Fi Europe 2025 live: The Time-Travelling Milkman eyes sustainable alt-dairy innovation using sunflower seeds

The Time-Travelling Milkman, together with its consortium partners NIZO Food Research and Duynie, has recently received regional funding to accelerate the development of sustainable and circular plant-based ingredients derived from sunflower seeds. The project aims to enable a new generation of versatile, clean label, and climate-friendly food applications.

The funding comes from EFRO Oost, which is the regional arm of the European Regional Development Fund. It aims to strengthen the economy of East Netherlands by stimulating innovation, sustainability, and collaboration — especially among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), knowledge institutes, and larger companies.

The consortium will focus on producing and validating three innovative sunflower-based ingredients: OleoCream, OleoPowder, and SunPulp. These ingredients can be applied across multiple categories: OleoCream adds creaminess to plant-based dairy alternatives, OleoPowder functions as a natural texturizer in food formulations, and SunPulp provides emulsifying proteins for plant-based meat products.

The company is attending Fi Europe in Paris this week, showcasing its expertise in alternative dairy solutions. It also won the Fi Europe Dairy Alternative Innovation Awards for its OleoCream, a fat ingredient derived from oleosomes, which are natural oil droplets found in plant seeds, especially sunflower seeds. You can read more on the innovation award winners here.

According to the company, the patented extraction and formulation process preserves the natural structure of oleosomes, mimicking the behavior of milk fat in food systems. 

Saskia Tersteeg, co-founder and R&D manager of The Time-Traveling Milkman, speaks with us live from Fi Europe.Food Ingredients First speaks with Saskia Tersteeg, co-founder and R&D manager of The Time-Traveling Milkman, live from the event. 

What makes OleoCream innovative?

Tersteeg: At first glance, creating a plant-based cream may not sound that innovative, but the key lies in the mild extraction technology we’ve developed, starting with sunflower seeds. Unlike typical processes, we don’t just extract the oil and stop there. Instead, we create a one-ingredient, final product. Our technology captures and maintains the natural oil droplets in the sunflower seeds, keeping them intact. This process yields a creamy, stable product suitable for various dairy alternatives, including plant-based ice cream, cheeses, and cooking creams. 

Dairy has a very long history in food and beverages, and we’ve been researching how we can develop our Oleo and SunPulp ingredients for a while. This is reflected in our name, The Time-Traveling Milkman; our knowledge from the past helps us build future products. We are the ones flying up and down through the past and the future to bring better products to the market. That’s the idea, it’s a bit of a time machine.

How is OleoCream different from sunflower oil?

Tersteeg: Many companies use sunflower oil to make their products creamier, but the process of extracting sunflower oil involves crushing the seeds to extract the oil, which can damage the oil’s structure. We’ve taken a closer look at the sunflower seed itself and realized that the oil is stored in tiny droplets. Instead of crushing the seeds, we use a gentle extraction process with water to release these droplets. This way, we preserve the oil’s natural structure, resulting in a much creamier texture. These “oleos” can be thought of as tiny fat balloons with a thin membrane surrounding them, much like mini oil droplets. These droplets are responsible for the creaminess of OleoCream, providing a smooth, satisfying sensation on the tongue, much like traditional dairy cream.

Can OleoCream be used in hydrogenated oils?

Tersteeg: OleoCream serves a different purpose. While hydrogenating oils can create fats with specific melting properties for firm applications, OleoCream is more focused on creating a creamy base for various applications. We don’t add more saturated fats or hydrogenated oils. Instead, we keep the oil droplets intact and use their natural creaminess. It’s a clean label base that can be used as a direct drop-in replacement for dairy cream in applications such as sauces and ice cream. Unlike hydrogenated fats, OleoCream requires no additional ingredients to create a final product, offering simplicity and purity.

For instance, we’ve developed a cream cheese using OleoCream, where 60-70% of the product is our cream, and the only other ingredients are salt and lactic acid (which could also be fermented). This results in a four-ingredient cream cheese that’s just as creamy as dairy-based alternatives.OleoCream is designed to be efficient in high-heat, fermentation, and low-acidity applications, and crucially, it boasts creaminess comparable to dairy fat.

What’s next for The Time-Traveling Milkman?

Tersteeg: Our main goal is to scale up production of OleoCream, but we’re also exploring side streams and collaborating with partners like Duynie, who specialize in upcycling and valorizing side streams. This partnership will help us create new byproducts while improving the properties of OleoCream. We’re also working with NIZO to enhance the flavor profile of the cream.

We anticipate the project will continue for an additional two and a half years. By then, we hope to have OleoCream and other products available on the market.

The core product will be OleoCream, which we’re scaling up as the Time-Traveling Milkman. However, we’ll also have other products emerging from this project. We’re collaborating with all of our partners to ensure that the products we develop are not only more sustainable but also more appealing to consumers in terms of taste.

With additional reporting by Missy Green at Fi Europe 2025 in Paris, France