Nobell Foods, Inc.

Nobell Foods is a producer of plant-based dairy alternatives intended to allow people to find animal protein through nutritionally enhanced plants. The company works to remove animals from the dairy process to help reduce emissions caused by livestock. To achieve this, Nobell Foods enriches soybeans with casein and uses the product to manufacture alternative dairy products. The reprogrammed soybean then grows casein, the dairy protein that gives cheese its stretch, melt, and mouthfeel, which then has salt, sugars, cultures, and plant-based fats to make its main product, cheese.

Nobell Foods was founded in 2016 by CEO Magi Richani. Formerly known as Alpine Road, the company is based in San Francisco, California. Magi Richani has said that the idea for Nobell Foods came when she shifted to a plant-based diet and struggled to give up cheese, despite being lactose intolerant. She worked to find a way to make plant-based dairy products. She learned the unique protein that gives cheese its unique characteristics is casein, and instead of milking a cow would turn to milking a crop. They discovered the soybean plant was capable of producing casein in this way.

Nobell Foods has claimed, through its ability to use soybeans to cultivate casein, which can then be manufactured into cheese, that they can produce more casein per acre more sustainably, efficiently, and cost-effectively than producing cheese from cows. The resulting cheeses developed by the company are meant to taste, smell, melt, stretch, and even age similar to animal-based cheese.