Perfect Day, Inc. is a

food technology Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products. Early scientific research into food technology concentrated on food preservation. Nic ...

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

based in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, that has developed processes of creating

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s, including

casein Casein ( , from Latin ''caseus'' "cheese") is a family of related phosphoproteins ( αS1, aS2, β, κ) that are commonly found in mammalian milk, comprising about 80% of the proteins in cow's milk and between 20% and 60% of the proteins in hum ...

and

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard ...

, by

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

in microbiota, specifically from

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

bioreactor A bioreactor refers to any manufactured device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In one case, a bioreactor is a vessel in which a chemical process is carried out which involves organisms or biochemically active substances ...

s, instead of extraction from

bovine Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship betwe ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

. The name Perfect Day is a reference to the

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

song of the same name.

History

The founders,

Isha Datar Isha Datar (born January 6, 1988) is the executive director of New Harvest and known for her work in cellular agriculture, the production of agricultural products from cell cultures. Early life and education Datar was raised in Edmonton, Alberta ...

, Ryan Pandya, and Perumal Gandhi applied for the Synbiota biotechnology accelerator. Winners would have access to laboratory space, mentorship, and $30,000 in initial funding. Since Isha Datar was the Director of

New Harvest New Harvest is a donor-funded research institute dedicated to the field of cellular agriculture, focusing on advances in scientific research efforts surrounding cultured animal products. Its research aims to resolve growing environmental and ethi ...

, they decided to apply as the "New Harvest Dairy Project", hoping that New Harvest’s established network would help with the application. On April 22, 2014, their application was accepted. Perfect Day was incorporated on April 28, 2014, under the name "Muufri", and was re-named "Perfect Day" in 2016. The

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

company was originally focused on the production of dairy goods (such as cheese or yogurt) for direct retail sale to consumers.

Bob Iger Robert Allen Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American businessman who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. He previously served as the President of ABC Television between 1994 and 1995 and the President and Ch ...

, chairman of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, joined the management board in October 2020. The board consists of cofounders Ryan Pandya, Perumal Gandhi, as well as Iger, Aftab Mathur of

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

and Patrick Zhang of Horizons Ventures. U.S. dairy farmers have asked the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

(FDA) to enforce the definition of milk in

Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 is the portion of the Code of Federal Regulations that governs food and drugs within the United States for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (O ...

to prevent competition from Perfect Day products as well as plant milk, which can be labelled milk in the U.S. because FDA does not enforce the definition. Perfect Day announced in late 2017 that it had been negotiating with possible food industry partners to incorporate its manufactured protein into existing food production lines, becoming a

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

ingredient company and marking a change in its business strategy of targeting the

end-user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrat ...

(consumer). In November 2018, the company announced a joint development agreement with Archer Daniels Midland to provide commercial-scale volumes of non-animal whey protein.

Consumer Products

On July 11, 2019, Perfect Day released its first product, an ice cream made from non-animal whey protein. The launch was limited to 1,000 3-pint bundles available for $60 and sold exclusively through the company's website. The production run sold out within hours. As of 2020, Perfect Day is commercializing its products through the Urgent Company, which sells the Brave Robot brand of vegan dairy ice cream. In November 2020, ice cream maker

Graeter's Graeter's is a regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter, the company has since expanded to 50 retail locations selling ice cream, candy and baked goods in the Midwestern United States. It further di ...

began to sell vegan dairy ice cream based on Perfect Day products. Perfect Day also began supplying the company Smitten Ice Cream for its N'ice Cream products. In September 2021 Perfect Day started marketing an animal-free cream cheese under the brand Modern Kitchen. In November 2021, Perfect Day announced its entrance into the sports nutrition market, offering vegan whey protein powders under the California Performance Co. brand.

Technology

To produce whey and casein proteins from non-animal sources, Perfect Day

bioengineered Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

microbiota to include

DNA sequences A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are usua ...

that instruct the cells to produce proteins that are conventionally found in cow's milk. The microbiota are then grown in fermentation tanks where they convert a

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...

source such as

corn syrup Corn syrup is a food syrup which is made from the starch of corn (called maize in many countries) and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to softe ...

into flora-based dairy protein. Similar recombinant technology is used elsewhere in the food industry, including to make

rennet Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease enzyme that curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, such as pepsin and a ...

(a common

cheesemaking Cheesemaking (or caseiculture) is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentr ...

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

) and

heme Heme, or haem (pronounced / hi:m/ ), is a precursor to hemoglobin, which is necessary to bind oxygen in the bloodstream. Heme is biosynthesized in both the bone marrow and the liver. In biochemical terms, heme is a coordination complex "consisti ...

. The resulting protein, once separated from the genetically modified microbiota, has the same

organoleptic Organoleptic properties are the aspects of food, water or other substances that create an individual experience via the senses—including taste, sight, smell, and touch. USDA uses In traditional U.S. Department of Agriculture meat and poul ...

and nutritional properties as its animal-derived analog. After they are separated and dried into a powder, the proteins are used as ingredients in other foods that conventionally contain dairy protein.

Backing

Perfect Day raised $61.5 million between 2014 and 2019, primarily supported by

Horizons Ventures Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

, a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

-based

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm, and

, the investment company that manages the government wealth of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. For their Series C investment round, the company announced they had raised an additional $140 million in December 2019, and this amount was expanded to $300 million in July 2020. The

CPP Investment Board The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB; french: Office d'investissement du régime de pensions du Canada), operating as CPP Investments (french: Investissements RPC), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 ''Cana ...

has invested in Perfect Day. The total funding received was $360 million as of October 2020. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge awarded the company a runner-up prize of €200,000 in September 2015 ().

References

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External links

Perfect Day Foods, Inc.
(official website) 2014 establishments in California Dairy products companies in California Vegan brands