Israeli startup created artificial milk that tastes like real: what is known about the development

Israel has created milk that has nothing to do with cows. The product does tastes like real milk, but it doesn't contain the usual milk ingredients, such as lactose, cholesterol, growth hormones, and antibiotics.

According to the Times of Israel, the artificial milk was created by Remilk, a food technology startup. It managed to raise $120 million for its development.

Investors included Rage Capital, an American food venture capital company, CPT Capital, sponsor Impossible Foods, egg production company Just, Israeli yogurt startup Yofix, as well as Tnuva, a New York-based investment company, Hochland, a German dairy company, and OurCrowd, an Israeli venture capital company.

Founded in 2019, Remilk is known to produce milk proteins through a fermentation process that makes them "chemically identical" to those found in cow's milk and dairy products.

"The end result is 100 percent similar to 'real milk' but without lactose, cholesterol, growth hormones, and antibiotics," said company founder Aviv Wolff‏, who created Remilk with his research partner Ori Cohavi.

He shared that they first mapped the chemical composition of milk, estimated the fat, lactose, and sugar content of the liquid, and then determined that proteins were the key ingredient for milk production.

"Remilk creates milk proteins. They are turned into a powder," Wolff said.

He also emphasized that the final product is identical to the natural one.

The startup intends to sell the dry powder to dairy companies. They can add water and fat to it to create a range of cheeses, yogurts, and ice cream. Remilk also intends to offer finished products such as hard cheese and yogurt to the market.

The startup has already set up production facilities in Europe and the United States, where it is already working with leading food companies and with regulators and authorities to get its products certified.