Milk grown from cow cells, rather than drawn from a cow, is about to be put to work in butter, cheese and yogurt trials. Hoogwegt, the dairy trader founded in the Netherlands in 1965 that describes itself as the world’s largest independent supplier of dairy products and ingredients, will take delivery of its first batch of cell-cultured milk from the Montreal startup Opalia this month, Green Queen reported on October 27. “The first batch will be formally handed over to Hoogwegt at Fi Europe in Frankfurt on 17 November 2026, where the companies will also present a prototype,” said Roland Wientjes, Hoogwegt’s global technology director.
Three days later, the German startup Senara announced a second base in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, backed by an investment from LIOF, the regional development agency of the Dutch province of Limburg, Green Queen reported.
How cell-cultured milk differs
This is a different technology from the animal-free casein that received FDA clearance this week. Precision fermentation uses microbes to make a single dairy protein that must then be formulated into a product. Opalia instead grows bovine mammary cells in bioreactors and induces them to lactate, producing milk with its proteins, fats and sugars together. “Unlike precision fermentation, which produces individual milk proteins that must be formulated into a finished product, Opalia produces complete milk,” Jennifer Côté, Opalia’s co-founder and chief executive, told Green Queen in April. Senara, founded in 2022 by Svenja Dannewitz and Philipp Prosseda, works from cells taken from milk rather than from the animal.
What comes next
Hoogwegt is careful about expectations. “At this stage, the purpose is to evaluate the technology, not to make a commercial margin,” Wientjes said. “We will start by analysing the milk’s composition and evaluating its functional properties for dairy applications such as fresh cheese, yoghurt and butter.” He added that it is too early to confirm product launches, markets or timelines. Opalia plans to file a novel food notification with Health Canada in mid-2027, and Green Queen reports the companies are working toward a market entry in 2028.
Senara says it is exploring ice cream, cheese and panna cotta, and is raising money for a pilot manufacturing site in Maastricht. “We don’t want to change milk, but improve the production method,” Dannewitz said.
None of this is for sale anywhere yet, and in the United States at least one state has already moved to ban cell-based dairy before it arrives, according to Green Queen. Santé tracks how similar rules have shaped cultivated meat in our guide, Which Restaurants Serve Lab-Grown Meat? The 2026 Guide.
The Santé Take
For pastry kitchens and cheesemakers, the significant word is “complete.” A single protein can improve a vegan cheese; a whole milk, with its fat and lactose intact, is what laminated dough, cultured butter and a fresh chèvre are actually built from. That is a higher bar, and a more interesting one. A trader of Hoogwegt’s scale testing the milk in butter and cheese is not a launch, but it is the right kind of test.
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