Remilk pauses plans for ‘world’s largest’ precision fermentation plant, focuses on growth
Remilk, which manufactures animal-free dairy proteins through precision fermentation, uses a patented method to produce its proteins at scale.
Last April, the company, founded by entrepreneur Aviv Wolff, announced it was going to build ‘the world’s largest full-scale precision fermentation facility’ on more than 750,000sq.ft of land within The Symbiosis Project in Kalundborg, Denmark. “We plan to break ground by the end of this year,” Wolff told us in September 2022. “The Danish facility will be our first fully-owned facility, and production will begin as soon as the build-out is complete.”
When news about the construction project broke, Remilk had racked up $120m in Series B funding, but the foodtech firm has since changed its approach, opting to utilize an existing production plant in Western Europe, as we were told by a company representative.
“Increased demand for our protein led us to focus on immediate production solutions that can be utilized without having to wait for the construction of our own facility,” a Remilk spokesperson said. “We were able to identify a facility that will enable us to ramp up immediately. The Danish facility project is therefore postponed to a later stage in our growth while we utilize the excellent opportunity for large-scale capacity for immediate use.”
Recreating the future of dairy?
Remilk, which has been able to sell its animal-free proteins in the US since last year and also received regulatory approval to market its products in Singapore this month, is keeping further details of its ongoing collaborations under wraps.
A company spokesperson told us the firm continues ‘to engage with dozens of companies, including some of the world’s most popular brands, to recreate the future of dairy together’. But the company has largely remained coy on sharing details of its ongoing collaborations with industry players.
In recent months, Vegconomist reported that Remilk has been supplying animal-free protein to General Mills, for use in the multinational’s animal-free cream cheese brand, Bold Cultr.
But the consumer goods giant announced on February 27, 2023 that it was ‘de-prioritizing funding’ for Bold Cultr, effectively shutting down all activities associated with the manufacture of the animal-free spreadable, which was available for pre-order via the brand’s direct-to-consumer website. (DairyReporter has approached both General Mills and Remilk to bring you more on this story.)
The Israeli startup also declined to comment on developments in Singapore, stating only: “We are in touch with leading players in this field but, unfortunately, can’t share further information at this time.”
The spokesperson concluded: “Remilk's animal-free protein is bio-equivalent to traditional dairy counterparts which enables the production of dairy that is indistinguishable in taste and function from traditional dairy but without lactose, cholesterol, and hormones, and with a fraction of the environmental impact. The benefit of this is our protein can be used to make yogurt, cream cheese and ice cream, to name a few.”
