The animal-free dairy maker achieved a 28% reduction in the casein inclusion rate for its mozzarella, surpassing a critical cost threshold and reducing casein usage by over 50% compared to conventional mozzarella.
New Culture’s reduced animal-free casein mozzarella is a breakthrough for the company’s “financial viability and ”on par with conventional mozzarella costs" to “reach positive net margin,” Matt Gibson, co-founder and CEO, New Culture told FoodNavigator-USA.
Casein is the protein responsible for cheese’s melting, stretching, bubbling and browning properties and typically found in animal milk.
Through precision fermentation methods, New Culture leveraged the functional properties of its animal-free casein to reduce its content in mozzarella while maintaining nutritional profile.
“In addition to the functionality and performance of mozzarella, nutritional profile is also very important to New Culture. This means that we have reduced the amount of casein, what we have not done is load up on sticky, slippery starches or fillers that are common in plant-based cheeses. Instead, we have taken a holistic approach based on fundamental food science and the essential components that make up conventional mozzarella,” Gibson said.
Mozzarella in particular is “the most challenging cheese to recreate at a high quality because it has to exhibit many attributes – some of which run counter to each other – in both raw and cooked forms,” Inja Radman, co-founder and CSO, New Culture, said in a statement.
Animal-free casein’s versatility & price parity expands beyond mozzarella
While New Culture is currently focused on producing its mozzarella “to move quickly and reach positive margins,” the company’s animal-free casein can be applied to “make any cheese you could want,” Gibson said.
New Culture’s animal-free casein “is extremely versatile and extremely functional. And thanks to our learnings from mozzarella, we anticipate not only fast product development cycles for our next cheeses but also quicker timelines to cost parity,” he added.
‘We will eventually expand into retail’
New Culture partnered with Chef Nancy Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, where Silverton serves the animal-free mozzarella on pizzas.
Along with Silverton, New Culture partners with chefs to run culinary and sensory trials which resulted “overwhelmingly positive” feedback, Gibson said.
“We hear on a daily basis from chefs, food service operators and consumers who are eager for our product. These conversations highlight the importance of the melt, stretch, mouthfeel triad, which is sorely lacking in the plant-based mozzarellas on the market,” he elaborated.
According to Gibson, as the US mozzarella market approaches $10 billion due to foodservice, particularly pizzerias, New Culture will continue strengthening its position in the foodservice market – however, in time the company has plans to expand into retail.
“We will eventually expands into retail but the food service market is large enough for us to play in profitably for several years to come,” he added.
