Lab-grown meat has been promoted as a way to save the environment, but now scientists are going one step further by asking people to eat fungi.
Researchers at the University of California (UC) – Berkeley are using genetic engineering to create proteins and meat substitutes from the genes found in koji mold already used to ferment sake, soy sauce and miso.
The researchers have so far bioengineered the fungi into a patty that they fried to resemble a “tempting-looking burger,” but this is just the starting point for the team.
They hope to change the shape to control the taste and texture of the product and create a food line that will appeal to “even the most refined tastes.”
Researchers at UC Berkeley alter the genes in koji mold to create food
Once the genes are manipulated to add iron and fatty acids, the koji culture begins to change from white to red
Vayu Hill-Maini, a chef turned bioengineer, is working with researchers to create tasty and tempting food sources that are said to be healthier for consumers and the environment.
Hill-Maini studied the fungus Aspergillus oryzae – koji fungus – using a gene editing system called CRISPR-Cas9 to stimulate heme, an iron molecule found in animal tissue that gives meat its color and flavor.
Heme is also used to make the lab-grown Impossible Burger, which gives it its flavor.
Next, the team increased an antioxidant called ergothioneine, which has been linked to cardiovascular health benefits and is used in medications to treat liver damage, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions.
After expanding both genes, the fungus – which was previously white – turned red and by removing the excess water and grinding the fungi, it could be made into a burger-like patty.
The researchers created what they called a “tempting-looking burger” from koji mold
Vayu Hill-Maini is a chef turned bioengineer who hopes to create a new line of edible fungi
The fungus is still not ready to be consumed, and the next steps will be to alter the genes to change the texture of the fungus by changing the fibers of the cell so that they are longer and the consumer ‘a more meat-like experience’ will give, ‘Hill – said Maini.
But that still won’t be enough to meet the high standards of many consumers, something Hill-Maini said he and his team will explore increasing the fatty acids, or lipid composition, to add nutrition to the food source add.
“I’m really excited about how we can look further at the fungus and, you know, tinker with its structure and metabolism for food,” Hill-Maini said.
Hill-Maini and his team are touting the moldy burger as a potentially viable alternative to beef patties in the future because it is better for the environment, but recent studies have shown that lab-grown meat will ultimately have a worse impact on health. climate.
Currently, the process used to grow meat, or in this case moldy meat, in a laboratory is minimal because it is not as common as real beef. However, experts believe that labs will ramp up production over the next decade, making it a common kitchen staple.
But scientists estimate that the carbon footprint of the energy required to grow meat en masse would be between 246 and 1,508 kg – up to 25 times more than retail beef, according to a study published last year by the Department of Food Science and Technology. University of California, Davis.
However, the UC Berkeley research team is still optimistic about the effect their moldy meals will have on the culinary future.
‘These organisms have been used to produce food for centuries, and they are incredibly efficient at converting carbon into a wide variety of complex molecules, including many that would be nearly impossible to produce using a classical host such as brewer’s yeast or E. coli,” said Jay Keasling, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and a professor at UC Berkeley.
He continued: ‘By unlocking koji fungus through the development of these tools, we are unlocking the potential of a vast new class of hosts that we can use to make food, valuable chemicals, energy-rich biofuels and medicines.
‘It’s an exciting new avenue for biomanufacturing.’