I am not a scientist–and definitely not a molecular biologist– so I urge caution for anyone that has an intolerance or allergy to casein or lactose. Because of the non-animal whey’s identical molecular structure to whey protein from cow’s milk, Brave Robot’s packages must be labeled as “contains milk protein.” Look here for more info. But the FDA, government organization behind food product labeling laws, requires labeling allergens. Why does the label say it contains milk protein if the product is vegan? When I inquired about this seeming contradiction with the company, I was assured that yes, the product is vegan. I am a food writer who lives a dairy-free life and I found the packaging confusing. Cow’s milk also has to be transported, and with this type of whey, “you’re not relying on all the fuel and space needed to raise those cows,” says integrative health coach Jessica Cording, RD.Photo credit: Stefan Welter The Confusing Part The animal-free production process is also more sustainable: Livestock takes up nearly 80 percent of all farmland and accounts for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In fact, “when you test products for genetically modified markers, they wouldn’t be that,” says Paul Kollesoff, the general manager and co-founder of The Urgent Company, the makers of Brave Robot ice cream. And it’s not considered a genetically modified organism (GMO), because the whey itself isn’t modified. The resulting whey is identical to what’s produced by cows, in terms of nutrition and function.
Once Perfect Day had that microflora, the next step was to put it in a fermentation tank with sugars and let it do its thing. It’s basically a fancy form of fermentation, the same process that happens when yeast (a fungi) turns grains into beer or bacteria (another type of microflora) turns cabbage into sauerkraut. Here’s how: Their scientists took the genetic sequence of a cow (without harming it!), and used that as a “blueprint” to change sections of the DNA of the fungi so it would produce whey when fed certain sugars.
To recreate the protein, Perfect Day developed a specialized microflora (theirs is a type of fungi, though a bacteria could also work) and “trained it to act like a cow,” says Briggs.
Sugar and fat are easy to get from other sources, like coconuts, but it’s the whey that makes dairy special, according to Nicki Briggs, RDN, the vice president of corporate communications at Perfect Day. In nature, cows eat grass, which gets digested into nutrients (protein, sugars, fats, etc.) that are turned into milk in the animals’ mammary glands. “Animal-free whey” isn’t as impossible as it sounds.
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