ADM and New Culture announce strategic partnership to scale up alternative dairy products

ADM and New Culture, an animal-free dairy company, have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the development and commercialisation of alternative dairy products.

New Culture says it is leading the global movement to an animal-free dairy future, offering animal-free dairy products that are indistinguishable from conventional products in taste, texture, function, and nutritional content.

Beginning with its animal-free mozzarella, New Culture makes products with the power of precision fermentation.

In the US alone, dairy is a $70bn market, approximately 30 per cent of which is from cheese. However, due to the taste and performance gap of plant-based cheese options, there has been minimal penetration of the animal-free cheese segment with the general public. It is exactly this gap that New Culture’s products wants to address.

The partnership will enable joint product development, taking advantage of New Culture’s innovations in novel ingredients and animal-free dairy products.

The companies will work toward accelerating New Culture’s food service and consumer applications with the support of ADM’s portfolio of product development resources and capabilities. New Culture will also have access to ADM’s full pantry of sustainable and plant-based ingredients and flavours as New Culture expands the use of animal-free casein into a wide range of animal-free dairy applications.

The partnership will also include collaborations to advance the commercial scale-up of New Culture’s animal-free casein and dairy products.

ADM’s global manufacturing assets and expertise will accelerate New Culture’s efforts toward commercializing their animal-free mozzarella in the US food service market, beginning with pizzerias in 2023. As New Culture grows its commercial footprint, ADM’s production capacity for both fermentation and dairy operations will be made available to meet the demand for New Culture’s melty, stretchy cheese.

“ADM is a global leader in the fast-growing alternative protein segment, and we’re excited to continue to expand our capabilities, whether through investments like our Decatur production expansion, acquisitions like Sojaprotein, the launch of Scale Up Bio in Singapore, or this exciting new partnership with New Culture,” said Ian Pinner, ADM’s senior vice president, Strategy and Innovation.

“After tasting New Culture’s delicious animal-free mozzarella, we recognised that the company had the potential to play a central role in bringing great-tasting, break-through products to the dairy aisle, and we’re excited to bring our global precision fermentation and manufacturing expertise, and our extensive consumer product application capabilities to this effort. We look forward to working with New Culture to help meet fast-growing consumer interest in alternative dairy and cheese.”

“This partnership between New Culture and ADM gives our team the chance to accelerate our path to commercialization and expand what’s possible for our product portfolio. Leading the transition to an animal-free dairy future requires partners every step of the way and we’re thrilled to have a committed partner in ADM, a global leader with deep expertise, reach, and capabilities,” said Matt Gibson, co-founder and CEO of New Culture.

Related content