Hardware Podcasts

Alternative protein: it’s what’s for dinner

Catalyst · 14 Apr 2022 · 50m

What this episode covers

Dr. Liz Specht, VP of Science and Technology at the Good Food Institute, explains the three pillars of alternative protein: plant-based, microbial fermentation, and cultivated meat. She details how companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat use fermentation to produce heme and high-moisture extrusion for texture, while noting that plant-based products currently cost 2-4x more than conventional meat due to scale disparities. Specht highlights a critical bottleneck in fermentation infrastructure, specifically a global shortage of large-scale bioreactors, and discusses how precision fermentation and cultivated meat aim to replicate the sensory experience of animal tissue more faithfully than plant-based options alone.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Good Food Institute, Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, JBS, Mycotechnology, Nature's Fynd, Geloura
Also
CE Delft, heme protein, bioreactors

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