Producing milk from yeast that looks and tastes like cows milk

Might a new technological development of researchers from Tel Aviv University soon revolutionize the dairy products we consume?

The initiators of the development believe that in the not-too-distant future we will be able to buy dairy products in the supermarket that are identical in taste and color to the ordinary dairy products that we consume today, but with one small difference: the dairy products will be produced from yeast rather than from cow.

Behind this development is Professor Tamir Tuller from the Biomedical Engineering Department of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University.

Together with foodtech entrepreneur Dr. Eyal Iffergan, Tuller established the startup company Imagindairy, which attempts to do the as-yet impossible: produce cow's milk from yeast.

"Our startup also includes food engineers and food experts from the Strauss Company," Professor Tuller says. "Currently, they are trying to take milk proteins from yeast and produce cheese from them.

This is a long process of improvement – of productivity, taste, and, of course, of the price. This product is not a milk substitute like almond or soymilk. We plan to produce dairy products that will be identical to products that come from animals by introducing the yeast genome the genes that code for milk development in cows".