Gallery: Inside Look: The Startup Lab Using Plants to Make Next-Gen Super Eggs
01joshhampton
Josh Tetrick, founder of Hamtpon Creek Foods, a start-up that's trying to use plants to replace eggs. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED02Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
03Beyond Eggs. Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Eggless omelets are on the horizon. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
04Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
The company's first product, an egg-free (and cholesterol free) mayo is already on Whole Foods shelves. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
05Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
The company’s scientists have approached the egg not as an indivisible unit but rather as a highly optimized tool capable of all sorts of different culinary tricks. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
06Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
“The reason why a chicken egg is great is because it has 22 different functionalities,” Tetrick says. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
07Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
With the help of a few million in venture funding, and an investment from Bill Gates, the company’s scientists have spent the last year scouring the world’s flora with start-up scrappiness. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
08Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
A closet is full of slightly tweaked versions of their novel mayo, like the room with the arks in Indiana Jones. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
09Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
French toast is also in prototype phase. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
10Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
To zero in on these egg-mimicking proteins and harness them for actual products, Tetrick assembled a team not only of traditional food scientists but of biochemists and molecular engineers. Leading the search is Joshua Klein, Hampton Creek’s Director of Biochemistry R&D. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
11Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
“\[Josh\] doesn’t look at mayonnaise or a cookie or a scrambled egg like we would,” Tetrick says. “He looks at it like a branch chain of amino acids.” *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
12Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Tetrick’s quick to point out that ditching eggs for plants makes solid financial sense. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
13Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Eggs are big business—nearly two trillion are laid every year—and Hampton Creek’s substitute is currently up to 18 percent less expensive than the cheapest chicken egg, which translates into a jar of mayonnaise that’s roughly five percent cheaper than competitors. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
14Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
Mayo through the microscope. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
15Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
And yet, Hampton Creek isn’t content to just mimic the egg and squeak out a slightly better margin. The company’s scientists think they’ve only just started to unlock the potential their protein-based approach has to transform the food industry. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
16Beyond Eggs. Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
“We tell ourselves, ‘Let’s not set the egg product as a five on a scale of one to five,’” Klein, Hampton Creek's head of R&D explains. *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
17Beyond Eggs. Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
“Let’s set it at four and try to do better.” *Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
18Beyond Eggs. Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED
*Photo: Josh Valcarcel/WIRED*
