TurtleTree, the startup that makes the milk protein lactoferrin by precision fermentation rather than from cows, has moved its global headquarters from Singapore to the Netherlands and signed a research partnership with Nizo Food Research, a contract research organisation in Ede.
Lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein found in human milk and in bovine colostrum, but cow's milk carries so little of it that at least 10,000 litres are needed for 1 kg of purified protein. Green Queen puts the resulting price at $600 to $2,000 a kilogram, which has kept the ingredient mostly in infant nutrition and premium supplements.
Precision fermentation gets round that bottleneck: a specific DNA sequence is inserted into microbes, which then produce the target molecule when they are fermented in bioreactors. TurtleTree, which is backed by Novonesis, was the first startup to sell animal-free bovine lactoferrin globally, under its US supplement brand Intentional, launched last year with a focus on women's wellness.
Under the new partnership, a dedicated Nizo team will work with the company on a multi-year programme of clinical studies, health claim substantiation and product formulation for its LF+ lactoferrin, with an emphasis on healthy ageing, menopause and perimenopause. TurtleTree will be based at Nizo's Food Innovation Park in the Dutch Food Valley, which gives it access to what Green Queen describes as Europe's largest independent food-grade pilot facilities.
"Instead of spending years building a research operation, we can draw on a dedicated Nizo team from day one," said co-founder and chief executive Fengru Lin. Nizo's chief executive Nikolaas Vles said the institute wants to make its science available "to the most ambitious innovators, not only to large established players". The move was supported by Oost NL, the East Netherlands development agency, and the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency.
LF+ is already sold in an iron supplement under the Intentional brand, in cold brew espresso shots from Cadence Performance Coffee and in a supplement powder with Waywyld in the US, and Strive Nutrition plans to use it in a drink and a protein powder. TurtleTree has raised around $40 million and went through several rounds of layoffs before January 2025; earlier this year it secured an investment from Novonesis to scale up for the early nutrition market.
It has plenty of company. Vivici, Daisy Lab, Eclipse Ingredients, Eden Brew, De Novo Foodlabs and its joint venture FerrinX, and All G are all working on precision-fermented bovine lactoferrin, and several firms are developing the human form of the protein. The report is by Green Queen's Anay Mridul.
Photo: Malvina TERMINI / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Green Queen
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