Recent innovations in precision fermentation have allowed scientists to reproduce, for example, the “exact fatty acids” that make meat taste like meat, says the Good Food Institute Focus on the Future of Alternative Proteins. Liz Specht, who oversees the research team, said. Experts say these developments help bridge the gap between plant-based products and their animal-derived counterparts, making tastes and textures nearly indistinguishable.
“It’s a tool in our toolkit to get these plant-based products over the next few hurdles from a sensory standpoint and from a cost-cutting standpoint,” she added. , is very different from what was happening, say, in the protein field five years ago.”
These products, alongside lab-grown meats, will appeal to flexitarians and the occasional consumer of plant-based products not previously marketed by taste, increasing consumption of meat alternatives. can do.
And that little bit can make all the difference, scientists say.
Recent learn in nature accounts for just 20% of global beef consumption and other pasture livestock.microbial proteinor made from fermentation, could cut annual deforestation in half by 2050. discussion.)
“Replacing milk, meat, and one day even the eggs we eat could take a lot of pressure off the planet,” Monbio said. “It also has the potential to develop a whole new cuisine that we can’t even imagine at this point. Just like the first farmers who caught wild cattle didn’t think of camembert.”
scale up
Enthusiasm for this innovation is overflowing. (“Precision fermentation is the most important environmental technology mankind has ever developed,” said Monbio. “It would be foolish to turn your back on it.”)