Nestlé Group is getting ready to launch plant milk

Last week, the food giant announced a partnership with Perfect Diary to change the way milk is produced to a new, more environmentally sustainable method, with precision fermentation and no whey. animal.

“As the world's largest food and beverage company, providing food and beverages that are good for people and the planet is our top priority,” said Heike Steiling, Director of Product Development Center Nestlé milk, said in a statement. “We are exploring new alternative technologies that are more animal-friendly, nutritious and sustainable, without compromising taste, flavor and texture.”

Because many steps are resource-intensive, traditional dairy farming is damaging to the environment, especially on an industrial scale. However, Perfect Day's new method of producing whey - a functional protein in milk - does not require animal inputs. Instead, the company brings proteinblueprint into the microflora, then uses precision fermentation in place of cows to create a protein that is functionally identical to whey. This base can be used to produce a variety of products that mimic the characteristics of traditional milk such as smooth, creamy texture.

To explore new technologies like Perfect Day's animal-free whey, Nestlé created the US R+D Accelerator program, which identifies opportunities and brings products to market at a rapid pace in six months. The first products of this effort will be fresh milk and chocolate, which will be tested in US retail stores this year.

Joanna Yarbrough, head of the R+D Accelerator project, said: “We are delighted to be testing Nestlé's first animal-free dairy protein-based products through the R+ Accelerator D of the United States”. “While this category is still very young, we know consumers are looking for products that minimize their environmental impact and we are viewing this as a future growth opportunity for the business. our business.”

Nestlé grows vegan food empire with KitKat V

Nestlé invests heavily in the plant-based food industry in a variety of ways, including under its European Garden Gourmet brand and US subsidiary Sweet Earth. The company's foodservice arm also recently developed a new plant-based beef patty in partnership with NoMoo, a vegan fast food restaurant in Los Angeles with expansion goals. Nestlé has also invested directly in vegan brands, including Sundial Foods - a California startup that is perfecting plant-based chicken wings.

As for candy and pastries, in 2021 Nestlé released KitKat V in select markets after spending two years building a vegan version of the classic KitKat bar at its York, UK facility. After witnessing positive consumer response, Nestlé last month announced that it was ramping up production of KitKat V so it could be distributed to 15 countries.

Due to plant-based ingredients such as rice milk, KitKat V has an 18% lower carbon footprint than traditional milk chocolate KitKat over its entire lifecycle from farm to consumer. This sustainability benefit has helped Nestlé look for other avenues to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The upcoming Perfect Day support products are developed by Nestle's R&D team in Switzerland, where the food giant produces chocolate along with baby food, dairy products, breakfast cereals , cream...

Steiling said: “Drawing our R&D expertise, innovation capabilities and unprecedented scale, we are working to develop and test new products based on non-animal-derived dairy proteins. to complement our diverse portfolio of plant-based alternatives.”

Overall, Nestlé says that milk will continue to be a part of its brand but that it is actively exploring many avenues, including plant-based foods, products made with precision fermentation and horticultural foods, in an effort to transform its brand.

Animal-free whey: making milk chocolate without dairy cows

Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi founded Perfect Day in 2014 to improve vegan dairy products — which they found lacked flavor and texture — with precision fermentation. Eight years later, the company has raised more than $700 million to fund this goal and, in addition to Nestlé, has made inroads with other major food brands.

One of Nestlé's biggest competitors in the chocolate industry, Mars Incorporated, is also partnering with Perfect Day. In June, Mars began limited-market testing of CO2COA, a vegan milk chocolate bar that provides Perfect Day with Dove's delicious mouthfeel.

Created to help Mars achieve its net zero climate target across its entire value chain by 2050, CO2COA—a portmanteau of “CO2” and “cocoa”—chocolate bars are created only about a third of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by a regular Dove bar and packaged in eco-friendly wrappers.

General Mills also launched Good Cultr, the first vegan cream cheese line with milk-like properties from Perfect Day's animal-free whey. The line was born out of General Mills' G-Works accelerator program, which, like Nestlé, explores new products and technologies to improve its overall portfolio.

In addition to major food partners, Perfect Day also releases its own products through The Urgent Company (TUC), behind vegan ice cream and cake mix brand Brave Robot and vegan cheese brand Modern Kitchen. TUC also buys existing companies and improves them with Perfect Day's technology, and ice cream brand Coolhaus was the first to join its portfolio last year.

Perfect Day's animal-free whey is also being used by existing companies in the sports nutrition space and entirely new companies — positioned as modern dairy brands — such as Bored Cow and Betterland Foods is coming to market with vegan dairy products offered by Perfect Day.