Panelists talking about replacing barns with labs for protein production include (from left) Paul Mozdiak, Ryan Pandya, Hultz Smith and Isha Datar.

Are you ready for dairy products made in the lab without any help from a cow? Perfect Day, a startup that has attracted $2 million from investors, is working on making milk from genetically engineered yeast and plants that can be modified to leave out cholesterol, hormones, and lactose found in natural dairy products.

Formerly called Muufri, Perfect Day is part of New Harvest, a non-profit research institute working to accelerate “cellular agriculture.” It strategically funds and conducts open, public, collaborative research that reinvents the ways we make animal products – in this case, without animals.

Four leaders in the field examined the potential for milk and meat without cows, and eggs without hens, as part of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s AgBiotech Summit 2016 in Chapel Hill. (For more coverage of the summit, see: AgBiotech Summit: ‘This is the best time ever to be alive and to be in agriculture’ linked with this post.)

The presenters included:

  • Ryan Pandya, co-founder and CEO of Perfect Day
  • Isha Datar, president and CEO of New Harvest
  • Paul Mozdiak, Ph.D, North Carolina State University professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science
  • Hultz Smith, principal scientist at Tyson Foods

“We’re investigating this growing food from cells instead of from whole plants and animals,” Datar said.

While animal-free milk and dairy products are within reach, meat made in the lab is much further from reality, Mozdiak and others on the panel said. For one thing, funding has been difficult to get. So, he said, “It’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, but it is going to happen.”

His research on turkey and chickens looks at what makes their muscle grow and what regulates cell size among other factors.

Research still needed, but labchops may bring benefits

While a great deal more research is necessary, he predicted that someday we may see “Mom-and-Pop craft meat shops like craft breweries, where it is produced in vitro in the back. People may be willing to pay more for it.”

He noted, “There is room for some of these forward-looking technologies to take root, though they’re never going to replace traditional methods.” For instance until recently, the only way to make flu vaccine was in chicken eggs. But now the huge Seqirus factory in Holly Springs has a factory using an in-vitro system. “Do we still have vaccines produced in eggs? Absolutely. But now we have an alternative.”

(EDITOR”S NOTE: NCBiotech is hosting a VaccinatioNCelebration all day Tuesday, Oct. 4, to spotlight this new North Carolina vaccine breakthrough, replete with flu shots available to the public).

It’s Greek to me: cow-free yogurt?

Pandya, however, said, “We can make milk today without animals to make yogurt, cheese and other dairy products.” The company expects to release its first product next year.

While consumer resistance to technology-enhanced foods can be a problem, Pandya noted that “People want options that are kinder, cleaner, and greener.”

The lab-made milk not only eliminates some harmful components of dairy, it can be produced saving both energy and water use without the land necessary to support a 200-pound animal. “If scaled, the process could result in a 98 percent water reduction, 84 percent fewer greenhouse gases, and 65 percent less energy.”

Hultz, the Tyson scientist, said, “I’ve been developing food products for the last 25 years and I get to eat my homework.” He cautioned that lab-made meat is “hamburger, not steak. I want a roast turkey for Thanksgiving. A turkey burger, not so much.

“We are where we are today because animal products got us here. We can do better. It’s going to take a while and it’s going to take funding. Can we feed the world today with it? No. Tomorrow? I hope so, because we’re going to need it.”

(C) N.C. Biotechnology Center