Savor, a Bill Gates-backed startup in California, has developed dairy-free butter with a low environmental impact. Gates praises lab-made fats for their taste and minimal environmental footprint. Social media reactions are mixed.

The startup has successfully created dairy-free butter from the air using a thermochemical process.

Founded in 2022 by Henrik Bennetsen, lan Salmon McKay, and Kathleen Alexander, Savor produces animal-free fats, like butter, in a lab setting for various meat and dairy products like ice cream, cheese, etc. Savor's real fats claim to deliver full flavour without compromising performance, environmental impact, or price.

Savor said its products will have a significantly lower carbon footprint than animal-based ones as the "butter" comes in at less than 0.8g CO2 equivalent per kg. In contrast, real unsalted butter with 80% fat has a standard climate footprint of 16.9kg CO2 equivalent per kg.

Kathleen Alexander, chief executive at Savor, told the media, "We are currently pre-commercial and working through regulatory approval to sell our butter. We are not expecting to be able to move forward with any kind of sales until at least 2025. So far, we have had informal taste panels with tens of people. We expect to perform a more formal panel as part of our commercialisation and scale-up efforts."

Bill Gates supports the initiative to switch to lab-made fats and oils and their potential to reduce our carbon footprint.
Kathleen Alexander, chief executive at Savor, told the media, "We are currently pre-commercial and working through regulatory approval to sell our butter. We are not expecting to be able to move forward with any kind of sales until at least 2025. So far, we have had informal taste panels with tens of people. We expect to perform a more formal panel as part of our commercialisation and scale-up efforts."

Bill Gates supports the initiative to switch to lab-made fats and oils and their potential to reduce our carbon footprint.

He wrote that the process has minimal environmental impact and tastes just like the real thing.

Bill Gates wrote in his blog post, "The idea of switching to lab-made fats and oils may seem strange at first. But their potential to significantly reduce our carbon footprint is immense. By harnessing proven technologies and processes, we get one step closer to achieving our climate goals."

He added, “The process doesn't release any greenhouse gases, and it uses no farmland and less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does. And most importantly, it tastes really good - like the real thing, because chemically it is.”