This week, Israel’s precision-fermentation milk from Remilk is finally appearing on supermarket shelves. Staff members have been posting photos in Hebrew, smiling, tasting, and clearly enjoying the moment — not because it’s science fiction, but because it tastes like the real thing.

Remilk doesn’t come from cows. It uses microorganisms programmed to produce the same milk proteins found in dairy. The result is real milk protein — without the animal.

Why does that matter? Because traditional dairy is one of the most resource-intensive foods we produce. It requires land, water, feed, antibiotics, and creates methane emissions. Precision-fermented milk needs far less land, far less water, and produces dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Why many scientists say cloned (fermented) milk is better:

• No cows → no methane emissions that cause climate change
• No antibiotics or hormones
• Much lower land and water use
• Identical proteins → same taste and texture
• Suitable for people with lactose intolerance (depending on formulation)
• Stable, scalable, and climate-resilient

It doesn’t mean traditional dairy and the taste of brie disappears tomorrow. But it offers a serious alternative in a world facing climate pressure, food security concerns, and ethical debates about industrial farming.

Israel has become a global leader in this field, alongside companies working on cultivated meat, egg proteins, and cheese alternatives. What once sounded futuristic is now simply… food. How do you say mooooo in Hebrew?

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I once lived on a kibbutz in Israel for a year. The saddest sound I ever heard was a newborn calf crying for its mother. That’s the hidden soundtrack of the dairy industry — cows separated from their calves within hours, udders swollen, pumped with hormones, antibiotics, and additives like Bovaer to squeeze out more milk. All that pain, all that chemistry, ends up in our coffee cups.

Enter Remilk, an Israeli foodtech pioneer creating real milk without cows. In partnership with Gad Dairies — one of Israel’s best-known dairy brands — Remilk has just launched The New Milk, a lactose-free, cholesterol-free, animal-free milk identical in taste and nutrition to cow’s milk. The product is now pouring into cafés and restaurants across Israel and will hit major supermarket chains in January 2026.

Related: Israel is the first country to approve the sale of lab meat

While we think safe, healthy, regenerative slow food is the best place to aim for, Remilk might be the healthy in-between until we get there.

Remilk’s milk is not plant-based. It’s real dairy protein, created using precision fermentation — the same process used in the biotech world to make insulin or vitamins. Scientists insert the gene for a cow’s milk protein into a microbe, which then “ferments” and produces that protein without the cow. The result: milk that’s biologically identical to dairy, minus the animal, methane, and moral compromise.

Remilk’s CEO Aviv Wolff calls it “a better, healthier, and tastier world through real milk made without cows.” Amir Aharon of Gad Dairies adds that the collaboration is “a defining moment where generations of dairy tradition meet groundbreaking technology.”

Three products are debuting under The New Milk line: a Barista Milk for cafés, and two retail versions — a regular milk and a vanilla-flavored option. They froth, foam, and taste just like the real thing, yet contain 75 percent less sugar. The milk is fortified with calcium and vitamins and, being kosher-pareve, can be served right after meat meals — a quiet revolution for Jewish kosher consumers long frustrated by dairy separation rules.

What Israelis really think about milk

Ahead of the launch, Remilk and Gad commissioned a national survey with Geocartography Knowledge Group. It found that 92 percent of Israelis still drink animal-based milk, but more than half also consume milk alternatives. There are more vegans per capita in Israel than anywhere else in the world. The main barrier for more people going vegan and dairy-free? Taste. Fifty-five percent said current substitutes “aren’t tasty enough,” while 50 percent of kosher-observant respondents said they’d happily drink coffee with milk after a meat meal — if the milk tasted real.

The New Milk may have found the perfect sweet spot: authentic flavor, ethical production, and a format that fits Israel’s dietary laws and café culture.

Beyond dairy guilt

Remilk’s animal-free protein has already been approved by regulators in Israel, the U.S., Canada (Canada gives the green light to cloned milk), and Singapore. Each market confirmed the protein’s safety and molecular identity with traditional milk. The company has raised more than $150 million USD and is scaling production globally.

