Starbucks Location Tests Ice Cream From Perfect Day

(Bloomberg) -- A Starbucks Corp. location in Palm Springs, California, is testing a drink with ice cream made by Perfect Day Inc., which makes synthetic dairy products. 

Starbucks, one of the world’s largest restaurant operators, is increasingly experimenting with nondairy options as consumers warm to products that don’t exploit animals and are perceived as healthier and better for the environment. These efforts include using oat milk as the default at the company’s new “Greener Store” in Shanghai, while Oatly AB’s dairy alternative is now available in its cafes across the U.S. In Chile, the coffee chain is serving plant-based meat and milk from NotCo SpA. 

Perfect Day, however, represents a new category of product. It uses genetically modified microflora -- specifically a strain of fungus -- that’s modified with a digital copy of bovine DNA to produce dairy proteins that can be used in foods such as ice cream and cream cheese. The Berkeley, California-based startup, which recently raised $350 million in a funding round, bills this as “the world’s first animal-free milk protein.” 

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company is “focusing on elevating the Starbucks experience through testing and introducing new and exciting innovation.”

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