Alternative meat and milk are on different playing fields – and the risk to dairy markets is still being determined.
Only about 10% of all dairy products are exported, Otago dairy farmer Anna Benny says.
“And we make up one-fifth of that and represent 53% of the global whole milk powder export market, which is pretty incredible, but also makes us really vulnerable.
“Once alternative dairy ingredients come to market and start to scale there will be a huge impact on New Zealand dairy and by that point we won’t have time to react so we really need to start understanding the risk now.”
Benny is on a mission to raise awareness through her initiative Navigate, and says dairy cannot afford to sit back.
With support from AGMARDT, Benny recently spoke at the International Dairy Federation 2023 World Dairy Summit in Chicago about her concerns.
She has a food technology background and dairy farms with her husband in Clydevale, Otago.
She has worked for various milk processors in NZ, where developed her interest in dairy production and the future of dairy products.
There are three categories of alternatives that Benny refers to: plant, precision fermentation and cell-culturing. The levels of threat they pose to the industry are on different timelines.
Plant goes beyond the types, like oats or almonds, that are already available; it is about getting plant ingredients to replicate the function of whole milk so they can be used in products instead of whole milk powder.
“One example is casein micelles, which is a highly functional structure in cows’ milk. People are trying to work out why it does what it does, like making cheese stretchy and melty, and then trying to work out how to reverse engineer it from plants,” Benny says.
“So they’re not just trying to use almond juice to make it look like cheese, they’re actually figuring out the food science behind some of those dairy proteins so they can make ingredients that behave the same way.”
Precision fermentation has been around for many years. It has been used to make things like insulin for diabetics and lots of food ingredients, like rennet for use in cheesemaking. Vitamin D is often used to fortify milk drinks.
It does use recombinant DNA technology, which is a type of genetic modification, but the end product does not have any GM ingredients.
An example of such a product is where the bioactive whey protein lactoferrin extracted from liquid milk is being derived from precision fermentation.
Lactoferrin is a high-value product that Synlait, Westland and Fonterra produce. It is used a lot in infant formula and is becoming increasingly popular in adult nutrition.
“Precision fermentation lactoferrin is coming to the market very soon, and they are claiming it’ll have price parity with dairy-produced lactoferrin by the end of the year, which will be interesting to watch.”
And then there is cell-based, which involves cell culturing technology and is often used in the medical industry.
Essentially there is the ability to grow an artificial mammary gland and put it under the conditions needed to produce milk. Unlike precision fermentation, which produces one type of protein or fat, cell-based replicates a complete milk product.
“All three alternatives are happening on different timelines. The first will be plant-based and if companies like Nestlé start utilising them, they will start reducing their dairy inputs,” Benny says.
“Then precision fermentation like lactoferrin is on a much nearer timeline, but there are unknowns about whether it can be produced in bulk commodities like we do in whole milk powder.
“Cellular agriculture is on a much longer timeline but there are some really exciting applications, including several companies exploring producing human breast milk, but if they do there may be some long-term implications for infant formula.”
This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.
