Israel has authorized a local food-tech startup, Remilk, to start producing cultured milk. Founded in 2019, Remilk produces milk proteins through a yeast-based fermentation process that makes them "chemically identical" to those found in cow's milk and dairy products. According to the startup, the milk produced in this way is free of lactose, cholesterol, growth hormones and antibiotics. Nevertheless, it is "almost identical to the real one". Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu - who recently visited the Remilk plant - said that this permit "is the beginning of a leap forward, it is a milestone in an area where Israel is already a technological leader". "The development of this technology will strengthen Israel's economy, its food security, help address climate change and support animal welfare." The Times of Israel reports that at the beginning of the year the Singapore authorities authorized the sale of this kind of milk. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already recognized its safety for food consumption. "The opening of the Israeli market to dairy products of non-animal origin will bring Israel to the forefront of global research and food-tech development," Remilk predicted.
Coldiretti, cultivated milk is not food Israel's Ministry of Health "has allowed the company Remilk, which is already producing on an industrial scale in several areas of the world, to sell to the public its dairy products born in the laboratory without ever having seen even the shadow of a cow using the milk protein gene and inserting it into bioreactors for accelerated growth with a process similar to that used for all foods created in the laboratory, or cell-based" but "the truth is that it is not food but an engineered product, with manufacturing processes much more similar to those of drugs and precisely in this area they must be evaluated". This was stated by the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini speaking from Tuttofood where with Filiera Italia, they launched together with Assica, Assolatte, Unaitalia and Assocarni "the first alliance against the assault of synthetic food on world tables and strategic sectors of the true Made in Italy agri-food, from meat to cured meats, from milk to cheese", on the occasion of the conference on 'The risks of synthetic food'. "Hormones are used in cell-based products that have been banned in European farms since 1996. We have turned the spotlight on a business in the hands of a few but very influential in the world that - explains Prandini - can change people's lives and the environment around us, putting economic and food democracy itself at risk".
Assolatte, defending milk from unscrupulous investors "We are at the paradox on the one hand we are asked to invest to make our dairy production even more environmentally friendly, on the other unscrupulous investors, under the pretext of environmental protection try to promote a product that is anything but natural, and is therefore an enemy of the environment. They want to appropriate the values of milk, its naturalness and its purity". This was stated by the president of Assolatte, Paolo Zanetti, regarding the arrival of milk produced without cows that had the ok of the Israeli Ministry of Health. "We must stop this senseless race, stop Frankenstein foods and safeguard milk which, we have always said, is a true world heritage of humanity", concludes Zanetti, who participates in the alliance against cell-based food with Coldiretti and Filiera Italia together with Assica, Unaitalia and Assocarni launched at Tuttofood in Milan.
