For Gaston Palladini, pork is a family affair. In 1923, his great-grandfather, Don Palladini, moved from Italy to Santa Fe, Argentina, where he began adding a South American twist to classic Italian sausage recipes. Eventually, Don Juan’s company became one of his largest meat producers in Argentina. The family name Palladini still remains today.
But in 2020, Gaston began to develop heretical ideas that would make his ancestors blush. What would happen if we captured the meaty, umami, and sweet taste of pork in a plant? Palladini’s imagination ran wild at the thought of blood-dripping soybeans, chimeras that packed all the flavor of pork meat into a seedling.
Today, Paladini is CEO. mulec science, a molecular agriculture company that uses crops to grow animal protein. The idea is to turn plants into small, field-based factories that can produce high-value proteins and other molecules that can be used to supplement existing products or provide bulk nutrition to plant-based foods. “This is the real thing. These are real meat protein molecules,” says Palladini.
In June 2023, Mourek revealed that he had inserted pig genes into soybean plants to create soybeans that expressed pig proteins. The experiment was conducted at the company’s greenhouse in Wisconsin. In some soybeans, more than a quarter of the soluble protein was determined to be from pigs. Although it’s not quite the bleeding soybean he originally envisioned, Paridini was still impressed by how much pig protein his soybeans produced. He said the beans are pink and taste like meat, but the company is still waiting for a full analysis of their nutritional value. Palladini hopes to bring the soybeans to outdoor field trials in Wisconsin next year.
Plant-based meat companies may be particularly interested in animal protein grown this way. In the United States, sales of plant-based products are flat amid signs that consumers are overwhelmed by animal-free products. As confidence wavers, more startups are hoping to develop killer ingredients to rival plant-based sausages and burgers.Australian startup Nourish uses genetically modified yeast to produce animal fatMeanwhile, UK-based Hoxton Farms Get fat From real animal cells in a bioreactor.
“Personally, I think the plant-based industry is slowing down because cost, taste and flavor are better, but not enough,” Palladini says. “Plant-based companies need to improve flavor and texture and lower costs.”
