Skip to Content
Humans and technology

A biotech startup is making cow-free ice cream. Would you eat it?

Perfect Day says it’s figured out how to make ice cream that’s creamy without any animal protein.

July 12, 2019
woman holding ice cream cone
woman holding ice cream coneItafurm, Creative Commons

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.

Is it genetically modified? Yes and no. On its website, Perfect Day says the yeast is genetically modified to turn sugars into whey and casein. But the company says only the “pure” whey makes it into the ice cream.

Does it hold up? Still unclear. One writer from The New Food Economy, a vegan, found the product creamy enough to stand by its dairy-free cousins. But the verdict is still out on how it compares in taste with ice cream made from old-fashioned cow’s milk.

Deep Dive

Humans and technology

Building a more reliable supply chain

Rapidly advancing technologies are building the modern supply chain, making transparent, collaborative, and data-driven systems a reality.

Building a data-driven health-care ecosystem

Harnessing data to improve the equity, affordability, and quality of the health care system.

Let’s not make the same mistakes with AI that we made with social media

Social media’s unregulated evolution over the past decade holds a lot of lessons that apply directly to AI companies and technologies.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.