Unpasteurized cow’s milk is an incredibly important food. It contains a great mix of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and other nutrients that support you from birth, all the way into adulthood. Now, biotechnology companies are attempting to cash in by producing fake milk. But as you’ll learn soon enough, it doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing — raw milk from grass fed cows.
Lab-Made Milk Is Being Engineered to Replace the Real Thing
A report published by Investigate Midwest looked into Brown Foods, a biotech startup claiming to have created the world’s first lab-grown milk, dubbed “UnReal Milk.”1
- UnReal Milk is fully lab-grown — Unlike plant-based milk substitutes or fermented dairy analogs, this product is not made from soy, oats, or nuts. Instead, mammalian cells grown in controlled laboratory conditions are coaxed to produce the core nutrients found in cow’s milk. According to Brown Foods, their product mimics real milk at a molecular level and could quickly appear in grocery stores if regulatory approvals are granted.
But don’t be fooled. This isn’t about giving consumers another dairy-free option. It’s about slowly replacing traditional food with synthetic versions that are entirely lab-engineered. In the case of Brown Foods, they’re claiming that UnReal Milk contains the exact same proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that make up 99% of real cow’s milk.
- Fake milk is just the starting point — Brown Foods is not stopping at customers who drink milk. They say their product can also be turned into cheese, butter, and ice cream.
- The company claims the environmental benefits are massive — According to Brown Foods’ data, UnReal Milk uses 90% less water, 95% less land, and emits 82% less carbon than traditional dairy farming.
While those numbers sound impressive at first glance, they aren’t being compared against small, regenerative farms with pasture-raised cows. It’s a comparison against concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs),2 which means Brown Foods is intentionally avoiding comparing its product against sustainable dairy operations.
- What’s missing from Brown Foods’ pitch is real-world testing — UnReal Milk is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There are no long-term studies showing what happens in the body when people consume milk made by lab-grown mammalian cells.
There are no data on digestive effects, allergenicity, hormonal activity, or what’s left behind after processing. Still, the company is pushing hard for consumer tasting events by the end of 2025 and expects to begin market trials as early as 2026.
Why??