美国公司推出新型人造猪肉
Most fake meat products get protein from a small group of plants. In the case of the Beyond Burger or Nestle's Awesome Burger, the main ingredient is pea protein; the Impossible Burger gets protein from soy and potatoes. Kellogg's "Incogmeato" line is made with soy. But one new Bay Area startup relies on fungus instead—specifically, koji, the fungus used to make sake. The startup, called Prime Roots, launched limited sales of its first product—a fungi-based bacon—online today. Bacon "is a very underserved meat alternative," says Prime Roots cofounder Kimberly Le. "There's a lot of ground beef out there. But there isn't as much in the way of whole-muscle meat or a more formed product like bacon or chicken breast, which is something that koji does really well at replicating." In its Berkeley headquarters, the company grows the fungi in fermentation vats, in the same type of process as brewing beer or sake. When nutrients are added to koji "seeds," they grow into long fibers within a few days. "The fibers are similar to chicken breast fibers in terms of their texture and what they look like," Le says. The company strains out the fibers from the liquid they grow in and then adds plant-based fat and flavors to make the end product. "We form it into essentially what is a pork belly," she says. "It's a block with natural fats and flavors. We actually smoke that block in a smoker, just as you would smoke a pork belly to make bacon. And then after it's smoked and it has the flavor imparted into it, we'll use a meat slicer to slice it just like you would bacon." |