Revolutionary Fungus-Based Egg White Substitute

Egg white powder is a commonly used food ingredient, which implies that many hens need to be raised on many farms, ingesting a load of feed and creating much waste. Nonetheless, there might soon be a greener option, thanks to a fungus that generates a crucial egg white protein.

In a research study performed by the University of Helsinki and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, researchers genetically modified filamentous Trichoderma reesei fungus to ensure that it would certainly generate and secrete ovalbumin, which makes up more than half of the protein content in egg white powder.

They isolated the chicken gene responsible for creating ovalbumin, placed it into the fungus, harvested the secreted protein, then concentrated and dried it into a powder. When tested, that powder showed a number of the very same desirable qualities as egg white powder, such as the capability to foam up.

Furthermore, the researchers claim that compared to breeding chickens for their egg whites, production of the fungus-derived ovalbumin ought to minimize land use needs by almost 90 percent and decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 31 to 55 percent.

They have yet to determine accurately how much energy would be needed. However, it should be considerably less than is presently required by chicken farms. If low-carbon energy sources were to be employed, the researchers predict that the decrease in greenhouse gases could be as high as 72 percent.

The journal Nature Food recently released a paper on the research study.

Read the original article on New Atlas.

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