{"id":186406,"date":"2025-10-08T21:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/186406\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T21:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:19:23","slug":"food-firms-scramble-to-meet-the-high-protein-craze-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/186406\/","title":{"rendered":"Food firms scramble to meet the high-protein craze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Businesses are responding to that demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At French start-up Verley a gleaming row of stainless steel tanks, called fermentors, hold special microorganisms being fed on sugars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eventually they&#8217;ll produce beta-lactoglobulin, a protein found in whey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The team at Verley, a French startup, will then purify the protein, including extracting the lactose. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The end result is a high-protein powder that is essentially dairy, but which Verley says is suitable for vegans as no cows are involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The process is both traditional and cutting-edge, believes St\u00e9phane Mac Millan, Verley&#8217;s CEO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On the one hand, fermentation has a long history in French food culture, including in cheesemaking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On the other hand, Verley wants to modernise dairy by honing the nutritional benefits while reducing the environmental impacts. Dairy production requires large amounts of water and land, while generating large amounts of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;A goal really is to help the dairy industry move into the 21st century,&#8221; Mr Mac Millan says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Mac Millan is betting that nutrition-conscious consumers will care increasingly not only about getting enough whey protein, but about getting specific forms of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He says that some US consumers are now seeking out beta-lactoglobulin, which is high in the amino acid leucine, rather than non-specific whey protein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The increasing number of people using weight-loss injections could also help drive the company&#8217;s growth, Mr Mac Millan believes. People concerned about rapidly losing muscle might reach for high-protein products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He acknowledges that Verley&#8217;s protein will be more expensive than whey protein initially. &#8220;But considering that we are bringing more to the table and we are sustainable, it&#8217;s normal that there is a premium.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The company is also hoping to bring costs down with greater scale. It is currently seeking regulatory approval in various countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businesses are responding to that demand. At French start-up Verley a gleaming row of stainless steel tanks, called&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-186406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}