【每天一篇经济学人】A new big cheese 新式大奶酪（2023年第4

文章来源：《经济学人》Jul 22th 2023 期 Business 栏目 A new big cheese

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It looks like cheese. It smells like cheese. It tastes like cheese (specifically mature cheddar). And it is cheese—at least under the microscope. “Synthetic dairy” is made with the same ingredients as the conventional sort. But instead of getting the main ingredient from a live ruminant, Better Dairy, a three-year-old British cheesemaker, derives some of it from yeast. These microbes are fed sugar, which they then convert into milk proteins in a process which is similar to brewing.

它看起来像奶酪。闻起来像奶酪。它的味道像奶酪（特别像陈年巧达干酪）。而且它就是奶酪——至少在显微镜下是奶酪。“合成乳制品”的原材料与传统乳制品相同。但英国一家奶酪制造商 Better Dairy（3年前创立）并没有从活体反刍动物身上获取主要原料，而是从酵母中提取了部分原料。将微生物置于糖分中，然后它们将糖转化为牛奶蛋白，这个过程类似于酒精酿造。

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Plenty of milk alternatives have hit café counters and supermarket shelves in recent years. Plant-based beverages made from things like soyabeans, almonds and oats make up 15% of all milk sales by value in America and 11% in western Europe, reckons the Good Food Institute (GFI), a think-tank. Yet lovers of real dairy, which plant-derived products cannot quite mimic, still need cows, goats and ewes. “Precision fermentation” companies like Better Dairy hope to change that—and take a fat slice of the $900bn global dairy market.

近年来，大量牛奶替代品出现在咖啡馆柜台和超市货架上。智库“优质食品研究所” (GFI) 估计，以大豆、杏仁和燕麦等原料制成的植物奶占美国牛奶总销量的15%，占西欧牛奶总销量的 11%。然而，植物奶无法完全模仿真正的乳制品，牛奶爱好者们仍然需要奶牛、山羊和母羊等动物产的奶。Better Dairy 等“精准发酵”公司希望改变这一现状，且希望在全球9000亿美元的乳制品市场中分一杯羹。

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Remilk, an Israeli startup, has recently received approval to sell its fare in America, Israel and Singapore. Perfect Day, a Californian one, already sells synthetic milk, ice cream and cream cheese. It recently signed contracts to sell its proteins to Nestlé, a food giant, and to Starbucks. In its latest funding round two years ago it raised $350m, valuing it at $1.6bn. All told, precision fermenters have raised nearly $3bn from investors since the start of 2021.

Remilk是一家以色列初创公司，最近它获得了在美国、以色列和新加坡销售其产品的批准。加州一家名为Perfect Day的公司已经开始销售合成奶、冰淇淋和奶油奶酪。最近，该公司与食品巨头雀巢公司和星巴克签订了蛋白质销售合同。在两年前的最新一轮融资中，它筹集了 3.5 亿美元，估值达 16 亿美元。总之，自2021年初以来，精准发酵企业已从投资者那里筹集了近30亿美元。

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Synthetic dairy dispenses with certain undesirable aspects of milk and milk-making. Lactose, to which some people are allergic, and hormones, which have been linked to some adult diseases, can be stripped out. Fermentation tanks do not need to be pumped full of antibiotics and can be set up anywhere—handy at a time of rising worries about food security and climate change. The process uses less water and, because it requires less energy and less land, emits fewer greenhouse gases than conventional dairy production, which is responsible for more than 3% of annual planet-warming emissions, almost twice as much as aviation (and a lot of it from belchy cows).

合成乳制品摒弃了牛奶和牛奶制造过程中某些不可取之处。例如，可以去除乳糖和激素，因为有些人对乳糖过敏，而激素则与一些成人疾病有关。发酵罐不需要灌满抗生素，且可以安装在任何地方——在人们对粮食安全和气候变化的担忧日益加剧的今天，发酵产奶很方便。与传统乳制品生产相比，精准发酵用水更少，而且由于所需的能源和土地更少，排放的温室气体也更少。而传统乳制品所产生的温室气体排放量（其中很大一部分来自打嗝的牛）占每年全球温室气体排放量的 3% 以上，几乎是航空业排放量的2倍。

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One challenge for the innovators is winning consumers’ trust. Steel tanks lack the familiarity of cows. A quarter of respondents to a survey in America aren’t keen to try “precision-fermented” fare (which may explain why producers prefer to call it “animal-free”). Regulators create hurdles, too. Although the startups are confident they will get the green light—the technique is already used for flavourings and insulin—they worry about the time this will take and about labelling disputes. According to GFI, even in America, the land of free enterprise, it takes about nine months. It Europe it takes twice as long; the first products will not reach European supermarkets until 2024.

创新者们面临的一个挑战是如何赢得消费者的信任。相比于奶牛，消费者对发酵钢罐更陌生。美国一项调查显示，1/4的受访者不太愿意尝试“精确发酵”食品（这或许可以解释为什么生产商更愿意称其为“不含动物成分”）。监管机构也设置了障碍。尽管初创公司相信他们会获得批准——精准发酵技术已经用于生产调味品和胰岛素——但他们担心获批需要很长时间，也担心标签争议。根据GFI的数据，即使在美国这片自由企业的国度，也需要9个月左右的时间才能获批。在欧洲，则需要2倍的时间才能获批；第一批产品要到 2024 年才会进入欧洲超市。

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The technology is also a work in progress. For now Better Dairy’s cheddar still uses bovine casein, one of the proteins in milk; the firm is working on a synthetic version that would make its cheese properly vegan. And the process remains costly. A fermenter that can hold about 30 litres of milk can cost £150,000 ($190,000). Buying a cow, which can produce about as much in a day, will set you back £1,600.

精准发酵技术也还在不断发展中。目前，Better Dairy公司的巧达干酪仍然使用牛酪蛋白，这是牛奶中的蛋白质之一。该公司正在开发一种合成奶酪，以制造真正的纯素奶酪。而这一工艺的成本仍然很高。一个能装 30 升牛奶的发酵罐需要 15 万英镑（19 万美元）。而购买一头牛只需要1600英镑，且一天可以产出相同数量的牛奶。