Real Vegan Cheese is a non-profit research project developing cheese products using milk proteins produced in yeast and bacteria instead of milk from animals. Contributions to the project come from biohackers and citizen scientists at two community labs, Counter Culture Labs in Oakland, California and BioCurious in Sunnyvale, California.
Real Vegan Cheese won a gold medal and best of track trophy in 2014 in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. The team engineering baker's yeast cells to produce milk proteins such as casein which changes structure in cheese formation. Eleven proteins will form the foundation of their cheese. Yeast, genetically engineered yeast to include the genes coding frorfrom these proteins, will be fed carbohydrates and excrete milk. The complete recipe will also include substitutes for animals fat and milk sugar (lactose) are also essential cheese ingredients that will need to come from vegan sources. Real Vegan Cheese production process claims to be more sustainable than the standard cheese-making process and can reduce the carbon footprint due to elimination of methane producing cows.