Start-up creates vegan cheese with ‘real casein’
A food tech start-up has created grass-fed cheese containing ‘real casein’ that is still suitable for vegans.
Those Vegan Cowboys was spearheaded by The Vegetarian Butcher’s founders Jaap Korteweg and Niko Koffeman back in 2020.
It has been working on using precision fermentation to create casein in mass, in a bid to ‘revolutionise dairy production worldwide’.
In a huge breakthrough for the company, Those Vegan Cowboys has managed to produce a small piece of vegan cheese ‘the size of a silver dollar’.
Vegan casein – how is it possible?
The Belgian brand relies on Margaret – a stainless steel ‘cow’ that turns micro flora into casein and whey proteins ‘identical to those created by dairy cows’.
Water, fat, microbial rennet and other ingredients are then added to the animal-free casein to create vegan cheese alternative.
“Casein is the unique protein which gives cheese the unique structure that mankind has come to love for thousands of years. A protein which was exclusively produced by animals, until now!” the brand wrote online.
“‘Margaret’s Finest’ is the very first of its kind, and constitutes a true man-made miracle of our day and age…
“This raw material can become any cheese that has ever been invented and more. By using tried and true artisanal cheesemaking techniques, the most glorious masterpieces will be created.”
‘Crucial milestone’
Those Vegan Cowboy’s animal-free casein may help drive the growth of the vegan cheese market – which is already expected to exceed $7 billion in the next five years.
“Now that we reached this crucial milestone, there is still much work to do,” the company states.
“Both in upscaling and speeding up our basic processes, as in applying different cheese making techniques. It has some ripening to do, but it is real and it is here, it has the texture and every other property ordinary cheese has.”
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