Singapore-based startup, TurtleTree Labs, has raised US$3.2 million (S$4.46 million) in funding from international investors to cultivate human breast milk and other milks from mammals.
According to AgFunderNews (AFN), the company aims to make animal-free, lab-cultured milk using cells from mammals.
It also claims that it can produce the milk of any mammal in their labs.
Producing milk in a lab
According to the startup's website, the team produces cultured milk through extracting stem cells from milk.
After which the stem cells are transferred to an environment with the right conditions that allow the cells to become specialised mammary gland cells.
These mammary gland cells are then stimulated to produce milk.
Here are the three main steps of the process:
Image by TurtleTree Labs
Company aims to disrupt dairy industry
According to the startup, it aims to address four main issues with conventional dairy farming.
The carbon footprint of traditional farming
The company aims to create milk using "significantly less land, water" and emit less greenhouse gases than traditional methods of dairy farming.
The startup acknowledged that cattle farming is unsustainable and produces 37 per cent of global methane emission.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and leads to increased temperatures on Earth.
In addition, land is scarce in Singapore, making traditional cattle farming and conventional milk production tough.
TurtleTree Labs also highlighted the challenges that cattle farmers face in tropical countries:
"In Singapore where land space is scarce, traditional cattle farming makes producing and manufacturing milk locally extremely difficult. Moreover, based on USDA reports, heat stress on dairy cattle can reduce milk production and fertility. This makes cattle farming in tropical countries challenging."
At the same time, the technology would not require the deforestation of rainforests to be converted into land for raising cattle.
Issue of contaminants
Another issue that TurtleTree Labs wants to solve is the problem of contaminants in traditional milk.
Veterinary treatment of dairy cows often involves using antibiotics to reduce inflammation or infection of the mammary gland and udder tissue.
This leads to the residues of these drugs to be present in milk and this inhibits fermentation of dairy products, such as cheese and yoghurt.
The startup aims to produce quality milk with low risks of contamination in milk.
Lack of comparable alternatives to milk
According to TurtleTree Labs, milk alternatives, such as those from plants, are not similar to cow's milk in terms of protein and potassium.
Thus, the team aims to produce cultured milk that has similar nutritional content as milk in mammals.
Ethical issues
In conventional farming, female cows are artificially inseminated starting from when they are two to three years old.
TurtleTree Labs explained that after giving birth, female cows lactate for 10 months and are then inseminated again, and this cycle continues.
In comparison, the cultured milk being made in the lab will eliminate ethical issues.
TurtleTree will work with infant nutrition companies
The startup will be working with the world's largest infant nutrition companies as infant milk has a higher price point, as compared to animal milks consumed by adult humans, reported AFN.
Since the end of 2019 to June 2020, the price of the lab-cultured milk has reduced from U$180 (S$250) per litre to U$30 (S$41).
Co-founder Max Rye told AFN the startup will be venturing into the dairy industry next:
“The earlier markets are going to be around infant nutrition. But as we bring prices down, the next verticals will be in the dairy industry in general."
The startup is also collaborating with companies that produce cheese.
Adding to Singapore's self-sufficiency in food
During the circuit breaker period, the startup was able to keep its lab open with the help of Enterprise Singapore, reported AFN.
Rye also added that the company's technology could have a long-term role in helping to contribute to Singapore's food self-sufficiency, especially with the government's effort to produce 30 per cent of the nation's nutritional needs locally by 2030:
“Just imagine having our bioreactors in any part of Singapore, and being able to go to them and get raw milk without going thousands of miles to Australia or New Zealand – that’s why the Singapore government sees us as a very valuable company."
One of the company's investors, Green Monday founder David Yeung was quoted in AFN as saying:
“Foodtech innovation in Asia is way overdue. If the rapidly deteriorating climate change situation isn’t enough to convince the world, the pandemic surely hammers home the urgency that we need to overhaul the food system for the sake of public health, food safety, and food security."
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Top images via TurtleTree Labs