Artificial meat is getting hotter. Where does this "fake" meat challenge the real meat?steemCreated with Sketch.

in #artificial4 years ago

In September of this year, China's first artificial meat food went on sale in Hangzhou. It is reported that the product is made from plant protein, which has almost the same taste and real meat. On November 18th, China's first artificial cultured meat produced by culturing muscle cells was born at Nanjing Agricultural University. Two news quickly attracted the attention of the public, and the relevant news continued to swipe the screen.

However, the rise of this wave of artificial meat may be attributed more to Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, two large artificial meat manufacturers across the ocean. The former landed on U.S. stocks in September this year and became the first artificial meat company to go public, while the latter has not been listed yet, but its valuation is comparable to the former. Since the listing of Beyond Meat, the stock has surged 600%, and it seems that the market can recognize the artificial meat and related products.

However, if you do n’t eat good real meat, why should you eat artificial meat? And, what exactly is artificial meat? Can I also eat artificial meat?

         If you have real meat, why should you eat artificial meat?

In addition to factors such as the lack of humaneness in industrialized farming and slaughter, environmental protection is also an important reason.

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Global Per Capita Annual Meat Consumption Overview (Unit Kg)

Now that global climate is warming and industrial pollution is serious, the per capita arable area is visibly reduced, but at the same time, the number of people to feed has increased. Globally, the total meat consumption in the past 50 years has increased from 45 million tons to the current 300 million tons, and by 2050 this number may be 600 million tons.

Behind such a large amount of meat consumption is a large area of ​​feed cultivation, but how can there be such a large place to grow it? Therefore, in the future, agriculture and animal husbandry will require a production method that occupies less land, consumes less resources, and has a smaller impact on the environment-skipping raising animals and directly producing "artificial meat" is a way to achieve these goals.

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The severe situation of per capita arable area and population growth. By 2030, per capita arable land will be reduced by 70%. In other words, in 1950 one hectare (15 acres) of land had to feed two people, but by 2030 it had to feed six people.

          What is artificial meat?

Figured out why artificial meat is made, and then talk about what's going on with artificial meat.

Artificial meat, as its name implies, is artificial meat. Although there are many kinds of artificial meat, they are only a) artificial real meat and b) artificial fake meat. Why is there still real and fake meat? of course!

Let's start with a) artificial meat. Artificial real meat is real meat. It is usually cultured in a laboratory environment with true muscle cells. It is the use of animal muscle cells, through a series of methods, cell clusters, cell cakes or cell masses growing on the substrate of the culture dish. This type of meat is generally called "Cultured meat", and this type of meat was born in Nanjing Agricultural University.

Since it is grown from real meat cells, it is naturally no different from ordinary meat in taste, but the size of this artificial real meat is generally not large. After all, the petri dish is also so large (generally 90 mm in diameter and 2 cm in thickness) ). In addition, since the cells need to be transformed into meatloaf through proliferation, the production process is lengthy, the required equipment and culture conditions are relatively harsh and expensive. To put it bluntly, I can't be too happy, it tastes RMB!

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Artificial meat sketch

But in fact, in addition to laboratory culture methods, artificial meat can also be produced by 3D printing. The cells contained in the meat are nothing more than muscle cells and fat cells. As long as the cell culture method is used, a large number of cells are cultured, and then 3D printing is used to combine these cells together. After all, 3D printing technology can successfully print a kidney, and a lot of meat is printed, naturally. The meat produced by this method can be large, but the price is still very expensive. After all, it is expensive to raise cells.

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3D printed meat schematic diagram

Artificial fake meat is made of non-meat protein (generally vegetable protein, but also fungal proteins such as mushrooms). It is produced by simulating the taste and taste of meat. It is real meat-free meat. . Impossible and Beyond, two major brands that have been launched in the United States, are of this type. China's first "artificial meat" product listed in Hangzhou in September also falls into this category.

In view of the high production and consumption costs of artificial real meat, artificial fake meat is currently the mainstream in the market. And now the "artificial meat" that frequently brushes the screen usually refers to artificial fake meat.

         What are the artificial meats you can eat now?

We are all familiar with the traditional vegetarian dishes that imitate food. They can also be regarded as the traditional version of artificial meat, but the current artificial meat is still very different in technology, adding some high-tech elements. Most of the vegetarian ingredients made by Chinese people with tofu are made by adding some seasonings or food additives to simulate the taste and taste of meat foods. The products are almost all cooked foods. Artificial meat, in its appearance, strives to be similar to raw real meat, and after cooking, also strives to achieve a taste similar to real meat. For example, this picture of Beyond meat sold in major supermarkets in North America looks no different from ordinary real meat, and the taste after cooking is very similar to real meat.

