A California-based startup has developed a unique method for making butter. Their innovative process doesn’t involve animals at all, yet they claim their dairy-free alternative tastes just as delicious as the real butter.
The startup Savor, backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, has been experimenting with dairy-free alternatives to ice cream, cheese, and milk. Using a thermochemical process to build fat molecules from carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, they have now announced a new animal-free butter alternative, several reports stated.
As the world wrestles with cutting down meat and dairy consumption to ease environmental impact, Savor presents a curious solution. Savor claims their innovative products have a much lower carbon footprint. Their animal-free butter, for instance, astonishingly produces less than 0.8g carbon dioxide equivalent per kg, compared to the hefty 16.9kg CO2 equivalent per kg for traditional unsalted butter.
Could this breakthrough be the game-changer we need in the fight against climate change?
The reports also mentioned how Chief Executive of Savor, Kathleen Alexander, noted that the company is presently pre-commercial and navigating regulatory approval processes before selling their butter. She indicated that they do not anticipate commencing sales until at least 2025.
While meat and dairy alternatives have gained popularity, some are criticised for their flavour. Savor asserts that its butter offers a more authentic taste experience.
Advocating for the initiative through an online blog, Bill Gates emphasized, “The idea of switching to lab-made fats and oils may seem strange at first. But their potential to significantly reduce our carbon footprint is immense. By harnessing proven technologies and processes, we get one step closer to achieving our climate goals.”
Gates concluded his post by explaining how the process emits no greenhouse gases, requires no farmland, uses less than a thousandth of the water used in traditional agriculture, and most importantly, it tastes like the real thing.
