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Israel-based food-tech start-up Imagindairy has acquired a new facility and is operating its own industrial-scale precision fermentation production lines.
Imagindairy says it is the “first” company in the industry to achieve this milestone, fully owning and operating its own industrial-scale production lines dedicated solely to animal-free milk proteins.
The facility, located in the Middle East, enables Imagindairy to produce its animal-free dairy proteins at more than 100,000 litres of fermentation capacity, with planned capacity expansion to triple this volume in the next one to two years.
Imagindairy is currently producing industrial-scale batches in the facility at a competitive cost structure to traditional dairy.
Eyal Afergan, Imagindairy’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Having just entered the landscape three years ago, this achievement is a big step forward for us. We’ve overcome industry-wide hurdles that have previously been holding precision fermentation dairy back, including the production capacity bottleneck and ensuring that unit economics make sense across the supply chain.”
He continued:
“This will enable our customers to put animal-free dairy products on-shelf at cost parity to traditional dairy, without compromising on quality. It’s a substantial breakthrough and important step that will allow us to support mass-market adoption, transition to an industrial company, and speed up the development of other milk proteins.”
This achievement comes on the heels of another major company milestone, as Imagindairy received a “no questions” response letter from the US Food & Drug Administration last month for the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notice submitted by the company.
This signifies that the ingredient is safe to be used in F&B products, providing a regulatory ‘green light’ for food and beverage manufacturers to partner with Imagindairy. Imagindairy can now offer the most efficient manufacturing and end-to-end capabilities, extending through in-market product availability.
Products made using Imagindairy’s animal-free dairy protein are expected to be launched in the US in the coming year.