這些雞蛋和牛奶的蛋白質(zhì)是在沒有動物的情況下合成的

These Egg And Milk Proteins Are Made Without Animals

這些雞蛋和牛奶的蛋白質(zhì)是在沒有動物的情況下合成的

Earlier today, I ate a scoop of chocolate ice cream – creamy and pleasantly fatty feeling in my mouth. This would hardly seem newsworthy, except for the high-tech ingredient that made my frozen treat go down so smoothly: dairy proteins produced in a lab, no cows needed.

今天早些時候，我吃了一勺巧克力冰淇淋——奶油味的，嘴里有一種愉快的油膩感。這似乎沒什么新聞價值，除了讓我的冷凍食品吃起來如此順口的高科技成分:在實驗室里生產(chǎn)的乳制品蛋白質(zhì)，不需要奶牛。

The realm of plant-based meat substitutes has gotten a lot of buzz lately. Think the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat – companies that use biochemistry to mimic the taste and texture of meat using plant-based ingredients. There's another frontier along these lines – start-ups that use microbes to create egg, dairy and other animal proteins without the animals.

今天早些時候，我吃了一勺巧克力冰淇淋——奶油味的，嘴里有一種愉快的油膩感。這似乎沒什么新聞價值，除了讓我的冷凍食品吃起來如此順口的高科技成分:在實驗室里生產(chǎn)的乳制品蛋白質(zhì)，不需要奶牛。

Their pitch: Sustainability. Livestock agriculture uses lots of water and land resources, and produces significant amounts of greenhouse gases.

他們的口號:可持續(xù)性。畜牧業(yè)使用大量的水資源和土地資源，產(chǎn)生大量的溫室氣體。

"If you can produce just the proteins that you want without keeping a living animal alive, that's going to be a lot more efficient, so it's better for the environment," says Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute, which promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal protein. And he says as the technology scales up, it should be a lot cheaper to produce proteins this way, too.

“如果你能在不讓活的動物存活的情況下生產(chǎn)出你想要的蛋白質(zhì)，那將會更有效率，所以對環(huán)境更好，”促進以植物和細胞為基礎(chǔ)的動物蛋白質(zhì)替代品的好食品研究所的布魯斯·弗里德里希說。他說，隨著技術(shù)的發(fā)展，用這種方法生產(chǎn)蛋白質(zhì)也會便宜很多。

Among the early entrants in this field is Perfect Day, producer of the aforementioned ice cream. The company took the genetic code for the main proteins in whey, a byproduct of cheese-making, then had it artificially synthesized into a molecule of DNA – so the process is "totally animal free," says Perfect Day co-founder Ryan Pandya. Then they genetically engineered microbes to produce the same proteins through fermentation.

在這個領(lǐng)域的早期進入者是完美的一天，生產(chǎn)者上述冰淇淋。Perfect Day公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人瑞恩·潘迪亞說，該公司提取了乳清中主要蛋白質(zhì)的遺傳密碼，然后將其人工合成成DNA分子，因此這個過程“完全不需要動物參與”。乳清是制作奶酪的副產(chǎn)品。然后他們通過基因工程改造微生物，通過發(fā)酵產(chǎn)生相同的蛋白質(zhì)。

"Just like cows eat plants and make milk, it turns out [micro]flora can eat plants and make milk. And that's all we've done," Pandya says.

“就像奶牛吃植物并產(chǎn)奶一樣，(微生物)植物也能吃植物并產(chǎn)奶。這就是我們所做的一切”，潘迪亞說。

"The process is really simple," he says. You take a tank of microbes, feed them, and they turn into milk protein. "Then you separated it out with filtration and drying and you're done."

“這個過程真的很簡單，”他說。你取一箱微生物，喂養(yǎng)它們，它們就變成了牛奶中的蛋白質(zhì)。“然后用過濾和干燥把它分離出來，就完成了。”

Why focus on whey? In frozen desserts, whey protein provides velvety texture – Perfect Day released its ice cream in a limited run of about 1,000 3-pint boxes as a sort of proof of concept to introduce consumers to its technology. (Bonus: It's also lactose free.)

為什么要關(guān)注乳清?在冷凍甜點中，乳清蛋白提供了天鵝絨般的質(zhì)感——Perfect Day在有限的1000個3品脫的盒子中推出了它的冰淇淋，作為向消費者介紹其技術(shù)概念的一種證明。(附贈:它也不含乳糖。)

But the company's goal is actually to become an ingredient supplier to all the food companies that rely on whey to boost protein levels in a range of foods, from smoothies to power bars. The target audience goes beyond vegans — to everyone.

但該公司的目標實際上是成為所有依靠乳清來提高一系列食品中蛋白質(zhì)水平的食品公司的配料供應(yīng)商，從冰沙到能量棒。目標受眾不僅僅是純素食者，而是所有人。

"Rather than try to compete with all these big food makers that are otherwise just going to buy a ton of whey protein from factory-farmed cows, we can actually give them a better supply chain and in so doing, we can have a lot more impact than we would on our own," Pandya says.

“與其試圖與所有這些大型食品制造商競爭，否則它們只會從工廠養(yǎng)殖的奶牛那里購買一噸乳清蛋白，我們實際上可以給它們一個更好的供應(yīng)鏈，這樣做，我們可以產(chǎn)生比我們自己更大的影響。”

Other companies looking to shake up the food supply include Motif Ingredients, which launched earlier this year with $90 million in investor financing. It aims to produce alternatives to dairy, egg and meat proteins using microbial fermentation and supply them to food makers.

其他尋求改變食品供應(yīng)的公司包括Motif components，該公司于今年早些時候推出，獲得了9000萬美元的投資者融資。該公司的目標是利用微生物發(fā)酵生產(chǎn)乳制品、蛋類和肉類蛋白的替代品，并將其供應(yīng)給食品生產(chǎn)商。

Clara Foods is using a similar synthetic biology process to create egg white proteins, including a highly soluble protein that would be used in sports drinks and other beverages. That could hit the food market early next year, says Ranjan Patnaik, vice president for technology strategy and operational excellence. Another protein in the pipeline could be used as egg whites — think vegan meringue and baked goods.

克拉拉食品公司正在使用類似的合成生物學(xué)過程來制造蛋清蛋白，其中包括一種高可溶性蛋白，將用于運動飲料和其他飲料。該公司負責(zé)技術(shù)戰(zhàn)略和卓越運營的副總裁帕特奈克(Ranjan Patnaik)說，這可能會在明年初沖擊食品市場。另一種正在研發(fā)中的蛋白質(zhì)可以用作蛋清——想想素食蛋白酥皮和烘焙食品。

"We have made all kinds those of pound cake, meringue, other recipes" in their development lab in the San Francisco Bay Area, Patnaik says.

帕特奈克說:“我們在舊金山灣區(qū)的研發(fā)實驗室里，制作了各種磅餅、蛋白派和其他食譜。”