New meat: The Science Behind Scalable Alternatives to Animal Products

Plant-based meat products and the technologies used to produce them have increased in complexity from tofu (~200 BC) and wheat gluten-based meat replacements (6th century AD) to the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger (both 2016), which use mechanically extracted plant proteins and genetically engineered yeast producing soy leghemoglobin, respectively. This course will cover the scientific challenges and processes used to create convincing and marketable plant-based and clean meats, including the biological and chemical processes used to produce plant-based meat and clean meat; the environmental and economic drivers behind the market for meat replacements; and the dietary roles of plant- and animal-based proteins. This course is intended for undergraduates interested in learning about the technical and scientific developments involved in the production of clean and plant-based meat. Students should be familiar with introductory biology and chemistry.