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Eggs go vegan and green

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San Francisco valley is the hotbed for start-ups with lot of brilliant, creative minds conceptualising great products and service primarily revolving around the tech sector. However, there are other sectors such as health, medicine and applied sciences which have also set shop in the valley to devise innovative solutions. One such company is Hampton Creek Foods’ which has devised animal-free vegan egg, made purely out of plant-based substitutes and which surrogates the real chicken egg.

Veganism refers to the practice of abstaining from any form of animal products specifically in the day to day diet. Veganism has a couple of distinct categories namely — dietary vegan and ethical vegans. Dietary vegans desist from the consumption of animal products such as meat, seafood, poultry but also by-products such as dairy products, eggs and other allied animal derivatives while ethical vegans are those class of people who not only stick to a vegan diet but also follow a strict vegan philosophy which includes opposition to the use of animal and allied products for any purpose whatsoever. Veganism over the past few years has grown in acceptance over the past few years especially in the western world with an estimated 2.5% population in the US going the vegan way.

While the pros and cons of veganism are open to discussions and debate, there are surely some nutritional benefits which non-vegetarians enjoy. Eggs are rich in high quality proteins are a cheap and highly nutritious substitute to meat but are not considered veggie or vegan. An egg is approximately equivalent to protein that can be found in 1 oz. of red meat. Typically one whole large egg provides 75 calories, 6g of protein, 5g of fat, 1.6g of saturated fat, 0g of carbohydrate, 63mg of sodium and approximately 213mg of cholesterol — more than the daily cholesterol allowance for someone with high cholesterol or heart disease. Most of an egg’s protein is in the white portion while the cholesterol is found in the egg yolk. Despite their cholesterol content, egg yolks also come packed with vitamins and minerals.

San Francisco based Hampton Foods is planning to develop foods which have plants and vegetables as the base and which will eventually be much superior to the animal products they will replace. The company launched its first product, Beyond Eggs in the end of 2013 as its first offering. Beyond Eggs is an eco-friendly vegan alternative to the real eggs! The early version of Beyond Eggs works as a replacement for eggs in baking but the company hopes to eventually replace scrambled eggs with replacement products.

The ingredients of Beyond Eggs includes sunflower lecithin, canola, peas, and natural gums and is totally devoid of cholesterol and gluten. Also as against real eggs, the product is expected to be much cheaper, have a longer shelf life and have added health benefits. Hampton Creeks’ Josh Tetrick claims that his company will be able to produce plant-based versions of egg with just a fraction of the water consumed and with just two calories of energy per calorie of food also will also prevent cruelty to the chicken – and eventually the substitute will cost almost half the price of natural eggs. Hampton Creek’s mayo, branded Just Mayo, is a premium mayonnaise made again with plant based ingredients and is being lauded by celebrity chefs.

With the above successes, one can look forward to other meat alternatives such as lamb, beef and seafood being artificially replicated to make them more health, green and cost-effective in what seems like a food revolution in the offing!

prashant.vadgaonkar@hotmail.com