Now scientists want you to eat lab-grown mold to 'save the environment'

Lab-grown meat has been advertised as a way to save the environment, but now scientists are taking it one step further by asking people to eat mold.

Researchers at the University of California (UC) - Berkeley are using genetic engineering to create proteins and meat substitutes from the genes found in koji mold which is already used to ferment sake, soy sauce, and miso.

The researchers have, so far, bioengineered the fungi into a patty they fried to resemble a ‘tempting-looking burger,’ but this is just the jumping-off point for the team.

They hope to morph the mold to control the flavor and texture of the product and create a line of food that will appeal to ‘even the most sophisticated tastes.’

Researchers at UC Berkeley are altering the genes in koji mold to create food

Once the genes are manipulated to add iron and fatty acids, the koji culture begins to turn from white to red 

Vayu Hill-Maini, a Chef-turned-bioengineer is working with researchers to create tasty and tempting food sources that are allegedly healthier for consumers and the environment.

Hill-Maini has been studying the fungus called Aspergillus oryzae – koji mold – using a gene editing system called CRISPR-Cas9 to boost heme, an iron molecule found in animal tissue that gives meat its color and flavor.

Heme is also used to make the lab-grown Impossible Burger, which gives it its flavor.

Then the team increased an antioxidant called ergothioneine , which is linked to cardiovascular health benefits and used in medicines to treat liver damage, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.

After increasing both genes, the mold – which was previously white – turned red and by removing the excess water and grinding the fungi, it could be shaped into a burger-like patty.

The researchers created what they called a 'tempting-looking burger' out of koji mold

Vayu Hill-Maini is a chef-turned-bioengineer and hopes to create a new line of edible mold

The mold is still not ready to be consumed, and the next steps will be to alter the genes to change the mold’s texture by morphing the cell’s fibers so they’re longer and will give the consumer ‘a more meat-like experience,’ Hill-Maini said.

But that still won’t be enough to meet the high standards of many consumers, something Hill-Maini said he and his team will be looking into increasing the fatty acids, or lipid composition, to add nutrition to the food source.

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Some foods, like hard cheeses, can be salvaged. But some types of tainted dairy and multicolored spots on soft produce could send you to the hospital. 

‘I'm really excited about how can we further look at the fungus and, you know, tinker with its structure and metabolism for food,’ Hill-Maini said.

Hill-Maini and his team are touting the moldy burger as a potentially viable alternative to the beef patty in the future because it is better for the environment, but recent studies have shown that lab-grown meat will end up having a worse impact on the climate.

Right now, the process used to grow meat, or in this case moldy meat, in a lab is minimal because it isn’t as common as real beef, but experts believe that labs will ramp up production over the next 10 years, making it a common kitchen staple.

But scientists estimated that the carbon footprint from the energy needed to grow meat en masse would range from between 246 and 1,508 kg – up to 25 times more than retail beef, according to a study released last year by the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis.

However, the research team at UC Berkeley is still optimistic about the effect their moldy meals will have on the culinary future.

‘These organisms have been used for centuries to produce food, and they are incredibly efficient at converting carbon into a wide variety of complex molecules, including many that would be almost impossible to produce using a classic host like brewer’s yeast or E. coli,’ said Jay Keasling, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and a professor at UC Berkeley.

He continued: ‘By unlocking koji mold through the development of these tools, we are unlocking the potential of a huge new group of hosts that we can use to make foods, valuable chemicals, energy-dense biofuels, and medicines.

‘It’s a thrilling new avenue for biomanufacturing.’