After selling De Vegetarische Slager (The Vegetarian Butcher) to Unilever – with which he is still associated as a figurehead – Dutch entrepreneur Jaap Korteweg is plunging into the production of “milk” without the use of cows with the new company Those Vegan Cowboys. According to him, the key is to imitate casein as closely as possible. Korteweg thinks it will take 5 to 7 years to achieve that. Korteweg relies on grass as a base. “Grass is very long-lasting, it grows everywhere all the time. Also, our process is much more efficient. We get 5 times as much milk from the same amount of grass.”
In a laboratory in Ghent, Belgium, Those Vegan Cowboys is working on grass conversion with a team of 20 specialists, supported by Wageningen University & Research.
Korteweg is also involved in the development of a cheese alternative. For this, a partnership has been formed with the family business Westland Kaasspecialiteiten. Both plan to launch a plant-based cheese spread alternative in the summer of 2021.
