$390,000 Cheese Stolen in the UK: Biggest Food Heists with Palki Sharma

Recommendable! Organised cheese theft seems to be quite common around the world!

India Is the Next Great Cheese Frontier

Good news! More abundance and variety! A new Mecca for cheese gourmets? 😊

"“Ten years ago, most western-style cheeses in India were imports, enjoyed by a small elite. Now, alongside tins of mozzarella, Parmesan and cream cheese from dairy behemoths Nestlé and Amul—the latter a large cooperative of Indian dairy farmers—the shelves are bright with Indian-made Edams, Emmentals, Goudas, goat cheeses and Indian takes on cheddar and brie, infused with cumin, chili or black pepper.

Even accounting for the changing tastes of globalized Indians, the scale of this transformation is astounding. Paneer, once the mainstay of Indian cheese, now seems passé. Instead, western-style cheese—golden, glamorous and finally within reach of a rapidly growing middle-class—has become an aspirational sign of progress.”"

India Is the Next Great Cheese Frontier - Human Progress

First cow to produce human insulin in its milk created in Brazil

Good news! I am not sure cow milk is the best route!

"... The animal is transgenic – meaning DNA from another species, in this case human, was introduced into it through genetic engineering.

... it takes advantage of the special factors of the mammary gland. ...

The insulin-producing cow is a ‘proof-of-concept’ that could one day be scaled up to produce enough insulin to supply the world’s diabetics, eliminating scarcity and high costs associated with it. ...

Wheeler’s colleagues at the University of São Paulo in Brazil inserted a segment of human DNA coding for proinsulin – the precursor of the active form of insulin – into the cell nuclei of 10 cow embryos. These were implanted in the uteruses of normal cows, which resulted in the birth of one transgenic cow. ...

The insulin and proinsulin were expressed at a few grams per litre of milk. But because the milk volume was smaller than expected due to the hormone-induced lactation, the researchers can’t say exactly how much insulin would be made in a typical lactation. 

... typical unit of insulin equals 0.0347 milligrams and, conservatively, if a cow could make 1 gram of insulin per litre “that means each gram is equivalent to 28,818 units of insulin.”

“And that’s just one litre; Holsteins can produce 50 litres per day. You can do the math,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Background

The worldwide growing demand for human insulin for treating diabetes could be supplied by transgenic animals producing insulin in their milk.

Methods and Results

Pseudo-lentivirus containing the bovine β-casein promoter and human insulin sequences was used to produce modified adult fibroblasts, and the cells were used for nuclear transfer. Transgenic embryos were transferred to recipient cows, and one pregnancy was produced. Recombinant protein in milk was evaluated using western blotting and mass spectrometry. One transgenic cow was generated, and in milk analysis, two bands were observed in western blotting with a molecular mass corresponding to the proinsulin and insulin. The mass spectrometry analysis showed the presence of human insulin more than proinsulin in the milk, and it identified proteases in the transgenic milk that could convert proinsulin into insulin and insulin-degrading enzyme that could degrade the recombinant protein.

Conclusion

The methodologies used for generating the transgenic cow allowed the detection of the production of recombinant protein in the milk at low relative expression compared to milk proteins, using mass spectrometry, which was efficient for detecting recombinant protein with low expression in milk. Milk proteases could act on protein processing converting recombinant protein to functional protein. On the other hand, some milk proteases could act in degrading the recombinant protein."

First cow to produce human insulin in its milk created in Brazil

Human proinsulin production in the milk of transgenic cattle (open access)

Credits: Human Progress Weekly Progress Roundup

Figure 1 Schematic of the lentiviral vector constructed for mammary gland-specific human insulin expression and restriction map analysis.

Using Dairy DNA, Startup Is Making Milk From Mushrooms

How weird can the future get? Holy cow!

"There are two major proteins in milk – whey and casein ... Casein makes up about 80 percent of the protein in bovine milk, and whey about 20 percent. 

Using a process called precision fermentation, ImaginDairy has recreated these proteins in the lab in order to generate every kind of dairy product. And according to the company, the taste is identical to the original. 

This process modifies microorganisms to create certain proteins and other compounds by inserting genes into their existing DNA. ... that the process has been in use in the food industry for more than four decades. ...

The modified DNA is inserted into a “specific location” inside the DNA of the fungus, ... which then causes the mushroom to produce the milk protein. ..."

Using Dairy DNA, Startup Is Making Milk From Mushrooms An Israeli startup has bioengineered milk protein to create a wide range of dairy products – using mushrooms and no cows. And, the company says, their products are healthier, greener and cheaper to create.

Mushrooms white like milk

In der Not flog Katar Kühe in die Wüste – nun will das Land in Asien und Europa zum Milchgiganten expandieren

Muss ja nicht immer Kamelmilch sein! 😄

Katar: Baladna will mit Milch in Ukraine und Malaysia expandieren Während in den westlichen Ländern Milchalternativen boomen, kommen Menschen in anderen Regionen auf den Geschmack des Originals. Ausgerechnet der Wüstenstaat Katar will nun riesige Milchkuhfarmen in Asien und Europa aufbauen. Dabei helfen die Erfahrungen aus der Krise von 2017.