Cow-free cheese collaboration: Precision fermentation producers partner to propel vegan casein

20 Mar 2024 --- Those Vegan Cowboys, the initiators of Unilever-owned The Vegetarian Butcher, and Germany-based Formo have joined forces in what they peg as an “industry-defining partnership” that will see animal-free caseins brought to the mass market. They are both producers of precision fermentation-derived dairy and will work together rather than as rivals.

This move, touted as a “first-of-its-kind collaboration,” is said to be unique both in size and impact, and will see the two precision fermentation pioneers work on strain engineering, bioprocessing and large-scale production of caseins.

“We also see a lot of opportunities for enabling and adjacent technologies that will help precision fermentation to unleash its full potential,” Raffael Wohlgensinger, CEO of Formo, tells Food Ingredients First.

Through the collaboration, Hille van der Kaa, CEO of Those Vegan Cowboys, believes capabilities will “substantially improve across both dimensions.” 

Raffael Wohlgensinger, CEO of Formo (left) & Hille van der Kaa, CEO of Those Vegan Cowboys (right).“Technological efficiency is a huge differentiator in the market because it heavily lowers the ingredient costs of our products. The other important factor is protein functionality — this is where Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys are shining,” she underscores. 

Cheese and beyond 
According to van der Kaa, the cheese market is approaching US$300 billion globally. 

“There are a lot of different cheeses that we want to see on the shelf. At the same time, cheese is the ‘holy grail’ and also the most challenging to do — doing a yogurt when you can already do a camembert is rather straightforward,” she says.

“So, we believe our technology will go beyond cheese at some point. However, cheese is our main focus.”

Competing at cost level 
The coalition will unite over 60 scientists from both companies, allowing Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys to challenge conventional norms in the food biotech sector. 

The collaboration aims to also bundle joint manufacturing volumes in the future. As a result, the companies can achieve cost parity with animal-based casein, both on an ingredient and product basis, faster than any other player in the field.

Wohlgensinger states: “In order to gain a leading market share together with our partners, the production of animal-free casein needs to be able to compete with animals on a cost level. The initiated collaboration allows us to improve the technological efficiency and scale of production to achieve this goal.”Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys want to accelerate the speed of science-based entrepreneurship. (Credit: Formo)

EU regulatory approval 
Meanwhile, both businesses are “strategically pooling resources, leveraging dialogues with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and utilizing their roles as founders of Food Fermentation Europe (FFE) to expedite the regulatory approval process.” 

Previously, EFSA has expressed support for joint dossiers, anticipating increased efficiency. However, part of the challenge of bringing precision fermentation products to Europe remains legislative.

“We have the technology with the potential to solve multiple acute problems in our food system at once. But with current legislation timelines, we see companies submit their applications in the US and Asia — we need more speed and efficiency when it comes to European dossiers. That is why we formed the FFE alliance so we can address EU legislation with one voice. With this new collaboration, we can double down on our efforts,” says van der Kaa.

Wohlgensinger adds: “Compared to other jurisdictions, the European Novel Food process takes a lot of time. Joining forces and handing in a joint dossier allows us to provide the EFSA with more data, produce a safer batch history and also benefit from an environment that supports joint dossiers and regulatory efforts.”

A paradigm shift 
Both companies recognized the urgent need for transformative change in the dairy landscape, with environmental challenges mounting and global food supply chains showing vulnerability. 

“Through our approach, we show how collaboration among ventures can unlock unprecedented levels of speed, efficiency and impact. It represents a transformative leap to advance the precision fermentation space as a whole and thus spearhead the charge toward a more sustainable future,” explains van der Kaa. 

“The message for us is clear,” she notes: “This can serve as a new blueprint to develop and commercialize groundbreaking technology. Everyone is eager to move forward together.”

The cheese market alone is reportedly approaching US$300 billion globally. (Credit: Formo)Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys will maintain their distinct identities as separate companies to market their own line of cow-free cheeses.

“We can accelerate with this collaboration,” remarks van der Kaa. “We can learn from each other so we don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. This will get us to a price-competitive point of our casein sooner. We are going for impact and we can best achieve this by offering a commodity product.”

Besides taste, price remains a determining factor.

“This [collaboration] allows us to more easily cooperate with Formo in using and building production facilities. We can share knowledge, costs and risk. By joining forces in the research team, we can concentrate more on the partnerships that we make with our customers,” says van der Kaa. 

By Elizabeth Green