While plant proteins are gaining traction, flavour and texture are desired improvements for overall accepted consumption, and enzyme engineering could be the solution
Plant based proteins are taking over the world with big brands such as Impossible Meat and Beyond Meat, showing up in our favourite burger stores and local supermarkets. Sourced from protein-rich vegetables such as pea and soy, plant based proteins are here to replace the proteins from meat and dairy, which production has been highly criticised for their animal cruelty and high production of greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the abundance and less carbon footprint of vegetation, plant-based proteins are more sustainable. Here in Asia, major events such as Covid-19 and war have shaken up our existing food system and supply chains, once again reminding us the importance of a sustainable food system to buffer against uncertainties.
Although plant based proteins are successful, many hoped for further improvements in texture and flavour. At Allozymes, our expertise lies in custom enzyme engineering. By studying the chemicals that make up the flavour of meat and the enzymes responsible for its synthesis, we can design the enzymes in-house and further engineer them to have desirable functions or traits such as higher efficiency or tolerance at high temperature. The flexibility of our technology can be tailored towards different functional enzymes for diverse food products and cultures. Notably, these processes which used to be exhaustive can now be performed at an unprecedented speed due to our microfluidics technology, which is capable of screening a million enzymatic reactions per day, speeding up the old-fashioned enzyme engineering by 10 times. With our speed, we can help customers lower their cost in enzyme engineering, scale up their bioproduction and shorten their products’ time to market. Most importantly, our enzymes help our customers create sustainable business and production.
Our technology can drive further progress in the plant based protein market to meet the increasing global demand for meat and dairy, reaching out to a greater audience and encouraging sustainability worldwide.
