Agriculture.
So a pioneer after all …
A lot else is happening in Germany right now. Many of my previous students went into this field, in start-ups. Some of them are spin-offs from large corporations in the meat industry and are researching this very topic. So far, however, we have not had any public funding and the topic is not as present as it is in Israel or the Netherlands, for example, where there are many funding programs. In Germany, too, I expect that there will be funding programs for cultured meat, but also for proteins in general.