Precision fermentation still uses energy, and its total carbon footprint depends on where and how it’s produced. Yet Remilk’s life-cycle analysis shows significant reductions in land and water use compared to industrial dairy. If scaled efficiently and powered by renewables, it could help phase out one of the most resource-intensive sectors of modern agriculture.

Read more on Israel’s uneven contributions to the alt meat and airy markets

Israel is the first country to approve the sale of cultured meat

Israel’s uneven impact in the cultivated meat market

Aleph Farms engineers lab-grown steaks from cattle cells

Slaughter free ribeye steak meat grown in a lab

Is lab meat kosher?

Lab-grown meat telling convenient lies about carbon footprint

Israeli alt dairy startup Imagindairy raises $15M seed

Israel’s Yofix offers dairy and soy-free yoghurt alternative

Vegan protein alternative for dairy industry (Yofix flexitarian plant dairy)

New vegan milk made from hummus (or chickpeas)

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While X is abuzz with news that Canada may be selling cloned meat, in truth cloned milk is not quite market ready. But what is ready for the marked is cloned milk. It’s a fermented, hormone-free, cruelty-free milk made in a lab, without cows and may be on the shelves sooner than you think.

Canada has just approved what could be the future of milk — without cows.

The foodtech company Remilk has received Health Canada’s coveted Letter of No Objection for its animal-free dairy protein, becoming the first producer of animal-identical milk protein to gain approval in the country. Canada joins the U.S., Singapore, and Israel in giving the regulatory nod to this new form of “cloned milk.”

Remilk uses a process known as precision fermentation: they take the genes that code for cow-milk proteins and insert them into microbes (e.g., yeast or other single-cell organisms). Those microbes then manufacture the identical protein.

This isn’t a plant-based milk like oat or soy milk that is full of sugar or estrogens and which can cause glucose spikes. It’s real milk protein — beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) — made through precision fermentation, a process that uses genetically engineered microorganisms instead of cows to produce identical dairy proteins.

For the first time, Canadians may soon find milk, yogurt, or ice cream made entirely without animals, yet indistinguishable in taste and nutrition from traditional dairy.

The approval marks a watershed moment for Canada’s nascent foodtech sector, signaling that its regulators are ready to engage with cellular agriculture and fermentation-based food production. Dana McCauley, CEO of the Canadian Food Innovation Network, called it “a transformative era in our food supply,” one that could help feed growing populations with fewer resources and less environmental harm.

A global first for safety validation

Remilk’s co-founders, Aviv Wolff and Dr. Ori Cohavi, say the approval followed an extensive review of the company’s data on safety and molecular equivalence. “Health Canada’s acceptance of our animal-free protein is additional validation of its safety and purity,” said Cohavi. “Each of the four regulatory agencies that have examined our protein has found it to be identical to traditional milk protein.”

Wolff adds, “Canada’s process was rigorous. We met with Health Canada’s team, provided the data they requested, and were thrilled to receive their Letter of No Objection. It’s an honor that opens the door for Canadian companies to develop animal-free dairy products.”

What it means for consumers and the planet

Remilk says its protein allows manufacturers to make familiar dairy products — milk, cream cheese, or yogurt — that are lactose-free, cholesterol-free, and hormone-free. For consumers, that means indulgence without digestive distress or ethical compromise.

The company uses a patented fermentation process to manufacture its BLG protein at commercial scale. Precision fermentation is resource-efficient compared to livestock farming, though it does require significant energy. Remilk recently completed a life-cycle analysis that reportedly shows “substantial reductions in land, water, and greenhouse-gas emissions” versus conventional dairy. The data will be peer-reviewed before publication.

While the environmental benefits still need independent confirmation, Canada’s approval signals a larger trend: the mainstreaming of fermentation-based proteins as credible climate solutions. The country’s openness could attract more innovators working on sustainable fats, egg proteins, and alternative meats — such as Israel’s Aleph Farms and other Israeli foodtech startups.

