After six years of global research and about $100 million in investment, Gad Dairies and the food-tech company Rimilk have introduced what they call “the new milk,” a product designed to let observant Jews enjoy a creamy cappuccino or coffee with milk after a meat meal. The companies say the product is fully parve under Jewish dietary law, with no animal source or connection, and is meant to solve the familiar frustration of substituting soy, almond, or oat drinks after Sabbath or holiday meals.
Rimilk says the product was developed by studying how a cow makes milk and then using advanced biotechnology to create a milk-like DNA sequence. The company then used a yeast fermentation process, similar to brewing beer or baking bread, to teach the yeast to produce milk proteins at commercial scale. The result is a clean milk-protein powder made without taking even a single cell from a cow. Rimilk founder and CEO Aviv Wolf, the grandson of a dairy farmer from the Jezreel Valley, said, “We did not want to make another substitute, but to make milk, without a cow.”
The project was developed with close kosher supervision from the start, rather than retroactively. Rabbi Shmuel Idelman, Rimilk’s rabbinic adviser, said that every strain of yeast, raw material and incubation stage was monitored closely, and that the guiding principle was, “If there is doubt, there is no doubt. Everything must be lechatchila parve and with great care.” The product is certified under the Badaz Igud Rabbanim, headed by Rabbi Shalom Landau.
The new milk contains 75% less sugar than regular cow’s milk, has 3% fat, and is free of lactose, cholesterol, antibiotics and hormones. It is not suitable for people with life-threatening milk-protein allergies, because it still contains the milk allergen. It is being sold in two 750 ml home versions, one called “Perfect for Coffee” for stable, high foam, and another vanilla-flavored version for coffee and cereal, along with a professional barista version for cafes. Wolf said more parve products are already in development and will reach shelves soon.
