New Superfood Inspired by Nature

There is nothing more wholesome and nourishing than mother’s milk. Human breast milk is packed with vitamins, nutrients, antibodies and other bioactive proteins designed to help newborn babies grow and thrive when they first come into the world.

Now, Maolac a new start-up company, based in Northern Israel has successfully recreated the healthful characteristics of human breast milk by using bovine colostrum, the nutrient-rich milk of cows that have just given birth.

Maolac founder Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin told No-Camels that the inspiration for their product  came to her while nursing her first child. “I told myself – this is the ultimate superfood for mammals. There are different functionalities that breast milk can provide for a small human being and I realized we could leverage all the goodness to create something new inspired by a formulation that created the human species and actually brought us to where we are,” she said. 

Mapping Breast Milk
According to Food Navigator, Otmazgin and her team began by mapping the composition of breast milk, or in other words, figuring out which proteins do what. They discovered that there are more than 1500 bioactive proteins in human breast milk. 

The next step in the process was to find a natural substance made up of proteins that matched the makeup of human breast milk. For that, the team turned to bovine colostrum. They used a special algorithm to match the proteins in breast milk to the ones in the colostrum and found a 95 percent similarity between the two substances. 

The resulting product is a protein powder with high anti-inflammatory properties that can be added to foods for people of all ages. 

According to Globes, the company plans to initially market their product to athletes to help them improve their recovery time, and then to the elderly to foster improved mobility and a more active lifestyle. The product could also eventually be used to help people improve their digestive system and provide relief to those suffering from gut inflammation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

A Circular Economy
Jon Medved, CEO of Our Crowd, one of Maolac’s funders, told No Camels that the use of bovine colostrum is “the perfect example of the circular economy in action.” 

Every year billions of liters of bovine colostrum are thrown away by the dairy industry. This means that using bovine colostrum is not only far more economical for Maolac than using other natural substances, but most importantly, it also means that their product is sustainable and environmentally friendly. 

Just think of all the waste Maolac will be putting to good use by creating a revolutionary new food supplement to help humanity.