By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
One of the latest trends in biotechnology is creating animal proteins, such as whey, casein, collagen, albumin, ovomucoid, heme, or lactoferrin from microbes. Often calling them vegan ingredients, several companies say their inventions can be used to make animal-free or cow-less milk, cheese, or a growing number of other foods and beverages. But will all consumers consider them vegan? To answer that, we need to look closely at their precision fermentation process.
What Is Precision Fermentation?
Precision fermentation is a high-tech version of the centuries-old process known simply as fermentation. It may also be called recombinant protein production although fats and carbohydrates (honey) can be made through this process, too. Precision fermentation is a type of synthetic biology or simply synbio. Genetic engineering is involved in precision fermentation.
In 2022, the global market size of precision fermentation was $1.93 billion. By 2032, it’s estimated to reach $63.85 billion.
Food, flavorings, and pharmaceuticals can be manufactured via precision fermentation. Meaty, fishy, or umami flavors are typical flavorings produced by this technique. Some examples of pharmaceuticals made by precision fermentation include: insulin, antibiotics, certain vaccines, and vitamins.
Traditionally, in fermentation to make wine or beer, for example, you add microorganisms to convert the sugars in grapes or grain into ethanol. Fermentation is used to make several other foods and beverages including pickles, tempeh, sourdough bread, or kombucha.
Precision fermentation also uses microbes to produce foods and beverages but with an added component: copies of genes, often from animals. Microorganisms used in precision fermentation could be yeast, algae, fungi, or bacteria. Animal-derived genes are permanently bioengineered into the microbes’ genetic code. What happens then?
As the microbes ferment a nutrient broth, they precisely churn out – like miniature factories – huge quantities of whatever the animal-derived genes direct them to produce
So is the manufactured whey made by microbes following the genetic instructions truly animal-free or cow-less? Looking back at the first time precision fermentation was ever used in food production helps give perspective.
Fermentation Produced Chymosin (FPC) Using Animal Genes
As The VRG reported in 2012, the first time genetic engineering via precision fermentation was used in the food industry was to produce chymosin, the active component of rennet, in 1990. Chymosin is the dairy enzyme that curdles milk during cheese production.
Employees of major enzyme manufacturers told us that decades ago, cells were taken from a live calf’s stomach lining. From those cells, the genetic blueprint for chymosin was isolated. That genetic code was inserted into a microbial genome (full set of a microbe’s genes). Since then, it has been reproduced by countless generations of microorganisms, all producing chymosin coded for by that genetic sequence via precision fermentation.
Cheese companies call and label cheese made with bovine gene-derived FPC both vegetarian and non-GMO. There may be disagreement with calling it either vegetarian or non-GMO as explained in our 2012 and 2021 articles.
The justification for this disagreement relies upon the fact that the animal’s genes involved in producing chymosin are essential to the animal’s existence. They are what makes her a calf. But not just any calf. They are her unique set. Without her genes, the calf would not be alive.
Genes are not like milk (a cow’s secretion that is not essential to her existence). If the calf’s genes were like milk, then maybe bovine gene-derived FPC cheese would more likely be vegetarian. Similarly, if one microbial species’ gene was inserted into another microbial species’ genome to produce microbial gene-derived chymosin, certainly the cheese produced from that chymosin would be vegetarian. Incidentally, there are companies that make this type of microbial gene-derived FPC. But bovine-derived FPC is the most common type on the market.
While it is true that a person does not eat bovine genes or the enzyme made by the bioengineered microbes when eating cheese since 90-95% of chymosin remains in the liquid whey (a byproduct of cheese production) and the microbes possessing the genes have been removed from the final cheese product, bovine genes are still used in the process of cheese production. In this sense, bovine genes are like an animal-derived processing aid. By definition, the use of a processing aid sourced from animals to make a food means that food is not vegetarian or vegan.
Cow’s Milk Allergy from Animal-Free Whey
You may think that if the bovine gene-derived whey was called “non-animal” or “animal-free” whey, people with cow’s milk allergies would not have an allergic reaction to it. But in reality they may.
For example, the company Perfect Day states on its website: “People with a milk allergy can still have an allergic reaction to animal-free whey protein and should avoid it just as they would avoid cow’s milk.”
So, there is something about all forms of whey that is allergenic, no matter if it’s produced in a fermentation vat or comes straight out of a cow. That “something” is obviously connected to it coming from a cow. It may be confusing, then, to refer to bioengineered whey by the term cow-free.
The name “non-animal whey protein” suggests the bioengineered whey is different from cow’s whey, potentially leading people to think it would not cause an allergic reaction. This is an assumption that could be problematic for some people.
Precision Fermentation Using Plant Genes
You may be wondering if anyone has tried precision fermentation using plant genes. The resulting genetically engineered ingredients would be vegan. There are companies innovating with precision fermentation in this way. They focus on whey and casein, the two animal proteins most commonly manufactured by precision fermentation.
