Raffael Wohlgensinger and Hille van der Kaa – Image courtesy of Those Vegan Cowboys

Cheese Alternatives

Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys Reveal “First-of-its-Kind” Collab to Expedite Production of Cow-Free Cheese

Two precision fermentation companies — Germany’s Formo and Those Vegan Cowboys from Belgium — today announce a strategic R&D alliance to accelerate the production of animal-free casein and finally retire cows from cheese production. This “first-of-its-kind” collaboration will bring together over 60 world-leading scientists to create a “powerful and experienced” research team that will improve technological efficiency, including efforts in strain engineering, bioprocessing, and large-scale production of caseins. The companies believe that by joining forces, they can more quickly achieve price parity with milk proteins, thus making cow-free cheese more competitive and accessible to consumers. The companies explain that they plan to combine their manufacturing outputs to achieve economies of scale; nevertheless, each firm will maintain its distinct identity and market its lines of cow-free …

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Those Vegan Cowboys announces a €15 million funding round to develop further and scale its precision fermentation platform for animal-free casein-

© Those Vegan Cowboys

Fundraising

Those Vegan Cowboys Open €15 Million Financing Round to Scale Casein for Animal-Free Cheese

Belgian biotech Those Vegan Cowboys has opened a financing round to raise €15 million to further advance and scale its precision fermentation platform (named Margaret) to develop casein for animal-free cheese. After selling The Vegetarian Butcher to Unilever, Jaap Korteweg and Niko Koffeman founded Those Vegan Cowboys in 2020 to make grass-fed dairy products using microbes instead of cows. With the funds, they assembled a talented team of scientists and established a “milk lab” in Ghent, Belgium. Last year, the company successfully developed a batch of caseins and crafted its first proof of concept, a cheese prototype made with dairy-identical caseins. Now, the company states that it is ready for its next phase of growth, which involves a significant scale-up of its operations.  “We gave ourselves 7 …

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microbial protein Formo cheese gratin

© Formo

Cultivated, Cell-Cultured & Biotechnology

Food Tech Leaders Launch Food Fermentation Europe to Bring Sustainable Animal-Free Foods to EU Market

A group of leading players in precision fermentation announce they have come together to form Food Fermentation Europe (FFE), a new alliance working to create a more resilient and sustainable food system in Europe. Representing the region’s fermentation food and food ingredient sector, along with its surrounding ecosystem, FFE says it will work with regulators to bring more sustainable animal-free foods to the European market.  FFE’s founding members include Better Dairy, Formo, Imagindairy, Onego Bio and Those Vegan Cowboys. The group says its members are united in the pursuit to improve current unsustainable food systems and have three primary objectives:  To raise awareness and build a supportive, forward-looking policy framework for fermentation food and food ingredients in Europe. To advocate for a predictable, non-discriminatory and …

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an animal-free fresh cheese made with microbial caseins on a wooden board with nuts and rosemary.

© Those Vegan Cowboys

Fermentation

Those Vegan Cowboys Unveils its First Cheese Made with Microbial Caseins

Those Vegan Cowboys, a Belgian food tech developing animal-free dairy, announces the successful development of its first animal-free product. The company claims it crafted a small cheese using dairy-identical caseins obtained via its precision fermentation process. The company explains that caseins are milk proteins not found anywhere else in nature but in mammals that provide cheese with its unique qualities.   It is real, and it is here Will van der Tweel, the food tech’s lab chief, said: “It has some ripening to do. But it is real, and it is here. It is comparable to ordinary cheese. And yet it is completely free from animal products. With this cheese, recreating any kind of cow’s milk cheese is now possible.” Microbial caseins will revolutionise the dairy …

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