Out of cluck: Scientists create egg whites using fungus in the lab as an ‘environmentally sustainable’ alternative to farming chickens
Researchers created ovalbumin, the primary protein in egg white, using fungus
The environmentally-friendly, vegan egg white has excellent foaming properties
It can become a sustainable replacement for chicken egg white protein powder
A vegan and environmentally-friendly egg white has been created using fungus, which could provide an alternative to intensive chicken farming.
Researchers in Finland have created ovalbumin, the primary protein in egg white, out of Trichoderma reesei, a species of fungus known to degrade clothing.
Ovalbumin that’s ethically produced using T. reesei – called ‘Tr-OVA’ – could become a sustainable replacement for chicken egg white protein powder, a widely used ingredient in the food industry.
Researchers found Tr-OVA reduced land use requirements by almost 90 per cent and greenhouse gases by up to 55 per cent, compared to chicken egg production.
Currently, one of the most widely-used vegan alternatives to egg white at home and in restaurants is aquafaba – the liquid leftover from cooked chickpeas.
However, aquafaba has to be whipped fiercely for over 20 minutes to achieve fluffy peaks, while this new replacement hold its shape and ‘has excellent foaming properties’.
The research has been conducted by scientists at the University of Helsinki together with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
‘Ovalbumin produced using the fungus Trichoderma reesei (Tr-OVA) could become a sustainable replacement for chicken egg white protein powder,’ they say in their paper.
‘Although the approach can generate ovalbumin at pilot scale, the environmental impacts of industrial-scale production have not been explored,’ they admit.
To make Tr-OVA, researchers started by identifying the genetic code for ovalbumin, which accounts for about 54 per cent of the total proteins of egg albumen, better known as egg white.
The gene carrying the blueprints for ovalbumin was inserted by modern biotechnological tools into the fungus, which was then produced and secreted the same protein that chickens produce.
The ovalbumin protein was then separated from the cells, concentrated and dried to create the final product.
The researchers have also compared impacts of Tr-OVA production with an equivalent unit of real dried chicken egg white protein produced in Finland, Germany and Poland.
Source: daily mail
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Out of cluck: Scientists create egg whites using fungus in the lab as an ‘environmentally sustainable’ alternative to farming chickens