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Beyond artificial meat

This is not easy. First of all, we need to conduct in-depth and scientific research and analysis on the color, aroma and taste of meat. Secondly, it is necessary to find suitable substitutes in plants based on the analysis results. The protein in real meat has a complex three-dimensional protein conformation. At the same time, it can capture fat, water, polysaccharides and small molecules responsible for meat flavor. The muscle fibers in meat also bring "chewing" to meat. Due to the natural differences between plants and animals, these meat characteristics are almost completely absent from plants. Therefore, artificial meat products of plant origin or some other high-protein products naturally cannot satisfy discerning humans.

The innovation of the Beyond and Impossible products lies in simulating the nature of real meat in an all-round way, which can bring people the taste of real meat. Take Beyond Meat, which first landed in the US stocks, as an example. According to its official website information and its patent information, this is a complex mixture of peas and other legume-based proteins, mixed with various ingredients such as coarse rice, sunflower seeds, potatoes, coconut oil, and beet juice. Ground beef (80% lean and 20% fatty) common in supermarkets. Beyond uses a variety of protein sources derived from beans and other beans to mimic the protein content in ground beef, and strives to be similar to real meat in microstructure after cooking.

In order to imitate the lingering "meat flavor", Beyond meat analyzed the chemical composition of flavor molecules in the real meat (mainly docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, conjugate fatty acids arachidic acid, palmitic acid , Glycolipids, membrane lipids, etc.), mixed with coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, rapeseed oil, etc. to make flavor analogs. Finally, the starch in rice and potatoes was used to replace the carbohydrates in ground beef, coconut meat was used to mimic large fats in ground meat, and beet juice was used to mimic the redness of ground meat.

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Some of the main ingredients used in Beyong artificial meat

In the end, Beyond meat was produced through a complex production process. In an interview, the company's CEO stated that the overall similarity of Beyond's meat and ground beef is more than 50% (including appearance, taste and flavor, etc.).

If Beyond is only from a physical and chemical perspective, the process of food production is simulated with real meat, then the innovation of Impossible than Beyond is that they use biological engineering methods. As mentioned above, the real meat can bring us the taste and taste, in addition to "meat" flavor molecules, there are some proteins. The most important of these are two proteins, hemoglobin and myoglobin. It is these two proteins that give the meat a "flesh color". The attractive reddish juice of five mature steaks is also due to their presence.

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Schematic diagram of three protein molecular structures

Researchers at Impossible have found plant homologs of these two proteins, leghemoglobin, in soybean nodules. Bean hemoglobin is a complex protein, first discovered by Japanese scientist Hideo Kubo in 1939. Soybean root nodule is a nitrogen-fixing tissue produced by the infection of Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Soybean provides nutrients to rhizobium through photosynthesis, and rhizobium provides nitrogen that can be absorbed by soybean through nitrogen fixation.

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Soybean root nodules (A), nodule cross-sections (B), and rhizobium (C) and nitrogen-fixing cells (D) labeled with green fluorescent protein

Subsequently, the researchers conducted in-depth research on soy hemoglobin. The results show that both the color and taste (mainly bloody) are similar to true hemoglobin and myoglobin.

In this way, the researchers cloned the gene sequence expressing leghemoglobin and transgenic it into yeast, allowing yeast to express leghemoglobin, and conducted various safety tests. The end result shows that it is one of the best candidates for producing artificial meat. Therefore, based on it, various plant ingredients were added to simulate the taste and appearance of meat, and finally Impossible artificial meat was produced.

According to the limited information provided by its official website and some news reports, China's first artificial meat, which was launched in Hangzhou in September, can be inferred that it uses a technology route similar to Beyond.

        ↓ Real-person tasting session ↓

In order to verify the taste, I deliberately bought an Impossible artificial meat burger and tasted it. The left side of the picture below is an ordinary beef burger and the right side is Impossible artificial meat burger.
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Burger photos and tastes

Overall it tastes similar to a real beef burger. The patties are similar in color and detail, as well as scented, but there is no beef tendon-like substance in the meat, which can taste a little protein meat. The price is also acceptable, which is $ 1.2 more expensive than a regular burger.

One day in the future, when the artificial meat really reaches the level of “reality and falseness”, choosing healthier artificial meat and realizing the freedom of artificial meat may be a good life pursuit. As for how much it can be accepted, it depends on whether the artificial meat they produce can satisfy people's discerning stomach.

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