Savor launches animal- and plant-free butter made from carbon

San Jose, USA-based food technology company, Savor, has launched its first commercial product: a butter alternative made entirely without animal or plant inputs. The company announced the release on 20 March 2025, marking three years since its founding.

The new butter is the first product created using Savor’s proprietary platform, which constructs fats from captured carbon dioxide (CO₂), green hydrogen (GH₂), and methane (CH₄). It has already attracted the attention of chefs and food manufacturers and is set to appear in a small group of restaurants and bakeries, including Michelin-starred SingleThread and ONE65, as well as Jane the Bakery in San Francisco.

The launch follows several years of research, development, and scaleup. The company also recently received self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status from the US Food and Drug Administration, enabling it to sell its butter commercially within the USA.

“Savor was founded to find the most sustainable way to feed humanity,” commented Kathleen Alexander, Co-founder & CEO of Savor. “Truly sustainable solutions can't just reduce our environmental footprint, they have to be affordable, approachable, and craveable.”

Alexander was recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 500 for 2025. She noted that Savor’s technology could offer a low-carbon alternative to widely used fats like palm oil, with the potential to reach cost parity more quickly than other approaches.

The butter’s debut has been supported by early-stage culinary partnerships. Over the past year, Savor has been working quietly with chefs and bakers to test its butter in a range of applications. Among these are SingleThread’s Chef Kyle Connaughton, Atelier Crenn’s Pastry Chef Juan Contreras, and Clement Goyffon of ONE65. A short video highlighting Contreras’s use of Savor’s butter in a brioche recipe has been released on the company’s website.

The product is designed to be used in the same way as conventional butter, and early adopters have focused on its performance in baked goods and culinary preparations that typically rely on dairy-based fats.

Savor’s technology, which enables the creation of custom fat profiles, has also attracted interest from larger food companies. According to the company, it is now in discussions with several multinational consumer packaged goods brands. These companies are exploring development partnerships based on Savor’s ability to deliver tailored fatty acid compositions that extend beyond dairy fat analogs.

“Our expanding pipeline of partners reflects a deep industry-wide status: the food sector urgently needs solutions to mitigate supply chain instability, which continues to impact revenues and margins across the board,” added Chiara Cecchini, Vice President of Commercialization at Savor.

Other recent milestones for the company include the commissioning of its first pilot production facility in Batavia, Illinois. The 25,000ft2 site has begun producing metric tons of Savor’s fat ingredients, supporting the early commercial rollout and further product development.

In addition to regulatory and production achievements, the company has expanded its R&D capabilities at its San Jose headquarters. These efforts are aimed at refining both existing products and new fat profiles that can be used across a variety of food applications.

Savor has also received backing from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Synthesis Capital. Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures described the company’s solution as a scalable approach to enhancing domestic food supply chains, while Costa Yiannoulis of Synthesis Capital noted the strategic importance of fats in achieving realistic meat and dairy alternatives.