The second episode of our new season kicked off with a big question - can we have our cheese and eat it too?
Nature's biggest burper - the cow - is in the spotlight with Jan Pacas, CEO of Sydney-based All G Foods. The self-proclaimed ‘food tech wizards’ have already reinvented the burger, schnitzel, sausage and nugget, creating the Buds range of plant-based proteins that can be found everywhere from Betty’s Burgers to your local IGA.
Now their team of scientists have their sights set on dairy, developing a milk substitute that offers all the taste, aroma and function of the original, but with none of the burps, farts and iffy ethics that come with intensive cow farming. Unlike almond, oat and other popular plant-based dairy alternatives, All G Foods are taking a different approach, embracing ‘precision fermentation’ to duplicate dairy proteins at scale.
Picture: the All G team (with our guest Jan Pacas front middle)
The game changing technology
The technology isn’t new, commonly used to produce pharmaceuticals like insulin. But as production costs fall, it is emerging as a way to imitate dairy products and overcome the limitations of plant-based technology.
Jan told us that he is proud of how competitive All G Foods’ plant-based products are with the meaty originals, but recognises that plant-based technology cannot make a perfect imitation.
“I’ve never had a delicious almond cheese, I’ve never had a plant-based chocolate that blew me away,” he said.
But now, using precision fermentation, he says they can deploy specially developed microbes to produce proteins identical to those in cow’s milk.
“We can turn water and sugar as a fuel and replicate the process that’s happening in a cow’s udder and replicate a molecularly identical milk protein. “We looked at it under a microscope and it is identical whether it comes from the cow or through this method… That’s game changing in terms of its scalability and applications,”
An added benefit is that it offers the traditional nutritional building blocks like protein and calcium, but without drawbacks like lactose intolerance and saturated fat.
Big environmental upsides
All G Foods have a bold vision for the $1 trillion dairy industry. By substituting cow’s milk with their ‘precision fermented’ alternative, they are confident of making major inroads into a sector that globally accounts for almost the same emissions as aviation and shipping combined and is doubling in size every three decades.
It’s this vision which has resonated with investors, with the company having raised roughly A$50 million to date from investors such as Woolworths, Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the UK-based Agronomics.
Beyond coffees and cereal, cheese production and other obvious uses, there are countless other items in our homes that include dairy proteins - from confectionery to baked foods, the cracker under your cheese, and even smallgoods and other meaty treats.
Getting the strategy right
All G Foods are pursuing a B2B strategy. They want to supply large food manufacturers like Nestle, Unilever and Mars, reducing the need for traditional farm-sourced milk protein and swapping in a healthier, more sustainable alternative. In time, Jan says their products can also be cheaper.
But before their cultured dairy hits the shelves, there are hurdles to overcome. Firstly, they need to scale up production to a point where it becomes economically viable for consumers. And they also need to achieve regulatory approvals - a process that will begin in select jurisdictions later this year. If you’ve been following our previous podcast episodes on alternative proteins (see here) and guessed Singapore, you would be correct!
While he recognises the journey won't be easy, he is eying massive markets in Asia and confident that consumers will choose to make the switch.
“Why wouldn’t we do that… why would I consume something from an animal if it hurts the animal, hurts the planet and there’s a contamination risk for me,” he said. “If I try it once and it tastes the same, there’s zero compromise.”
So… when?!
The final question of course, is, when will it hit the shelves? All G plans to lodge for approvals in Singapore this year with the aim of launching the first product there in 2024, followed by New Zealand in 2025 and then the large US, Middle East and European markets.
Jan says there is a lot of work ahead to make their vision a reality.
“If it was easy there would be a thousand companies. It takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of smart people, it takes a lot of concentrated effort.”
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