b'that some of these crops are incredibly difficult to growthats why theres a lot of widescale corn, wheat and sorghum production. Theyre so robust.These protein-rich seeds are excel-lent to usein JUST Egg, weve found that when we isolate the mung bean pro-tein in a raw state, it behaves just like an egg protein when you scramble it in a pan, Lazimy says. Unlike soy, mung bean has very little evidence of deforest-ation and it has low water use.But the real question we want to know Are these plant-based proteins considered to be healthier than their meat alter-egos?We do believe plant-based products are healthier, Lazimy says. Theres a lot of scientific background that shows people have a difficult time digesting red meats. Our egg protein has zero choles-terol, unlike regular egg products. With a plant-based diet, everything can still beAfter a lot of exploring, JUST created JUST Egg, a plant-based, healthy and you still get all the nutritionprotein-packed product that cooks up and tastes like real eggs. you need, but of course, a balanced diet is most important.Impossible Foods hasnt stopped trying to make the Impossible BurgerWhat is Haem?healthierin January 2019, theyThere are plenty of things that make its way into the Impossible Burger, but the biggest released a new recipe for the burger thatquestion on everyones mind: how does it taste exactly like a beef burger?cut the sodium 30 per cent from the orig- The answer: Haem. inal recipe, as well as reducing the satu-rated fat by 40 per cent.Haem is the secret ingredient to life on Earthits a molecule full of iron, and its actually As we keep thinking of ways tothe molecule that grabs oxygen from your lungs and carries it through your bloodstream. improve the Impossible Burger, nutri- But more importantly, haem makes meat taste like meat. Its what our body yearns for tion is on the top of our mind, Hallaand craves when you take a bite out of a juicy burger. says. Were constantly looking to makeThe craving for meat is really a craving for haem and the iron and protein it represents it healthier, and thats what were hopingin the diet, says Pat Brown, founder and CEO at Impossible Foods.the Impossible Burger version two accom-plishes. However, haem doesnt always appear in plants. So how does Impossible Foods create Both companies truly believe thathaem inside their plant-based burger? They make plant-based haem by fermentation to feed the worlds population by 2050,of genetically engineered yeast.farmers, seed companies and food com- They started by looking at a lot of different forms of protein, before they identified soy panies need to work together to changeleghemoglobin, which is a protein that contains haem. It can be found in its natural form, our food system. For them, plant-basedin the root modules of natural plants, or it can be created by fermentation, which is much proteins mean the future of agricultureseasier to create and maintain in a lab.value chain. Change can be scary, Halla says.Yeasts are used for making other proteins in certain kinds of beers and wines, so But there are huge opportunities in theits something that people are used to, says Smita Shankar, principal scientist at space of plant-based proteins. If we canImpossible Foods. The yeast that we use makes its own haem. We take the DNA from add more value back into the value chain,soy leghaemoglobin, and we insert that DNA into our yeast. then we can have a much more diverse and sustainable world. That DNA from the soy leghaemoglobin then helps the yeast make its own haem, which gives the Impossible Burger its impossible flavour.EUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 31'