Researchers out of Israel have engineered a way to deliver nutrients using casein (milk protein) as carriers in foods that would not normally contain those nutrients.  In particular, they are discussing injecting the casein-nutrient mix into low fat and non-fat foods to enrich them with vitamins and minerals typically found only in fat containing food.

It is amazing to me how far the low fat craze will go.  Appealing to consumer demand, food corporations and laboratory scientists continue to push the limits of “food engineering.”  Yes, this is a real term, spanning genetically modified foods, additives, and a host of other unnatural food experiments performed in a lab by people with protective gear on.  For some reason, there seems to be a desire to continuously challenge the notion that fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, oils, etc., in their purest form are the healthiest option for our diets.  

From a dairy-free perspective, it is possible that these “casein micelles” as they call them will slip into our food supply unannounced, because they are nano-sized particles.  Tiny or not, this does not mean that they will not cause a problem for the milk allergic or sensitive.

Luckily, the technology is still estimated to be five years away from supermarket shelves.  Perhaps real food will enjoy a resurgence in the mean time.