You don’t have to be a vegan to appreciate new plant-based meat and dairy alternatives on the market—which are not only delicious but also sustainable. Innovature looks at one of the most crave-worthy: cheese.
In the U.S. alone, roughly 9 million cows are devoted to producing milk—naturally, creating a rather large carbon footprint. (Although, it's improving, thanks to agricultural innovations.)
“Food scientists are exploring non-dairy alternatives and conceiving new ways to mimic—or even improve—the sensory delights of, say, a perfectly toasted cheese melt,” says Innovature.
Enter gene editing. When Shell engineer Magi Richani discovered she was lactose intolerant, she set out to produce a plant-based cheese that “stretches, tastes, and toasts just like the real thing from cows and goats.”
How? “Richani found that casein, the principal cow-derived component of cheese, could be created ‘without the cow’ using gene-edited soybeans,” explains Innovature.
It’s good for the environment—and for consumers and farmers. The delicious products developed by her startup, Nobell Foods, not only taste like dairy cheese, but “may also ultimately compete on price with milk-based products—and even boost the profits of soybean farmers.”
Read the whole thing.
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