Israeli, US Companies Unite To Make More Milk From Mushrooms

An Israeli foodtech startup that makes milk and other dairy products from mushrooms has partnered with one of America’s biggest biotech companies, Ginkgo Bioworks, to scale-up and produce affordable animal-free non-whey dairy products. 

Haifa-based ImaginDairy has bioengineered milk protein to create a wide range of dairy products using mushrooms but no cows. Through a process called precision fermentation, ImaginDairy recreates these milk proteins in the lab and can use them to generate any kind of dairy product. 

The partnership aims to improve cost-effective production of non-whey dairy proteins. Ginkgo will utilize its AI capabilities to create biological systems that reduce the cost of production, which ImaginDairy will then use to improve the production process.

This collaboration was partly funded by a grant from the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) which promotes cooperation between US and Israeli companies in a range of ecosystems. 

“Ginkgo has firmly established itself in the alternative dairy and food proteins industry, showcasing our leadership in protein and organism engineering. We have many successful collaborations in this space, and we’re thrilled to get to work with ImaginDairy on this innovative and market relevant project,” said Ginkgo Bioworks CCO Jennifer Wipf. 

“We’re also honored to be recognized by the BIRD Foundation. Being awarded this highly competitive grant is a testament to our technical expertise and ability to accomplish this project with ImaginDairy. I can speak for the entire team when I say that the samples that ImaginDairy have shared are absolutely next level. If the rest of their pipeline is anything like what we’ve tasted, we can’t wait to try what’s next,” she said. 

“We’re proud of this acknowledgment by the BIRD Foundation, as it highlights the importance of further innovation in the alternative proteins field, and our capability to successfully execute this project. Our process development capabilities and industrial-scale precision fermentation lines will allow us to rapidly scale the optimized strains created with Ginkgo and bring innovative non-whey proteins to the market faster,” said ImaginDairy co-founder and CEO Eyal Afergan.

“We’re deeply impressed by Ginkgo’s work in the foodtech industry and look forward to collaborating with them on the project. We’re confident this collaboration will unlock further product offerings, providing consumers with additional animal-free dairy delights that match the cost and taste of traditional dairy, making significant contributions to the industry, consumers, and the world.”