What would have, until recently, seemed like sci-fi is now reality: Chicken grown from cells in a bioreactor is already on a restaurant menu in Singapore. A new facility in Israel will be able to churn out enough cell-based meat to make 5,000 animal-free beef burgers a day. More than 700 companies are now working on next-generation alternatives for traditional animal products, with the aim to improve animal welfare and help shrink the carbon footprint of the food chain. Investors poured a record $3.1 billion into the alternative protein industry in 2020. Though there are challenges—a 3D-printed steak still doesn’t look quite like a steak—it’s increasingly possible to engineer versions of food that seem indistinguishable from traditional farm-raised fare. Technology makes it possible to program microbes to become “cell factories” for key ingredients like casein, a protein that helps make dairy products taste like dairy, or heme, a protein that Impossible Foods uses to give its plant-based burgers the metallic tang of blood. Similar technologies are enabling the manufacture of a wide variety of products, from leather-like materials for clothing and accessories to plant-based hair extensions. Here’s a sampling of some of the goods that have emerged from new biotechniques designed to create alternative foods and materials.
