New Culture Cheese: Label, Ingredients, Nutritionals

Big news from New Culture: we’ve submitted our product label and registration to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)! This is a huge commercialization step for our team and is likely the first-ever submission to CDFA for a dairy product made with animal-free casein. Our market leadership is palpable!

While animal-free casein is the essential ingredient in our mozzarella, the other ingredients combine with our casein to make an animal-free cheese that finally tastes like it should. Those other ingredients include water, sunflower oil, coconut oil, salt, sugar, starch, and fortifying minerals that are also naturally occurring in conventional cheese. This ingredient list also means our cheese’s nutritional profile can match conventional mozzarella’s. Read on to learn more!

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When it comes to New Culture cheese, there are two questions (or variations of two questions) that we hear a lot. First: What’s in it? Second: How do the nutrition facts compare to conventional mozzarella?

Making a cheese that tastes just like cheese, but without a single ingredient from an animal, is no easy feat. In fact, we hear from consumers and chefs constantly that the plant-based options available to them don’t come anywhere close to meeting expectations. They’re gloopy and starchy and have odd, artificial flavor notes.

That’s because plant-based cheeses are missing the critical ingredient that’s responsible for cheese’s taste, texture and mouthfeel. That ingredient is casein protein. For mozzarella - our first cheese - the melt, stretch, bubbling, and browning is all thanks to casein. But casein was previously only found in animal milk, so it wasn’t possible to make a great animal-free cheese since there wasn’t an animal-free casein. That’s until New Culture came around.

What’s in it?

We figured out a way to use precision fermentation to make fully functional, animal-free casein. We turn that casein into melty, stretchy, restaurant-quality mozzarella using standard cheesemaking techniques by mixing the casein with a couple other ingredients. Those other ingredients include water, sunflower oil, coconut oil, salt, sugar, starch, and fortifying minerals that are also naturally occurring in conventional cheese.

By producing our mozzarella from only these requisite components, we’re revolutionizing how cheese is made. Each ingredient has been selected to replicate the functionality and performance of conventional mozzarella. They all come together to form an animal-free mozzarella that finally meets consumer and chef expectations.

It’s a delicate balancing act though, since a little bit too much fat (from the oils) and the mouthfeel is off, or not enough salt and you’ll be left with bland mozzarella on top of your pizza. We’ve spent a lot (a lot!) of time tweaking the ingredients and details of our cheesemaking process to get the recipe just right. Since no one else has ever done this before, there’s no road map or blue print available to follow. We’re figuring out this animal-free cheese thing in real-time, which is what’s so exciting (and challenging…) about our mission.

What about nutrition facts?

Just as important as the ingredients list is the nutritional profile of New Culture cheese. We set out to offer a product that can match the nutritionals of conventional dairy. This is a major point of differentiation between our cheese and the plant-based options out there. It’s also a big source of pride for our team.

Those who’ve tried plant-based mozzarella might recall that those products are chock full of carbohydrates, upwards of 8g per serving. And, at best, they have 1g of protein, typically from soy or peas. However, often they have no protein at all. Our first mozzarella SKU, on the other hand, has 5g of protein (from our casein) and only 2g of carbohydrates per serving. This compares to 6g of protein and less than 1g of carbohydrates for conventional mozzarella.

New Culture mozzarella also has 0mg of cholesterol, whereas conventional mozzarella has 20mg. In addition, thanks to our casein, New Culture cheese is a complete protein source. It’s also free from lactose, soy, nuts, and gluten as well as trace hormones and antibiotics found in animal milk.

From a nutritional standpoint, we’re simply making a better cheese, regardless of whether New Culture is compared to conventional mozzarella or the plant-based versions. That’s what’s possible when you reimagine dairy from its essential components. That’s what’s possible when you can make casein from fermentation and don’t need any animal inputs. It’s a delicious - and nutritious - future within reach, coming soon to a pizzeria near you.