In a significant stride towards sustainable food production, Colorado-based Leprino Foods, the world’s largest mozzarella cheese manufacturer, has announced a global licensing agreement with Dutch startup Fooditive Group. This deal grants Leprino Foods exclusive rights to produce casein—an essential dairy protein—using Fooditive’s precision fermentation platform. The partnership marks a pivotal moment in the food industry, emphasizing the growing importance of alternative protein sources.
Leprino Foods, already a leading supplier of micellar casein, lactose, and whey protein, will now have the exclusive worldwide rights to market and distribute animal-free casein proteins for cheese production. Additionally, the company will hold a nonexclusive license to market and distribute these proteins for other food applications, including beverages, yogurts, desserts, creamers, snack bars, and sports nutrition products. This development is seen as a significant step towards addressing global food security and sustainability challenges.
“Our intent is to produce animal-free casein in volumes that exceed hundreds of thousands of tons over the coming years,” said Leprino Foods president Mike Durkin. “We will begin to scale up in the tens of thousands of tons in the coming year and expand as the market demand dictates at one of our US plant locations.” Durkin emphasized that these animal-free dairy ingredients are seen as complementary to conventional dairy products, not replacements. He underscored the belief that conventional agriculture alone cannot meet the future global food demand, making cost-effective, nutritionally equivalent alternatives imperative.
Founded in Rotterdam in 2018, Fooditive Group has distinguished itself in the synthetic biology space by genetically engineering microbes to express dairy proteins. CEO Moayad Abushokhedim highlighted the company’s use of proprietary E. coli strains designed for superior productivity, yield, and titer. “These advanced strains allow us to maximize casein production efficiency, ensuring we deliver high-quality proteins at a competitive cost,” Abushokhedim explained. Fooditive has successfully produced all four casein proteins—alpha-s1, alpha-s2, beta, and kappa—via precision fermentation, a feat that sets it apart from other startups focusing on just one or two proteins.
Fooditive’s strategic collaborations with Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs) and third-party production facilities have focused on research, development, and initial market testing at small to medium scales. Looking ahead, Leprino Foods will take on the larger-scale manufacturing of these casein proteins. Abushokhedim revealed plans to submit a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) determination to the FDA by Q4 2024, paving the way for the commercial introduction of these innovative proteins into dairy products.
“This agreement highlights our ability to innovate and adapt swiftly to emerging trends and technologies,” Durkin noted. “This innovation not only can enhance our range but also holds the promise of reducing the environmental footprint across the supply chain, all while maintaining the highest standards of product functionality, quality, taste, and texture.”
The concept of ‘animal-free’ dairy refers to products made with real dairy ingredients such as whey and casein proteins produced without cows. Utilizing synthetic biology, firms in the precision fermentation space use DNA sequences to instruct microorganisms to express animal proteins. This approach aims to offer the best of both worlds: sustainable and ethical products that do not involve industrialized animal agriculture, yet deliver the nutrition and functionality of traditional dairy.
Key players in the precision fermentation dairy space include US-based Perfect Day, New Culture, and Change Foods; Israel-based Imagindairy and Remilk; Germany-based Formo; and several others globally. However, scaling up remains a challenge for many startups, especially in an environment where venture funds are cautious and banks seek greater market validation.
As the partnership between Leprino Foods and Fooditive Group takes shape, it signals a transformative shift in the dairy industry, potentially leading to more sustainable and ethical food production practices.