Dairy giant Fonterra has triumphed against plant-based startup Perfect Day in filing a patent for manufacturing dairy substitutes.
In September 2019, the Australian patent office accepted the startup’s application. Fonterra opposed it on the grounds of inutility, insufficiency, lack of inventive steps, and lack of support.
Perfect Day’s food tech features fermentative production of alternative dairy proteins and lipids with dairy-like properties. The patent’s scope would have included two major whey proteins, β-lactoglobulin (~65 per cent) and α-lactalbumin (~25 per cent) when produced by fungal culture in its food composition.
The patent was declared invalid on two grounds:
- It fell short in terms of flavour and form derivative dairy products such as cream, cheese, yoghurt, or butter when subjected to the same processes used on dairy milk.
- It claims to disclose compositions having a similar taste, aroma, mouth feel, and nutritional value to dairy milk but lacking one or more of the components of mammal-produced milk, using only whey proteins without casein.
Perfect Day can still appeal the decision, but chances look slim, with the judge observing: “Under the circumstances, I see no means by which the applicant [Perfect Day] could amend the specification to overcome the deficiencies identified. However, I will provide the applicant two months from the date of this decision to file amendments to attempt to overcome the deficiencies.”
Fonterra recently partnered with Dutch nutrition and bioscience company Royal DSM to accelerate its move towards manufacturing alt-dairy products using precision fermentation – with patents already filed.