For now, the symbolic impact is huge. “Reinventing dairy by removing cows from the equation” was once a science-fiction idea. With Canada’s green light, it’s officially a market reality — and the race to define the future of milk has entered a new phase.

For more on sustainable and futuristic foods, see Green Prophet’s coverage of lab-grown honey and cultivated seafood innovation.

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Loughborough University computer scientists have developed AI tools that offer insights into how greenhouse gas emissions associated with UK livestock farming and land use can be reduced.

The tools – which are hosted on an online digital platform and created as part of research funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – aim to provide farmers, farming organisations, and government bodies with valuable data on how changes in livestock practices and land use can help the UK achieve its 2050 net zero goal.

Developed by a team led by Professor Baihua Li and Professor Qinggang Meng, key features of the platform include machine learning models designed to estimate methane emissions from livestock farming, predict milk productivity and ammonia emissions from dairy farms, and analyse how land use and environmental factors influence methane emissions across the UK.

Related: what is Bovaer milk and why are UK consumers dumping it? 

“Our mission is to bridge the gap between innovation and practicality, offering a platform that supports data-driven decisions to combat climate change, advance sustainable farming, and achieve global net-zero emissions goals”, said Professor Li.

“By harnessing AI, our platform can offer data-driven insights that can help forecast future emissions based on a diverse range of data, giving stakeholders actionable intelligence to make cost-effective proactive decisions.”

Achieving net zero by 2050 requires balancing greenhouse gas emissions with their removal and storage in ‘carbon sinks’ – natural systems like forests, oceans, plants, and soil that absorb more carbon than they release.

Livestock farming plays a dual role, contributing to greenhouse gas emission – particularly methane and nitrous oxide, two potent heat-trapping gases – while also affecting the land’s ability to function as a carbon sink through grazing, feed production, and pasture management.

Reducing farming’s environmental impact is challenging, as emissions, carbon storage, and farm productivity are shaped by multiple interacting factors, such as animal breed, feed, pasture, and climate. These vary across farms, making a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective.

Related: Accelerate 2050 conference and AI for Good

Beyond livestock farming, land use itself significantly influences emissions. Different types of land – such as agricultural, woodlands, or urban areas – interact with environmental factors to determine how much methane is released or absorbed. Understanding these complex interactions is essential for identifying the best strategies to minimise emissions.

The Loughborough University AI models provide a solution. Trained on diverse livestock and environmental datasets, they analyse how various factors interact to impact emissions, providing farm-level and nation-wide insights that can help shape strategies to support the UK’s net zero goal.

The AI tools developed for livestock farms allow farmers to input details about their specific animals and practices to estimate their current annual greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers can easily explore potential changes to their practices – simply by selecting options from drop-down menus or entering variable values. These adjustments provide immediate insights into their potential impact on both emissions and farm productivity.

One tool is designed specifically for dairy farmers, helping them estimate how their current practices affect individual cow milk yield and ammonia levels in waste. Monitoring ammonia is crucial, as it interacts with soil microbes to produce nitrous oxide and may also indicate dietary imbalances. This development was made possible through the support of the National Bovine Data Centre and the Cattle Information Service.

Another tool, developed for beef farmers, predicts methane emissions for individual cows based on farm-specific data. It also helps farmers understand emissions in context by offering relatable comparisons—such as the number of trees needed to offset a cow’s annual emissions, the equivalent emissions from flights between London and New York, or the months of energy use in an average UK household.

The team has also developed a livestock emissions calculator based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines, the global standard for climate reporting. Suitable for farmers worldwide, it simplifies complex government formulas and presents them in a user-friendly format, helping farmers compare their emissions to official baselines.

Creating a Digital twin

Beyond farm-level tools, the research team has harnessed artificial intelligence to develop a user-friendly, web-based platform – referred to as a ‘digital twin’ – to provide detailed insights into how different types of land use affect methane emissions across the UK.

