Pig Protein-Infused Beans Trot Forward To Serve As A Pork Alternative

Lab-grown meat, also known as cultured or cell-based meat, is revolutionizing how engineers approach food production, claiming to offer promising benefits for health and the environment. Unlike traditional animal farming, which poses significant challenges such as deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and animal welfare concerns, lab-grown meat aims to provide a sustainable and ethical alternative. 
 
One caveat to the process is its cost, which has prevented a more widespread adoption in the culinary world.

Moolec, a British startup, has developed what is said to be a more cost-friendly method of plating up sustainable and healthy meat alternatives in the form of soybeans. Now, these aren’t any regular old soybeans. These special ones have been injected with pig genes into their genome to create ‘Piggy Sooy’.
 
This alters the plant and turns its protein a quarter (26.6%, precisely) into pig proteins. The company carefully selects the correct type of molecules to add taste, texture, and nutritional value to the soybean. In the end, consumers are left with beans that have a pinkish hue when cut open, just like pork, which could perhaps make the switch from meat a little more palatable.
 
The process was made to integrate with current agricultural practices seamlessly. Farmers can raise and cultivate the beans just as they usually would with conventional techniques and bring them to market.

“This achievement opens up a precedent for the entire scientific community that is looking to achieve high levels of protein expression in seeds via molecular farming” says Amit Dhingra, the company’s chief science officer. “Moolec has developed a unique, successful, and patentable platform for the expression of highly valuable proteins in the seeds of economically important crops such as soybeans. This platform has the potential to be used across a wide variety
of proteins of interest for a broad range of industries, such as the pharma, cosmetic, diagnostic reagents, and other food industries.” 
 
That said, there is no news on when such advancements will be made public. On the other hand, a restaurant in the US has just allowed lab-grown chicken to be sold to its diners.
 
 
 
[via New Atlas and NewScientist, images via Moolec]