Imagindairy promises to offer animal-free dairy at cost parity

Dive Brief:

• Imagindairy, an Israeli food tech startup, acquired and is operating its own industrial-scale precision fermentation production lines to bring down consumer costs for plant-based dairy, the company announced Wednesday.
• Manufacturing and tech capabilities place Imagindairy in a position to sell animal-free products at a similar price point to traditional dairy, according to the company.
• The facility immediately gives Imagindairy more than 100,000 liters of fermentation capacity. The company plans to triple volume output within the next year or two.

Dive Insight:

The manufacturing announcement comes on the heels of Imagindairy receiving a “no questions” response letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration last month for the Generally Recognized as Safe notice submitted by the company. This signifies that the ingredient is safe to be used in food and beverage products, providing a regulatory ‘green light’ for manufacturers in the space to partner with Imagindairy.

“This milestone allows us to complete faster R&D cycles all the way from the bench to industrial scale and significantly improves our cost structure,” said Eyal Afergan, co-founder and CEO, in a statement to Food Dive. 

Since its founding, the company has sought to be a “trailblazer” in the space by producing sustainable, animal-free dairy proteins that are “equally as delicious and nutritious.”

Imagindairy has also been subject to industry-wide challenges along the way. 

“One of the biggest challenges the industry has faced is the production capacity bottleneck and ensuring that unit economics make sense across the supply chain,” said Afergan. 

“Without this capacity, the industry will be facing higher commercial prices and lower supply, significantly limiting mass market adoption of animal-free dairy.”

The company believes that having its own production facility can potentially cross this hurdle and lower prices for consumers.