The digital twin features heatmaps of ruminant livestock distribution, land cover types (such as agriculture, urban areas, and woodland), and methane emission concentrations across the UK. It integrates real-time satellite methane observations from Sentinel-5P TROPOMI, AI models, datasets, and various intuitive visualisation tools.

Users can adjust parameters such as location, land cover percentages, seasons, and years to track historical changes and model future emission scenarios based on climate and land use projections.

The Loughborough team has analysed the UK’s methane emissions using the digital twin with early findings – intended for future publication in a peer-reviewed journal– indicating that methane emissions have been increasing year after year. Agriculture arable land and improved grassland used for livestock farming have also been identified by the researchers as key contributors, closely linked to methane hotspots.

It is hoped the tool will be used by policymakers, government bodies, and farming organisations to deepen understanding of how environmental factors influence emissions and enable data-backed decisions to be made to reduce emissions.

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Le Petit Robert, the popular single-volume French dictionary, has added the word “labné”, also pronounced as “labneh” or “labaneh” to its latest 2023 edition. A civil war in Lebanon in 1975 drove hundreds of thousands of french-speaking Arab Lebanese to France, and of course they brought their delicious food and cheese traditions with them. Like Indians have great yoghurt, the Arab world has amazing labaneh. Rolled into a Druize pita with za’atar and olive oil. You have yourself a vegetarian meal.

You pronounce labane as LA-BA-NEH and in Hebrew the word “laban” means white.

Le Robert’s:

Fromage frais égoutté préparé traditionnellement avec du lait de chèvre ou de brebis (spécialité moyen-orientale).

Labneh is traditionally made with goat’s milk, but it can easily be made using a 1/2 a gallon of cow’s or sheep’s milk. Maybe even camel milk too. As we mentioned above, we love it on a fresh pita with olive oil and za’atar.

Labaneh is popular in the Middle East. It’s a fresh cheese that doesn’t spoil easily in the heat and you can make at home with yoghurt or with milk and lemon (see our recipe here).

Labane tastes awkwardly sour at first like something is wrong with it. The flavor tingles in your mouth a bit. After the first few tastes, you will grow to love its tangy flavor. We promise.

You might find it sold in a small tub or rolled into balls and stored with olive oil. Either way is delicious.

Vegan version of labne

Notre Dame University-Louaize’s Christelle Bou Mitri, with Christelle Saleme and Christy Raad have developed a plant-based alternative to the Lebanese Labneh. The researchers at the private Catholic university in Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon, are following the alt-protein, alt-milk craze and have found a way to make the tangy cheese using peas, lupin, and beans in response to the increasing need for vegan food in Lebanon. 

According to the university’s press, vegan products in Lebanon are hard to access, especially in terms of affordability, which limits one’s options in adopting a vegan lifestyle, particularly for the sake of health risks.

You can now find Labaneh in major cities around the world like in Toronto, New York, London or Paris but it’s just as easy to make if you can’t find it. If you’re expert level at Arab cheese, we challenge you to make smen.

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Alt Dairy, Alt Meat and Alt Fish are hot trends in the food tech industry. Plus they help farmers produce more protein. Vegans are pushing for the conversion to non-animal sources of milk, meat and fish, and the planet needs it badly too. Animal byproducts are causing climate change.

Maybe because Israel has the highest number of vegans in the world per capita or maybe because the Jewish Kosher food business has always pushed food additives from alternative non-pork or not-dairy sources to follow Jewish Dietary Laws, but Israel is seeing a disproportionately high number of Alt Meat and Alt Dairy companies ranging from cricket burgers to steak grown in a lab from real cow cells.

FoodTech startup Imagindairy, developer of animal-free milk proteins, or in simpler words – milk made in a lab – secured an additional $15M USD in its extended seed-round. The initial round in November 2021 brought in USD13M. This brings the total investment capital to USD28M, making it one of the highest-earning seed rounds in the alternative protein space.

