Mission Barns is betting that animal -free pork fat will make artificial meat delicious

An old colleague has always had a curious request at lunch time. For healthy reasons, it was vegetarian, but it still misses the taste of minced meat. So I will ask the chef in the cafeteria for vegetable burger that was cooked next to the beef pies. The grease leaked to make the plant a much better taste.

People in Task sheds We must hear our conversation at lunch. They have developed animal -free pork fats. The product has just received approval from the US Department of Agriculture, and the company told Techcrunch exclusively. The approval seal allows the start of the sale of fats to consumers.

It is the first product of its kind to reach the market, and it can cancel the lock of a set of supple meat alternatives.

“He enables anyone, that is, our partners who use our components, to launch a market product,” Cecilia Cangng, chief official of Mission Barns, told Techcrunch.

Scientists were trying to culture of meat for years. The first burger is grown in the world In 2013Although it costs an estimated $ 330,000. The costs have decreased significantly since then, but a burger made of cow meat cultivated in the laboratory is still its costs Several times from McDonald’s classic. Part of the problem is that the muscle cells require something that grow, while most of the cells that are cultivated today grow in large ponds of liquid media.

But fats are not difficult to satisfy, which facilitates growth at a cost that consumers can swallow. And when it comes to flavor, it packs a punch.

To develop fats, Mission Barns first takes a small sample, such as biopsy, from a live pig. Then serve it in a vital reactor that contains growth media. Since the fat floats, it has had to start developing a vital reactor to ensure the distribution of cells evenly throughout the media. If you gather at the top, they will not be able to reach enough food to grow properly.

The first Mission Barns products are bacon alternatives, meat ball and sausage made using peas protein associated with cultivated pork. The startup also provides other companies with fats to merge them into their own recipes. In the long run, Zhang said, the sale of other food manufacturers will be its main work.

The peas protein is a common component of alternative meat, but Zhang said that the Mission Barns recipe is different. She said: “Since the fat gives you a lot of flavor, you actually take some of the most expensive ingredients in the alternative protein product, artificial flavors.”

Zhang also said that, perhaps, the fat -cultivated fat should allow in Mission Barns for healthy alternative meat. The recipes will not need a lot of salt to hide the taste of peas protein, and the company can adjust what the cells eat, which enhances omega -3 fat, for example.

For future products, Mission Barns develops pork fat with a more intense flavor. “You can stay away from adding a little fat,” Zhang said. ” “When we talk to the partners, they are like,” Hell yes, register me. “