California food startup Savor on Thursday announced the commercial launch of a first-of-its-kind butter made entirely without conventional agriculture.
The San Jose company says its plant- and animal-free butter sustainably uses fats sourced directly from carbon. The announcement comes on the third anniversary of Savor’s founding and follows years of research and development efforts.
“Truly sustainable solutions can’t just reduce our environmental footprint; they have to be affordable, approachable and ‘craveable,'” Kathleen Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Savor, said in a statement. “As the only technology with the potential to replace palm oil and other widely used fats with a very low-carbon equivalent within the next decade, Savor is positioned to make a substantial impact on global sustainability efforts in the food industry.”
Savor officials said the company has been “quietly collaborating” with Bay Area bakeries and that select restaurants will be among its first customers. It is also negotiating joint development agreements with major consumer goods companies.
The company’s pilot production facility in suburban Chicago is expected to begin producing “metric tons” of the ingredient beginning this year.