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Precision-fermented milk proteins as a model for industrial food biotechnology.

Trends in biotechnology · 16 September 2026 · DOI 10.1016/j.tibtech.2026.07.026

An opinion article assesses precision-fermented milk proteins as alternatives to livestock-linked dairy supplies, with implications for food, clinical products and infant nutrition. It compares β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin and caseins by nutritional role, food function, production difficulty and market readiness. The authors report that better microbial hosts, protein secretion and process design have brought production closer to industrial use. They conclude that scale, accurate post-translational processing and careful protein selection matter more than expressing the correct genetic sequence alone.

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16 September 2026