Representative image of butter.
Credit: iStock Photo
Creating butter is a process that leaves a lot of carbon footprint. Starting from the methane emitting cows that produce the milk, all the way to the polluted factories where the butter is made, the production process of the dairy-product is one that harms the environment.
But that could become a thing of the past, thanks to a Bill Gates-backed start-up named Savor. The California-based startup has innovated a process of making butter from CO2, instead of milk/cream, and claims that it tastes just like the real product, as was reported by The Guardian.
The food tech company has been experimenting with creating dairy-free alternatives to ice-cream, cheese, and milk by utilising a thermochemical process that allows it to build fat molecules, creating chains of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen. The air-made butter is one of their latest creations.
Real unsalted butter with 80 per cent fat has a standard climate footprint of 16.9kg CO2 equivalent per kg. Savor's butter could come in at less than 0.8g CO2 equivalent per calorie.
Kathleen Alexander, Savor’s chief executive, told The Guardian: “We are currently pre-commercial and working through regulatory approval to be able to sell our butter. We are not expecting to be able to move forward with any kind of sales until at least 2025.”
One of the major cons of vegan alternatives to daily food items is that they do not taste anywhere near similar to their non-vegan counterparts. Savor claims to have solved that problem from butter atleast.
“So far, we had informal taste panels with tens of people,” Alexander said. “We expect to perform a more formal panel as part of our commercialisation and scale-up efforts.”
Advocating for the product, Bill Gates, on his blog Gates Notes, wrote, "“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.
“The process doesn’t release any greenhouse gases, and it uses no farmland and less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does. And most important, it tastes really good – like the real thing, because chemically it is.”
The FAO has stated that the livestock industry accounts for 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Savor's endeavors might at least start the process of reducing that number, and in-turn helping fight climate change.