Through its AI-powered bioengineering platform, Finally Foods is pioneering the development of novel plant strains to produce proteins such as casein for the dairy industry. The potatoes are engineered to produce non-genetically modified casein, which can be efficiently extracted through the company’s proprietary methods, leveraging existing processes.
ProVeg: Producing casein in potatoes using an AI-powered bioengineering platform is groundbreaking. How does this molecular-farming approach offer a more sustainable and efficient way to create dairy proteins compared to traditional methods?
Finally Foods: Molecular farming uses plants as natural bioreactors to produce complex proteins such as casein, but with far fewer environmental inputs. By growing casein in potatoes, we leverage existing agricultural infrastructure and avoid the high energy, water, and resource use of traditional dairy farming or fermentation in large steel bioreactors. Our AI-powered platform accelerates design and optimisation of the proteins and plant hosts, reducing trial-and-error cycles and cutting R&D timelines. The result is a more efficient, scalable, and lower-emissions approach to making dairy-identical proteins that can help decarbonise the dairy supply chain.
PV: What specific challenges in the traditional dairy industry (for example, taste, texture, functionality, cost) do you anticipate your potato-derived casein will help manufacturers overcome?
FF: Casein is the critical dairy protein responsible for the unique structure, melt, and stretch of cheese and many other dairy products. Today, plant-based dairy alternatives often struggle with replicating these functional properties without using complex additives or stabilisers. Our potato-derived casein is molecularly identical to traditional casein, delivering the same taste, texture, and functionality manufacturers expect – but from a non-animal source. It enables truly ‘dairy-identical’ products without compromise, while helping producers manage supply-chain volatility, reduce costs over time, and meet growing consumer demand for sustainable and animal-free options.
PV: What is the biggest impact you hope Finally Foods will have on the food industry?
FF: Our ambition is to make animal-free dairy indistinguishable from the traditional products people love, but produced in a far more sustainable and ethical way. By unlocking plant-based production of critical dairy proteins, we hope to enable the industry to reduce its environmental footprint dramatically – without asking consumers to compromise on quality. Ultimately, we want to help reshape the future of food by making truly sustainable, scalable, and accessible animal-free proteins the new standard.
Want to learn more about our Incubator startups? We’re hosting a Demo Day, where some of the most exciting startups in the plant-based and fermentation-powered food space will pitch their bold ideas to the world.
Tune in to discover game-changing innovations and powerful presentations from our 10 featured startups, gaining insights from leading investors on what excites the industry’s top minds. You’ll have the chance to network with market leaders, fire questions to the startups, and even vote for your favourite to win the Audience Award – plus, you could win a fantastic plant-based prize!
When? Thursday, 18 September/15:30-17:45 (Central European Summer Time)
Where? Online – join from anywhere
How? Get your free ticket here.
Emily Styrka
Content Creator and Writer
