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Perfect Day Expands to Develop Animal-Free Milk Fat

by Catherine Lamb
November 19, 2019November 20, 2019Filed under:
  • Alternative Protein
  • Featured
  • Future Food
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Today Perfect Day announced that it’s building a team to develop animal-free fats through genetically engineered microbes. The Berkeley, California-based startup has already developed a fermentation-like process to create key milk molecules which can be used to make animal-free dairy.

A blog post from Perfect Day’s co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya made clear that these efforts are still super early stage. They indicated that there probably wouldn’t be prototypes of products featuring the flora-based fats for a while since they’ll be laser focused on scaling up their milk proteins in 2020. They also didn’t indicate which products they would develop with their fat, but in an email to The Spoon their team told us that “animal-free dairy is the obvious fit.”

The startup has been going at full force recently. Last year the company partnered with ADM to increase production capacity and raised a $34.8 million Series B in early 2019. As I mentioned above, it also launched its first product — ice cream made with their flora-based milk — in July of this year. 

This expansion shows that Perfect Day’s scope is far wider than just protein. In the post, Gandhi and Panda write that they want their flora platform “to be as broad and powerful” as possible to make “the full dairy experience animal-free.”

Perfect Day’s announcement also goes to show that when it comes to developing sustainable alternatives to animal products, protein is only part of the puzzle. All of the ingredients — from fats to flavorings — have to be environmentally friendly as well.

Right now, that’s not necessarily the case. Many plant-based products rely on palm or coconut oil for richness, since these two fats are saturated (just like butter or beef fat). However, coconut oil and especially palm oil can be exploitative to laborers and the environment, clearing tropical rainforests.

In short, just because a food is animal-free doesn’t mean it’s necessarily sustainable. Perfect Day’s initiative to revamp every aspect of animal alternatives is a good blueprint for other alternative protein companies to consider, if they’re not doing so already.


Related

Perfect Day Closes $140M Series C to Expand Animal-Free Dairy Production

Perfect Day, a startup producing animal-free dairy using microbes, today announced it has closed a $140 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Temasek with participation from past investors. This more than doubles the total amount of funding for the Berkeley-based startup, which raised a $34.8 million…

FDA Approves Perfect Day’s Animal-Free Whey Protein as Safe to Eat

Perfect Day, the startup using fermentation to create animal-free dairy proteins, has officially received approval for its proprietary whey protein from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a letter, the FDA writes that it has "no questions" that β-lactoglobulin — Perfect Day's proprietary protein for its flora-based products —…

Perfect Day Expands Series C Round to $300M for its Flora-based Dairy

Perfect Day, which creates animal-free, flora-based dairy products, announced today that it has expanded its Series C fundraise to $300 million. The new tranche is led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and follows the $140 million C round that initially closed in December of 2019. This brings the total…

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Tagged:
  • dairy
  • feature
  • flora-based
  • milk
  • Perfect Day

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