A company called Perfect Day has announced that after five years and $60 million in venture backing, it’s created ice cream made of whey protein harvested from genetically modified yeast.
The scoop: The market for non-dairy ice cream has exploded over the past few years; in 2017, Nielsen expected that demand for dairy-free ice cream was expected to climb 50%, thanks to the growth of veganism and the increasing availability (and popularity) of non-dairy ingredients like oat, coconut, and even chickpea milk.
What makes Perfect Day allegedly different? Anyone who’s tasted non-dairy ice cream knows it sometimes seems sandy, chalky, or just … not like the real thing. That’s because one of the things that make ice cream so, well, creamy is the whey protein that is prevalent in cow’s milk. Cashew and coconut milks come close because they, like their bovine-derived counterparts, contain plenty of fat, which helps give frozen treats their silky texture. But they’re not the same. Perfect Day, however, engineered yeast to produce whey proteins, which means it possibly created the ultimate compromise between vegans, the lactose intolerant, and everybody else.
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