The funding was led by Target Global and joined by the company’s existing investors Strauss Group (which just suffered, Emerald Technology Ventures, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures, Collaborative Fund, New Climate Ventures, and FoodSparks® by PeakBridge, demonstrating a robust commitment to the company’s future progress.

In its mission to provide consumers sustainable, better-for-you, guilt-free dairy solutions, the alt-protein innovators found a way to create animal-free milk proteins from microorganisms via proprietary precision-fermentation technology. The technology allows the production of a broad spectrum of dairy analogs, from raw milk to cheese, without involving animals.

Imagindairy’s dairy proteins are non-GMO, cholesterol-free, and possess the same flavor, texture, functionality, and nutritional value of their cow-based counterparts. Most importantly, they eliminate the burden that livestock imposes on the environment.

Imagindairy’s proprietary platform significantly amplifies protein expression, enabling exceptionally cost-effective production of animal-free milk proteins. This overcomes one of the biggest hurdles in alt-dairy protein production, allowing brands to sell analog dairy products at consumer-friendly prices—a major requirement for mass-market adoption.

The funds raised in this seed round will be used to accelerate the company’s R&D efforts to launch a range of real dairy products without using animals. It also will help attract additional talent to its expanding workforce. Imagindairy is currently in dialogue with major dairy food producers seeking to diversify their product portfolios.

Farmers growing feed for the animal industry? Don’t worry. You will be growing more protein if you switch to growing food for us humans to eat.

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It’s a sign of the times: a vegan cheesemaking company in Israel is considering listing on the TASE – or Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Two meat or animal product substitute companies already list there and now Vgarden, which makes vegan cheese is looking to raise capital. A report in the local paper Haaretz says the kibbutz-based company plans to list next year at a valuation of $102 million. 

Israel has more vegans per capita than anywhere in the world. And the company already has dozens of companies looking to offer a plant-based alternative to meat or animal based products. 

Yofix in Israel already sells its soy-free yogurt alternative made from oats, legumes and seeds. The fermented, cultured products contain protein, fiber, calcium and iron, have no added sugar or preservatives, and are pre- and probiotic.

Vgarden produces sliced cheese, cream cheese, ricotta, and feta –– all without milk of any kind. And it’s marketed under the brand Mashu Mashu, which means “wow, that’s something” in Hebrew. I have tried the sliced cheese and it’s a satisfying and convincing alternative. It’s firm and tasty and has a cheesy smell and flavor likely from yeast – which the African Israelites have been using as a seasoning for decades. They are an all-vegan village in Beersheva. 

The transition to complete veganism hasn’t been difficult for mainstream Israelis because as part of the Jewish lifestyle and dietary laws it is already known if a food product contains traces of animal products as it’s not allowed to eat meat and milk together, for those who observe the customs and traditions known as kashrut.

They are similar to the Muslim dietary laws called halal but are more restrictive – except for one – Jews are allowed to drink alcohol, Muslims are not. 

Israelis taking bite out of meat substitute markets

MeaTech in Israel 3-D prints meat alternatives and its shares have risen 120% on the TASE over the last year according to the Marker, an Israeli financial paper. SavorEat is developing a plant-based meat alternative using 3D printing and plant cellulose. 

Impossible Burgers have been on the Israeli grocery shelves for a couple of years already. But they cost about $8 a piece, which is more than double the price of a burger bought at a butcher. McDonalds in some locations in Israel is selling vegan burgers and for those observing dietary laws can for the first time order a cheeseburger from the famed fast-food chain. 

Redefine Meat from Israel says it is making the world’s first plant-based steak created using 3D printing technology. The Rehovot-based company said it will start testing the beef, which it calls Alt-Steak, at select high-end restaurants in Israel later this year.

Israelis are thrilled with the rollout of Beyond Meat and are clearly trying to take a bite out of this enviable market. Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026, “the global meat substitute market size was valued at $4.1 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach $8.1 billion by 2026.”

RilBite is ambitiously positioning itself as the basis for “The burger that saves the world.”

