‘We’re trained to think about what is impossible – and then we try to do it’

Remilk describes its product as “healthy and clean, with no cholesterol, lactose, hormones, and antibiotics – just 100 per cent yum without the scum!” The team created it by copying the gene responsible for the production of milk protein in cows, and inserting it into yeast. The gene then teaches the yeast how to produce the milk-like proteins.

Fermenting the yeast allows it to multiply rapidly, producing real milk proteins, identical to those that cows produce. The ingredients are “identical at a biochemical level,” he says.

Remilk, and a competitor CowFree, are available in Israel where they are mass-produced. So why can’t we buy them here? “Because many regulations in Europe are yet to catch up on such rapid innovations,” he says.

But while we wait for Europe to get up to speed, the foods themselves are already revolutionising how people observe the rules of kashrut. Both Remilk and CowFree have already been approved by rabbis as parev – opening a whole new world of gastronomic opportunities, cheeseburgers among them.

The team who developed HEROES beer, from left: Or Peretz, Linoy Nachoom, Ido Peleg, Stav Azulay, Sharon Simchi, and Yehonadav Haim (Photo: Technicon)[Missing Credit]

For his part, Lesmes finds the teaching side of his job as rewarding as the hard science. He talks excitedly about a module he designed for his students for which he paired with Beit Halochem (House of Warriors), which supports wounded Israeli veterans and terror victims.

To teach the students about bioprocessing he gave groups, comprising students and veterans, 1500 shekels (approximately £360) to brew 25 litres of beer using the on-site facilities. 

At the end it’s judged by a professional panel with a blind tasting. “It’s a huge celebration – with a lot of beer.”

One of the teams – which included his nephew, an IDF veteran – made national headlines. “They named the beer ‘HEROES’ to commemorate four fallen friends and family members, and printed their faces on the label.”

Lesmes re-enlisted in the IDF after October 7, helping to develop meals for frontline soldiers (Photo: Technicon)[Missing Credit]

Like all Israelis, Lesmes’ world changed irrevocably after October 7. “I’ve been exempt from service since 2015 but like everybody, I wanted to chip in, so I contacted friends in the IDF responsible for nutrition and told them if they need me, I’m here.”

The army took him up on his offer, and he served as consultant, upgrading the food on offer to combatants. The result is sterilised meals which can be sent in sachets to the frontline: shawarma and Mujaddara (a Middle Eastern dish of rice and lentils) and tofu dishes among them.

The professor is also keen to do what he can to alleviate malnutrition in the elderly. “One cannot avoid the fact that the world is ageing. Technion has recognised that as a grand challenge – so we are reformulating foods to be nutritionally hardwired for the needs of the elderly,” he says.

One of the products he’s most proud of is a new breakfast cereal. “We’re giving it a higher protein content and a higher calorific content, and we cut down on sugar by almost five times to make space for the other things,” he says. “You have to make every bite count.”

Lesmes describes products like these as “health by stealth” – improving foods without having to convince people of their merit. The US pioneered this in the 1990s, adding folic acid to bread, which reduced the incidence of neural tube defects in newborns.

“My responsibility is to make more products which contain everything, so that people have better choices,” he says. “Because even if I made the perfect yoghurt for elderly people, who wants to eat yoghurt every day?”

“That’s the cool thing about Technion,” he continues. “We’re trained to think about what other people are missing, or what they think is impossible – and then we try to do it. I was taught not to talk about problems, but to talk about solutions – and we’re looking for solutions to things that people are yet to identify as problems.

“Life is not perfect”, he concludes. “But through science, we can try to shed light on things we don’t understand, so that we can make them better for everyone.”