What’s in a name?
The proteins deliver the unique functionality and nutrition of egg protein, but are animal-free, said Kshirsagar, who said Clara and Ingredion are talking to the FDA about how they might be listed on food labels.
Clara Foods takes a strain of yeast and adds DNA sequences (which can be 3D printed using synthetic biology techniques) which effectively instruct the yeast to produce different proteins found in eggs during a fermentation process requiring a source of sugars as the feedstock.
Patent applications will cover specific proteins in specific food and beverage applications, said Light, who said that many of the individual proteins in eggs had unique properties which had not previously been explored as it was too expensive to extract them from eggs and manufacture individually.
The egg replacer in the pipeline was particularly exciting, said Light, given that “there has never been something [in the plant-based egg replacement universe] that completely matches the functionality of eggs until now. There was always some kind of sacrifice.”