Founded by Barak Melamed and incubated in The Kitchen FoodTech Hub of the Strauss Group in Ashdod, RilBite is developing a “minced plant” product using only six ingredients: onions, tomatoes, textured vegetable protein (TVP) from soy, lentils, rice and spices.

There is Kinoko Tech developing a vegan protein with a meat-like texture and slight umami flavor. The secret ingredient is an edible mushroom tissue called mycelium.

FFW is creating a yeast-based meat alternative. Founder Leonardo Marcovitz says that yeast contains 50% protein and has all the essential amino acids. It’s cheap and easily available. But until now, no one has been able to create a textured product out of yeast or temper its strong umami flavor.

“For the past year, our food technologists have been working on solving those two challenges,” he says. “We’re deciding whether our first product will be in the form of pulled chicken, chicken nuggets or Bolognese.”

Taking on the humble chickpea, a staple of the Middle East diet: InnovoPro and ChickP have developed proprietary technologies for extracting neutral-tasting protein from chickpeas for use in the food industry. Although hummus everywhere unless it’s organic contains high amounts of cancer-causing Roundup. 

Sometimes, unless it’s my daughter begging to try a vegan bacon one day, I just have to hope: maybe we should just stop trying to create substitutes? The next generation of vegans won’t hunger for milk, cheese or anything that resembles meat if we educate them properly. Food grown simply from a garden and made into a homemade spread without a printer or complicated enzymes in a lab is really the healthiest and more sustainable way we can consumer our food. These foodtech companies may both help and hinder a meat-free transition. What do you think?

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About a third of the food produced for human consumption is estimated to be lost or wasted globally. But the biggest part of food waste, which is not included in that estimate, may be through dietary choices that result in the squandering of environmental resources.

Consider that cows, chickens, pigs – whether for eggs, dairy, or meat – all need to eat plants – and farmers need to grow food for them. Imagine there were no more meat eaters? If we all become vegans or ate meat grown in a lab? How would that shift edible crops for us?

This is a good study for proponents of Alt Protein, alternative meat, fake fish and milk from a lab companies.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and their colleagues have now found a novel way to define and quantify this second type of wastage.

The scientists have called it “opportunity food loss,” a term inspired by the “opportunity cost” concept in economics, which refers to the cost of choosing a particular alternative over better options.

Opportunity food loss stems from using agricultural land to produce animal-based food instead of nutritionally comparable plant-based alternatives.

The researchers report that in the United States alone, avoiding opportunity food loss – that is, replacing all animal-based items with edible crops for human consumption – would add enough food to feed 350 million additional people, or more than the total US population, with the same land resources.

“Our analysis has shown that favoring a plant-based diet can potentially yield more food than eliminating all the conventionally defined causes of food loss,” says lead author Alon Shepon, who works in the lab of Prof. Ron Milo in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences. 

I had the pleasure of gardening with Alon a few years ago when he showed the parents of the Tel Aviv Waldorf School, Beit Hinuch Aviv, how to grow a permaculture garden. We’ve ben harvesting it ever since. Earlier he’s researched papers on why beef is much worse for the planet than chicken or pork. Read the brief on the study here.

In the 2018 study, the scientists compared the resources needed to produce five major categories of animal-based food – beef, pork, dairy, poultry, and eggs – with the resources required to grow edible crops of similar nutritional value in terms of protein, calories, and micronutrients.

They found that plant-based replacements could produce 2 to 20 times more protein per acre than using that land for animal feed.

The most dramatic results were obtained for beef. The researchers compared it with a mix of crops – soya, potatoes, cane sugar, peanuts, and garlic – that deliver a similar nutritional profile when taken together in the right proportions.

The land area that could produce 100 grams of protein from these crops would yield only 4 grams of edible protein from beef. In other words, using agricultural land for producing beef instead of replacement crops results in an opportunity food loss of 96 grams – that is, a loss of 96% – per unit of land.

This means that the potential gain from diverting agricultural land from beef to plant-based foods for human consumption would be enormous.

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