Investing in a start-up company developing non-dairy proteins using precision fermentation, Fonterra has taken its first step into non-dairy products.
In a process like beer brewing, precision fermentation uses microbial cells to grow proteins, fats, enzymes, or vitamins. To make nature-identical food ingredients the process only needed energy, water, microbes, a feedstock, such as sugar, and a controlled environment.
Precision fermentation technology has been around for decades. Products like insulin, vanilla essence, and rennet (a product used in cheesemaking) are made using the process.
In a statement, Fonterra said it had worked with DSM, a global nutrition and bioscience company, since 2019 to speed up the making of proteins with dairy-like properties using precision fermentation. The partnership had already created intellectual property and filed patents.
Dairy nutrition would remain Fonterra’s core strength, the company said. But the food preferences of some consumers were changing to non-animal products. New technologies had a place alongside dairy.
There would be a role for both dairy and other sources of nutrition to feed the world’s growing population, the company said.
