STARBUCKS LOCATION TESTS ICE CREAM FROM PERFECT DAY

A Starbucks Corp. location in Palm Springs, Calif., is testing a drink with ice cream made by Perfect Day Inc., which makes synthetic dairy products. Starbucks is increasingly experimenting with nondairy options as consumers warm to products that don’t exploit animals and are perceived as healthier and better for the environment. Perfect Day, however, represents a new category of product. It uses genetically modified microflora — specifically a strain of fungi that’s naturally found in living organisms — that’s modified with a digital copy of bovine DNA to produce dairy proteins that can be used in foods such as ice cream and cream cheese.