New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- This time around, scientists have engineered bacteria and yeast that produce milk casein and whey to ultimately manufacture an ice cream derivative. Not only have the first renditions sold at a higher price, these products purportedly taste a whole lot more like real dairy products than the previous generation of counterfeits, making these modern-day saboteurs a more formidable foe.
Imitation cheese came onto the scene just as pizza sales began to boom. To reduce manufacturing costs, some food processors added vegetable fats as a replacement for milkfat. In other instances, a concoction of vegetable fat, imported caseins, and nondairy proteins were mixed into the vat to create an analog imitation product that mimicke...