These four new types of artificial protein minimize the carbon footprint and can be used to produce products that are as close as possible to natural meat in terms of amino acid composition.
These four new types of protein may soon replace animal products – what do they taste like?
People refuse animal protein for various reasons: because of the state of health, religious beliefs, ethical considerations. Many are concerned that animal husbandry greatly affects the environment. However, proteins are necessary for a person to live normally, so scientists do not get tired of improving methods for the production of protein products – and they have achieved impressive results! We collected the most interesting discoveries – protein from the air, mushrooms, electricity …
Protein from carbon dioxide
Yes, yes, that’s right – food from waste that pollutes the environment! Physicist Lisa Dyson has developed air protein technology, which allows the synthesis of protein using bacteria that recycle CO2. “Meat production depends on a lot of factors — geography, feed prices, politics, rainfall,” says Dyson. “We have learned how to make meat out of thin air — protein is ‘grown’ on ‘farms’ in closed containers using only air, electricity and water.” The sediment produced by the carbon dioxide-fed bacteria is collected and ground into flour. It is absolutely neutral in taste, but with the addition of flavoring components it can turn into chicken fillet and roast beef. Dyson claims that she spied the technology in the archives of NASA, where she was not given due attention. And counts
Solein
The technology is very close to the production of air protein, but developed in Finland. In the production of solein, which contains all the essential amino acids and 5-10% fat, a unicellular organism is involved. In order for it to multiply and make protein, the discharges of electricity break the water vapor molecules in a special way. Solein tastes like wheat flour and looks the same – it can be used like regular protein powder. Finnish scientists have also set their sights on space, with a saltine plant in Helsinki producing experimental batches of food for astronauts.
Mycoprotein
Mankind has not yet decided what mushrooms are – a plant or a highly organized intelligent organism. And before they turned out to be an organism and claimed their rights, people developed a way to get valuable vegan protein from mushrooms. Now it is produced by several companies at once; the best known is sold under the name quorn, which is a fermented dough-like product with a slight mushroom flavor and aroma. Mycoprotein has a minus: it can cause a reaction in allergy sufferers. But there are enough pluses, and the most important one: such vegetable protein is inexpensive to produce and the growing cycle of a portion is only 48 hours.
cloned meat
It sounds creepy, but something like this is shown to us by fantastic films about the future. However, such a product does not resemble a living animal in any way: it is grown in a laboratory from stem cells. To taste, this protein is absolutely neutral, regardless of whether the material was taken from chicken, cow or pig. Technically, cloned meat is as close as possible to yogurt – animal cells are taken only once, new colonies of cells are created on the basis of those received from the “progenitor”.