Only Two Commercial Dairies in the World Can Make Our Whey
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We didn’t begin with Ireland. We began with a standard.
When that standard narrowed the supplier search, we had a choice: lower it to make sourcing easier or follow it to the source.
But exceptional sourcing is only the beginning. How that whey is processed, formulated, and independently verified determines the quality of the finished product. Here’s how every part of the chain comes together in Momentous Whey Protein Isolate
Two dairies in the world can meet all of it. So we went to Ireland to see for ourselves.
Sourcing is one of the three pillars of The Momentous Standard®: Science, Sourcing, Certification. Here’s how we landed on the spec for whey, and what it took to source it.
The Spec Came Before the Supplier
Whey Protein Isolate was our first product on the market, but the standard came before the product. We knew the raw whey ingredient needed to deliver 92%+ protein, meet our sourcing requirements, and be available at the volume we require.
Plenty of suppliers could meet one part of that standard. Only two commercial dairies in the world could meet it as a whole. Our search led us to Ireland, where the dairy system and farming practices aligned with what we had written on paper.
Meeting the technical requirements was only part of the test. “We’re not looking for vendors,” says Jeff Byers, our CEO & Co-founder. “We’re looking for partners willing to obsess over the same details.” For Matt Chorney, our VP of Innovation, that meant a supplier willing to show us the entire chain, from the farmer and the milk to the finished whey ingredient.
We didn’t choose Ireland and write a spec around it. We wrote the spec, and it led us to Ireland.
What Irish Dairy Does Differently
The farms behind our whey are small by commercial dairy standards. The co-op includes about 4,500 individual dairy farmers, many of them multi-generational, with herds averaging around 120 cows. The cows are milked twice a day by the farmer who owns them.
Ireland’s dairy system sets an unusually high bar for how cows are raised, what they’re fed, and how much time they spend on pasture. “The climate is suited very well for highly nutritious grass,” Byers says. “Therefore Irish cows can be fed mostly a grass diet throughout the whole year.”
Our requirements narrow that field even further. The cows spend more than 250 days a year on pasture, with more than 95% of their feed coming from grass and forage. Growth hormones and the routine or preventative use of antibiotics are prohibited, and the whey can be traced back to the fields where the cows grazed.
The Ingredient Is Only the Beginning
At the end of a day on the farm, around 4:00, our partner farmer asked Jeff Byers and Matt Chorney whether they wanted to stay for the afternoon milking. They did. It took about 45 minutes to milk 124 cows.
“I don’t know another company on the planet where they have their CEO and VP of Innovation actively milking the cows,” Chorney says.
The visit gave them a firsthand look at the source. But sourcing exceptional whey is where the work starts. What we do next is what turns that raw ingredient into Momentous Whey Protein Isolate.
“Our protein needs to be cold processed to preserve the amino acid protein structure of the ingredient,” Chorney says. The whey stays cold through microfiltration to preserve its integrity and amino acid profile while producing a highly purified protein isolate. Heat changes protein structure, and structure is what we’re paying for.
On site, Chorney watched the cold filtration equipment run. “All of that can be told through a piece of paper or an email,” he says. Standing in front of it is different.
The finished formula is enhanced with clinically studied ProHydrolase®, a digestive enzyme blend designed to support protein digestion and amino acid absorption. We leave out fillers, gums, and artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners.
Whey protein isolate delivers more protein with fewer calories, fat, sugar, cholesterol, and lactose per gram than whey concentrate. The 92%+ figure describes the protein content of our raw whey isolate ingredient, while the finished product delivers 20g of protein per serving.
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How Signature Spec™ Whey Is Built |
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Sourced from grass-fed cows raised without growth hormones or routine antibiotics |
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Cold-processed to preserve the amino acid profile |
Conventional practice permits them | |
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Formulated with clinically studied ProHydrolase® enzymes |
Protects the integrity of the protein through processing |
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| Traceability to the farm |
Supports protein digestion and amino acid absorption |
Verified Beyond Our Walls
Sourcing tells us where the ingredient came from. Formulation determines what we make with it. Independent certification provides another layer of proof for the finished product.
Momentous Whey Protein Isolate is NSF Certified for Sport®. The certification is administered by NSF, an independent third-party organization we neither run nor influence, and includes testing to confirm that what’s in the product matches what’s on the label and that it has been screened for substances banned in sport.
Certification doesn’t replace strong sourcing or intentional formulation. It verifies the finished product.
Quality Has to Hold Through the Whole Chain
No single detail makes Momentous Whey Protein Isolate what it is. The source matters. The way the whey is processed matters. The decisions behind the finished formula and the independent testing that verifies it matter.
Every Momentous product is held to The Momentous Standard® across Science, Sourcing, and Certification. Within that system, Signature Spec™ is a designation reserved for products that push beyond the category standard through sourcing, formulation, or manufacturing. For our whey, that means carrying the same level of scrutiny from the Irish fields to the finished product.
What Chorney took from the trip wasn’t the grass or the rain. It was “the entire traceability of the process,” the ability to follow the whey through the entire supply chain, all the way back to the fields where the cows grazed.
Byers keeps it shorter. “Protein is a fundamental macronutrient, and quality is what drives performance.”
When our standard narrowed the world to two commercial dairies, we didn’t lower it. We went to the source.
