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One of the simplest ways to combat climate change is already on restaurant menus and grocery store shelves.
Plant-based meats have been gaining popularity. One U.S. company is using mushroom root to make its products. They use less land and water than is needed to raise animal meat and produce, which in turn lowers greenhouse gas emissions.
Plant-based meats and seafood have already made meaningful strides, but still make up just 2% of the world’s global protein consumption, according to the market research company Euromonitor.
The cost of plant-based meat is often higher than animal meat, but industry experts say taste, not price, is the biggest barrier to widespread adoption.
Colorado-based Meati makes chewy, fibrous steak filets and chicken cutlets from mushroom roots and a handful of other ingredients, like chickpea flour. The company says its chicken cutlet has fewer calories, less cholesterol and nearly as much protein as animal chicken.
“We’re able to achieve a texture that’s very close to the real thing,” says Dina Paz, Meati’s executive chef. “That’s going to get you an eating experience that’s really close to a whole muscle type of cut versus something that’s ground or already pre-made for you.”
The company expects to eventually produce more than 40 million pounds of produce annually at its 100,000-square-foot Mega Ranch in Thornton, Colorado. That’s about 160 million four-ounce servings, or half the amount of steak served each year at Chipotle, one of Meati’s biggest investors.
Meati’s president and chief operating officer, Scott Tassani, says the company thinks its combination of better taste, fewer ingredients and improved nutrition, produced at a scale that could bring down costs, could help revitalize the U.S. plant-based meat market.
“We’re able to draw more consumers in that are traditional carnivores and/or increase the amount of usage from flexitarians, those consumers that eat traditional meat but also consume alternative protein,” he says.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.