AllAboutFeed reports that Moolec Science has created genetically modified soybeans, ensuring that a quarter of the protein is more pig-like than plant-based.

Piggy Sooy

The UK-based company, which also creates pea plants containing proteins from beef, claims its products will be able to provide nutritional value, taste, and texture similar to meat but at a lower cost than cultured meat.

The company has created genetically modified soy plants that have a pink-red hue inside. According to New Scientist, this likely means one of the added genes is for a heme-containing protein that contains iron, such as myoglobin.

Amit Dhingra, Moolec's chief science officer, told the publication that he cannot go into details about which pig genes were added to soy to produce the "Piggy Sooy" product for intellectual property reasons. The discovery prompted Moolec to file a new patent, using a novel approach intended to provide the company with a frictionless regulatory path to move forward.

The animal protein reached a high level of expression of up to 26.6% of the total soluble protein in soy, four times higher than initially projected by the company.

"Piggy Sooy is tangible and visual proof that Moolec's technology has the capacity to achieve significant yields in plants to produce meat proteins," said Moolec CEO and co-founder Gaston Paladini.

Achieving a Sustainable Food Chain

"Our plant biology team is making history in food science, and I couldn't be prouder of them," said Paladini.

Dhingra stated that Piggy Sooy could contribute to increasing the sustainability of the food supply chain:

"This achievement sets a precedent for the entire scientific community aiming to achieve high levels of protein expression at scale through molecular farming.

"We have developed a unique, successful, and patentable platform for expressing extremely valuable proteins in the seeds of economically important crops, such as soy.

"This platform has the potential to be used in a wide variety of proteins of interest for a broad range of industries, such as the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, diagnostic reagents, and other food industries."

Market Potential for Plant-Based Proteins

It is widely believed that bringing proteins closer to what comes from animals can lead to more convincing selling points for consumers – an issue raised by environmental writer Mark Lynas, who believes its environmental merits should be highlighted.

Seren Kell, from the Good Food Institute Europe, said there is strong evidence that consumers would like to see more sustainable alternatives to animal agriculture. Sales of plant-based options have increased by 21% in Europe since 2020, she said.

Crossing animal proteins into the plant-based sphere is a growing trend, along with precision fermentation, in an attempt to shrink the footprint of food production. Climax Foods recently introduced a plant-based casein substitute – mimicking the melt and stretch of milk-based casein.