Verley Unveils the World’s First Functional Dairy Proteins Portfolio, Marking a New Era in Food Innovation 

Verley, a French biotech company specializing in sustainable food solutions, announces the launch of the world’s first portfolio of functionalized precision fermentation dairy proteins, designed to overcome the limitations of both traditional and plant-based alternatives. By enhancing stability, digestibility, and processing performance, Verley’s technology solves one of the biggest challenges in the food industry: producing dairy proteins that combine high nutritional value with superior taste, texture, and an emphasis on sustainability.

The food industry faces ongoing challenges, given that traditional dairy proteins often struggle under heat, acidic conditions, and nutrient-dense formulations, while plant-based alternatives frequently lack essential amino acids, making them nutritionally incomplete. As the first company to develop patented functionalization technologies for recombinant whey, Verley’s precision fermentation technology addresses these gaps by creating stable, versatile whey nutriments with complete amino acid profiles, developed for demanding food formulations such as UHT beverages, sports nutrition, and functional dairy products.

“We are entering a new era of food innovation,” said Stéphane Mac Millan, CEO & Co-founder of Verley. “Precision fermentation has proven its potential, but its true impact lies in functionality. Our patented functionalization technologies allow us to develop proteins with 11% more leucine —  which is key for muscle maintenance and overall health — than native WPI, and 50% more than soy alternatives.”

Verley’s FermWhey™ range includes three functionalized whey proteins designed to meet the diverse needs of the food industry:

• FermWhey™ Native delivers a high-purity beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) with an optimized amino acid profile, making it essential for sports nutrition and nutrient-dense foods due to its proven muscle recovery support.
• FermWhey™ MicroStab features a microparticulated structure that ensures heat and acid resistance, making it suitable for UHT beverages and fresh dairy products. This is given that traditional milk ingredients do not tolerate severe heat treatments such as ultra-high pasteurization, as this can cause damage to heat-sensitive amino acids and reduce dairy’s nutritional value.
• FermWhey™ Gel is designed with advanced gelling properties, allowing manufacturers to create spoonable dairy and cheese products with improved texture and stability, eliminating the need for additional stabilizers.

By expanding the functional potential of whey proteins, Verley is offering solutions that improve both product quality and process efficiency for food manufacturers.

Consumer demand for nutrient-rich foods surged in 2024, with 71% of U.S. adults actively increasing their protein intake, up from 59% in 2022. The growing popularity of low-carbon diets and GLP-1 treatments is further driving demand for functional food solutions. However, the industry faces persistent challenges, including nutritional gaps, formulation trade-offs, and technical limitations of existing dairy and plant-based alternatives. Verley’s approach addresses these issues by providing highly functional, nutritionally complete proteins that support high-performance food and beverage.

With three patent families and nine filed patents, Verley is positioned to introduce its FermWhey™ proteins to the global market through partnerships with leading dairy manufacturers and ingredient suppliers. The company is focused on scaling production to meet industry demand while maintaining sustainability at the core of its innovation.