Israel develops milk made from yeast that looks and tastes the same

Israeli researchers are developing milk produced with yeast. The picture shows regular milk.

In light of the environmental damage caused by modern cheese farming, many biotech companies around the world are looking for ways to produce alternatives to milk. Tel Aviv University in Israel has partnered with a startup to develop milk made from yeast that looks and tastes just like regular milk.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Tamir Tuller, a professor in Tel Aviv University’s biomedical engineering department, is working with a startup called Imagindairy to produce milk from yeast instead of dairy cows.

While milk alternatives like soy milk are not new, producing an alternative that has the same nutritional value, taste, smell and texture as milk has not been done yet.

In addition, “imaginary dairy” milk and other dairy products would be healthier than milk produced by animals because they contain no cholesterol, lactose or somatic cells, so people who are lactose intolerant could enjoy them.

The challenge is not only to create a new product, but also to make it socially acceptable at a reasonable price, Tulle explained.

It’s a long-term improvement process, Tulle said, including productivity, taste and price. They plan to produce an alternative to regular dairy products by introducing the yeast genome into the genes used by dairy cows to produce milk.

He said he believes that in a short time they will be able to effectively produce milk proteins from yeast, which in turn will lead to affordable, high-quality industrial-scale production.

A United Nations report notes that the world’s 1.5 billion dairy cows have been causing serious environmental damage to the planet for too long. The methane produced by their digestion is emitted into the atmosphere with burps or farts, thus contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Livestock produce 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, and more than half of these greenhouse gases come from dairy cattle. In addition, the manure of dairy cattle also causes harm to the environment.