By Liam Mannix
The first thing served at lunch is a form that waives all our legal rights and acknowledges that what we’re about to eat “may be inherently dangerous and may cause serious or grievous injuries”.
This is, obviously, not a great way to start a meal. But so it goes at the bleeding edge of the food revolution.
A lab-grown lamb meatball.Credit: Eddie Jim
Our appetite for meat is a major contributor to the climate crisis. That’s why encouraging people to switch to a plant-based diet is now a major focus for the United Nations.
But it’s hard to convince carnivores to swap steaks for tofu. So dozens of companies are trying to grow, ferment or even 3D-print meat replacements that taste like the real thing.
Australian authorities are yet to approve a lab-grown meat, which is why the waiver forms are necessary.
But several are in the wings, and anticipation of those first approvals was palpable at the bustling AltProteins conference in Melbourne on Thursday.
“Chicken” served with ginger-soy sauce.Credit: Eddie Jim
Magic Valley in Melbourne is making lamb from stem cells. And NSW-based Eden Brew hopes to start selling its animal-free precision fermented milk commercially by 2025.
The industry is trying to learn from the challenges it’s experienced with plant-based fake meats, like fake bacon.
“There’s a lot of ‘it tastes just like’ – but then you try it, and it doesn’t,” says Eden Brew CEO Jim Fader. The hype went before the product, he said. But the new products are starting to catch up.
The company’s milk is fermented in a process similar to beer-making. Sugar is fed to a specific strain of genetically modified yeast, which then produces “nature-identical” milk proteins.
“It’s not dairy, but it tastes just the same,” says Fader. “You can’t tell the difference. That’s the goal.”
And emissions are reduced by about 90 per cent, he says.
Perfect Day’s fermented milk.Credit: Eddie Jim
Food production makes up about a third of our global greenhouse emissions. To produce a kilogram of beef, about 70 kilograms of greenhouse gas is generated.
And more greenhouse-gas-intensive diets are also worse for our health, a major analysis published in the Lancet shows.
“There is a growing body of research that is showing the benefit of eating more plant-based food in our diet,” said Teri Lichtenstein, an accredited practising dietitian with FoodBytes.
“And growing evidence showing a very high intake of animal proteins can lead to more diseases.”
Local data shows a small decline in retail sales of plant-based proteins since 2020, said Klara Kalocsay, head of research strategy at Food Frontier.
High inflation is leading consumers to shy away from alternative meats, which remain about 33 per cent more expensive than real meat, she said.
Taste test:
Magic Valley cultivated meat: This bioreactor-grown meat from a Melbourne-based company tasted like a normal meatball, if a little bland and crumbly. 2.5/5
Eat Just’s mung bean egg frittata. Credit: Eddie Jim
Good Meat 0 Chicken: Beautiful sear and caramelisation on the outside, lovely texture on the inside. Mouth-coating richness. Superb – better than a standard supermarket chook. 5/5
Eat Just plant-based egg frittata: Made from mung beans, this egg tastes just like normal egg. Bland and inoffensive, with a nice creamy texture. 3.5/5
ANDFOODS whipping cream: Tasted very similar to whipped cream, with a thick texture and hint of sweetness. 3 /5
Perfect Day animal-free milk: Fermented via yeast, just like beer. We had the chocolate milk. Delicious, rich, mouth-coating - tasted just like normal chocolate milk. 4/5
Liam Mannix’s Examine newsletter explains and analyses science with a rigorous focus on the evidence. Sign up to get it each week.