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Wilk makes yogurt using milk from cultivated cells

November 18, 2022 from The Food Dive:

• "Israeli food tech company Wilk developed the world’s first yogurt made with cultured milk fat. The product, made with both traditional dairy products and dairy created by cultivated cells, was validated by external laboratories as meeting chemical and biological requirements to be yogurt, the company said.
• "The yogurt is a prototype to validate Wilk’s technological capabilities. It is most likely not a product the company will be developing on its own anytime soon. Wilk said in a statement that its main emphasis right now is creating cultured human milk fat to be used in infant formula.
• "Wilk is one of a growing number of companies using cell culture technology to create dairy. Biomilq and TurtleTree are working to make human milk, while Opalia is concentrating on making cow milk.

"Wilk, formerly known as BioMilk, grows mammary cells from cows and humans. When those cells have matured, Wilk has a patented process to get those cultivated cells to produce milk. It then separates the milk from the cells.

"This is a completely different process than precision fermentation used by Perfect Day and other companies. They create dairy proteins by fermenting yeast with modified DNA. Milk produced by cultured cells has a wider array of nutrients.

"But once Wilk makes progress on volume, it may have a leg up on distribution. Coca-Cola Israel signed a strategic agreement with Wilk in 2021. The soft drink giant’s arm will invest a total of $2 million in Wilk and work with them to develop products from cell-cultured milk."