Milk without animals – A dairy science perspective

Abstract

Production of nature identical milk and dairy ingredients without animals has gained increasing commercial interest over the last few years. This review takes milk biosynthesis in mammals and its composition and structure as starting point to explore the opportunities and challenges of the main production routes being explored in academia and industry. Individual milk components are typically targeted through precision fermentation or expression in higher organisms like plants if no direct chemical synthesis is available. Among them proteins are the current focus of most developments. They require correct sequence, folding and post translational modifications. Higher ordered structures like casein micelles and milk fat globules are still challenging to assemble bottom-up from individual components. Here mammary epithelial cell cultures provide opportunities to mimic secretion of complete milk including higher structures, but also have intrinsic limitations and technical challenges.