Will Cell-Based Milk Change the Dairy Industry? This California Lab Could Lead the Way

By Randy Diamond

Biotechnology startup TurtleTree wants to change the way people consume milk.

Cows are out—at least as far as milking goes. The replacement: cell-based milk. The company says it is able to create raw milk using cells from mammals. The cells are then grown in TurtleTree's labs and milk is ultimately produced. In giant bioreactors, the cells stick to tiny straws, the fluid is then drawn through the straws, and milk comes out the other end.

TurtleTree is in the final phases of constructing a 24,000 square foot research and development facility in West Sacramento, California.

Armed with $40 million from venture capital investors, TurtleTree is moving from a joint business incubation facility in Woodland shared with several dozen food and agricultural startups to its own research and development facility.

The facility is scheduled to open within the next several months though no formal date has been set.

"The Sacramento area is a hub for us," said TurtleTree co-founder and CEO Fengru Lin. "There is no turning back. We are committed to this area."

TurtleTree also has a headquarters in Singapore, the city-state that is Lin's hometown, and a lab facility in Boston, where she attended MIT majoring in biotechnology before going to business school in France.

The Sacramento area connection has to do with The University of California Davis campus and its labs studying milk, which brought Lin to the region for partnership agreements.

The TurtleTree U.S. facility will house 40 jobs initially from food scientists to engineers.

Whether more jobs will develop, and the Sacramento region will go on the map as one of the first suppliers of cell-based milk in the world, is unclear.

TurtleTree startup challenges

Most startups fail, and TurtleTree will need to produce a food product consumers will buy. Alternative dairy products already exist, but Lin said that plant-based milk produces less of important protein components than cows milk.

She also said that plant-based milks come with their own set of environmental issues. Almond milk, for example, has been shown to require large amount of water. Oat milk contributes to issues like monocropping, which impacts soil health.