Note: The VRG reached out to the companies profiled here through email and phone twice over a month’s time. We wanted to confirm that they use no animal genes at all in their precision fermentation. Neither responded. We asked them:
- Are there any animal proteins in your protein database used to create your ingredients?
- Do you use any virtual animal genetic material to direct the microbial fermentation used to create your ingredients?
Shiru
Using machine learning and bioinformatics, Shiru searches through vast databases of plant proteins to find those possessing desirable characteristics that food companies want. Properties that eggs have are a prime example. Egg’’ ability to gel (gelation), like in jelly, or foam like in meringue, are highly prized in cooking.
Shiru says, “Our database contains hundreds of millions of proteins from plants, fungi, and algae.” Once Shiru locates a plant protein(s) possessing the desired trait, they take the genes coding for them and insert them into a microbial genome. During fermentation, the microbes produce an abundance of those proteins.
The major advantage this production method has over traditional methods of growing plants is that it’s easily scalable, and, therefore, economically viable. In most cases, plants only have a small amount of a desired protein, so it could take years or vast land areas to harvest the same amount of protein that precision fermentation could yield in a day. Traditional farming costs a lot more, too.
Shiru has partnered with Puratos to scale up their ingredients to make egg replacers, test them in baked goods, and finally commercialize the top-performing ones. Along with CP Kelco, they’re collaborating to replace methylcellulose with plant proteins that function like a fat at room temperature. Methylcellulose is used as a gelling agent and emulsifier in many foods including meat alternatives.
Currently, methylcellulose is sourced from wood and processed using harsh methods, thus may not be appealing to shoppers. So companies want to replace it with something that is plant-sourced to avoid having to list methylcellulose on their package label.
Shiru is also working on finding plant proteins with functional qualities similar to those of gelatin and casein. Then they’d sell them to companies that would like to find replacements for these ingredients.
Climax Foods
Climax Foods’ Caseed is a casein replacement which mimics the meltability and stretchability of dairy cheese. Created through “precision formulation” using plant genes selected with AI, it appears there is nothing animal involved in it.
It’s not totally clear whether Climax Foods uses precision fermentation to produce Caseed. They did not respond to us. According to their press release, they use a “deep plant intelligence platform” searching its proprietary database of non-allergenic proteins found in seeds, legumes, and plant oils for those functionally equivalent to animal and dairy proteins.
In other words, according to Climax Foods, the taste, texture, and performance of Climax Foods’ cheeses are indistinguishable from dairy cheeses as well as from cheeses made using animal genes via precision fermentation. They are different from their dairy-based counterparts in that they do not share a genetic sequence similarity to dairy-based casein. So, Climax Foods’ cheeses are non-allergenic.
The targeted proteins are extracted from the plants and scaled. Thus far, precision-formulated Caseed is cheaper than cheeses made with animal genes. The goal is to make products made with Caseed less expensive than dairy.
In April 2023, Climax Foods announced a partnership with the Bel Group to create a vegan line of Bel cheeses.
Are There Any Advantages to Precision Fermentation?
By using precision fermentation to produce food, proponents hope to eliminate all the problems associated with intensive animal agriculture including:
- High or fluctuating food prices
- Food-borne illnesses
- Risk of pandemics via animal vectors
- Huge environmental footprints (carbon, water)
- Biodiversity loss
- Deforestation
- Animal pain and suffering
- Poor nutritional quality
Critics of precision fermentation raise several points against this form of “synbio”:
- Culture media will use the GMO corn and soy currently used as food for livestock. Both crops are treated heavily with pesticides.
- There will be huge quantities of waste (spent microbes, media) with no apparent use produced by this technique.
- On a large scale, the concrete, steel, and plastic needed to construct the fermentation vats and the electricity needed to run them have environmental footprints that will likely rival those of conventional animal agriculture.
- Even if there are fewer carbon emissions and decreased water usage from precision fermentation vs. conventional animal agriculture, other food production systems, such as regenerative agriculture or agrocology, may have greater long-term sustainability.
Recommendations on Knowing if Precision Fermentation Used
For those that don’t want products using precision fermentation, unfortunately, you cannot necessarily tell by looking at a food product whether precision fermentation was used to make it. Labels may not be clear.
Food and beverages certified USDA Organic have not been produced using precision fermentation.
For all other foods, you must rely on companies to tell you how their food was produced. Company websites will likely not explicitly describe how all the ingredients in their foods came to be. So, you must contact them. Be clear in how you phrase your question. Keep it simple.
Here is a question template you may use:
Was the [ingredient] in your [food product] made by microbes engineered with animal genes?
If you cannot get an answer, or are unsure of its veracity, you can look for a similar product from a company that is totally transparent about how its ingredients are made.
The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal and Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own. Note that products, processes, and regulations continually change.
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