Most fake meat products get protein from a small group of plants. In the case of the Beyond Burger or Nestle’s Awesome Burger, the main ingredient is pea protein; the Impossible Burger gets protein from soy and potatoes. Kellogg’s “Incogmeato” line is made with soy. But one new Bay Area startup relies on fungus instead—specifically, koji, the fungus used to make sake.
大多數(shù)人造肉的蛋白質(zhì)來(lái)自少數(shù)幾種植物。Beyond Burger或者雀巢的Awesome Burger的主要成分是豌豆蛋白，Impossible Burger的蛋白質(zhì)來(lái)自大豆和土豆。家樂(lè)氏的Incogmeato里面的肉是大豆制成的。但一家新的灣區(qū)初創(chuàng)公司用的卻是真菌，就是日本酒曲，是用來(lái)釀造日本清酒的真菌。

The startup, called Prime Roots, launched limited sales of its first product—a fungi-based bacon—online today. Bacon “is a very underserved meat alternative,” says Prime Roots cofounder Kimberly Le. “There’s a lot of ground beef out there. But there isn’t as much in the way of whole-muscle meat or a more formed product like bacon or chicken breast, which is something that koji does really well at replicating.”
這家公司名為Prime Roots，現(xiàn)在在網(wǎng)上推出了第一款限量產(chǎn)品，是由真菌加工成的培根。Prime Roots公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人Kimberly Le說(shuō)培根是“供不應(yīng)求的肉類(lèi)替代品，市場(chǎng)上有很多牛肉粒，但像培根或雞胸肉這樣帶紋理的肉或者更成形的肉類(lèi)貨量不足，而這些正是日本酒曲能夠復(fù)制的肉類(lèi)?！?/div>

In its Berkeley headquarters, the company grows the fungi in fermentation vats, in the same type of process as brewing beer or sake. When nutrients are added to koji “seeds,” they grow into long fibers within a few days. “The fibers are similar to chicken breast fibers in terms of their texture and what they look like,” Le says. The company strains out the fibers from the liquid they grow in and then adds plant-based fat and flavors to make the end product.
該公司在位于伯克利市的總部用發(fā)酵桶培養(yǎng)真菌，和釀造啤酒或日本清酒的過(guò)程相同。給酒曲的“種子”加營(yíng)養(yǎng)素，幾天就能長(zhǎng)成長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的纖維。Le說(shuō)：“這些纖維的紋理和外觀與雞胸肉的纖維類(lèi)似?！彼麄儚呐囵B(yǎng)液中過(guò)濾出纖維，然后加入植物脂肪和香料，就做出了成品。

“We form it into essentially what is a pork belly,” she says. “It’s a block with natural fats and flavors. We actually smoke that block in a smoker, just as you would smoke a pork belly to make bacon. And then after it’s smoked and it has the flavor imparted into it, we’ll use a meat slicer to slice it just like you would bacon.”
她說(shuō)：“我們基本上就做出了五花肉，有天然的脂肪和味道。我們其實(shí)是把肉放在煙箱里熏，就跟你做培根時(shí)熏五花肉一樣。熏好以后就入味了，然后用切片機(jī)切成片，和培根的做法一樣?！?/div>

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翻譯：菲菲