Perfecting the Plant Mix That Mimics Meat
素肉精益求精 幾可亂真
By Stephanie Strom

Last May, an American grocery chain recalled two types of curried chicken salad because its kitchens had accidentally confused a batch of “chick’n” salad made with a plant protein substitute with one made from real chicken, and reversed the labels.
去年五月，美國一家超市連鎖店回收兩種咖哩雞肉沙拉，因為廚房不小心把一批用植物蛋白質替代雞肉的沙拉，與真的雞肉沙拉搞混了，回收後把標籤互換。

Consumers buying the version labeled as having been made from actual chicken were instead eating vegetarian chicken salad – and thus inadvertently were exposed to soy and eggs, which are allergens.
消費者買的是用真正雞肉做的沙拉，吃下肚的卻是素雞肉沙拉，因此無意之間吃下了黃豆和蛋，兩樣都是過敏原。

“None of the customers apparently noticed the difference,” said Ethan Brown, founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat, which made the substitute in the product that was recalled.
回收產品中雞肉替代品的製造商「超凡肉」（Beyond Meat）公司創辦人兼執行長布朗說：「沒有顧客明顯注意到兩種產品的差別。」

The error demonstrates just how far “fake” meat has come from the days when desiccated and flavorless veggie burgers were the only option for noncarnivores.
這項錯誤顯示，比起乾巴巴、沒味道的素漢堡是素食者唯一選擇的年代，「假肉」已進步了多少。

Demand for meat alternatives is growing, fueled by trends such as vegetarianism and concerns over the impact of industrial-scale animal husbandry on the environment. The trend has also attracted a host of unlikely investors, including Biz Stone and Evan Williams of Twitter, and Bill Gates.
在素食主義風潮，以及大規模飼養動物對環境衝擊引起關切的推波助瀾下，肉類替代品的需求不斷增加。此一風潮也吸引一些想像不到的投資者，包括推特的兩位創辦人史東和威廉斯，以及比爾蓋茲。

“I’ve tasted a few,” Mr. Gates wrote in a multimedia piece on the Beyond Meat investment that was posted to his blog, “and they’re very convincing.”
蓋茲在他部落格上針對他的「超凡肉」投資貼出一件多媒體作品，他在裡面說：「我嘗了一些，幾可亂真。」

Some investors look at the development of viable meat alternatives as a sustainability issue.
部分投資人把發展可行的肉類代替品看成永續發展議題。

“Frankly, we’ve never said we’re interested in food,” said Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers, a venture capital firm that has backed Google and Facebook – and Beyond Meat. “What we’re interested in is big problems needing solutions, because they represent big potential markets and strong opportunities for building great returns.”
投資Google和臉書，同時也支持「非凡肉」的創投資本公司KPCB的柯米薩說：「坦白說，我們從沒說過我們對食品有興趣。我們有興趣的是需要解決方案的大問題，因為它們代表有潛力的大市場，以及建構巨大投資報酬的大好機會。」

He said his firm’s investment in Beyond Meat is intended to address problems like land and water use, stress on global supply chains and population growth.
他說，他的公司投資「超凡肉」，著眼於因應土地和水資源使用，全球供應鏈承受的壓力和人口成長等問題。

Creating from plant proteins something that will pass as meat is complicated.
從植物蛋白質做出幾可亂真的素肉，過程十分複雜。

Hampton Creek Foods, a start-up working to develop egg substitutes, tested thousands of varieties of Canadian yellow peas before it identified what would mimic the functions of eggs, including emulsification. The goal? A mayonnaise that was nutritionally equivalent to one made with eggs.
漢普頓克里克食品是研發雞蛋替代品的新創公司，測試了成千上萬種的加拿大黃豌豆，才找到能複製雞蛋功能的黃豌豆，包括測試乳化作用。目的是什麼？一種素的美乃滋，營養與雞蛋做的美乃滋相同。

Beyond Meat’s proteins come from yellow peas, mustard seeds and camellia, among other plants, and yeast. A chili made from the company’s imitation-beef Crumbles that Mr. Brown brought for a reporter to sample tasted no different from one made with ground chuck.
「超凡肉」的蛋白質來自黃豌豆、芥茉籽和亞麻薺，以及其他植物和酵母。布朗把公司的Crumbles假牛肉做的燉辣肉醬拿給記者嘗，味道與碎牛肉做的沒差別。

Mr. Brown knows that his meat substitutes and others must gain acceptance from mainstream consumers. “Our business is to create something better than meat,” he said, “otherwise we are not going to move the needle.”
布朗知道，他的肉類替代品和其他產品必須獲得主流消費者接受。他說：「我們的事業是創造比肉還要好的東西，否則我們不能改變什麼。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/business/meat-alternatives-on-the-plate-and-in-the-portfolio.html

2014-05-06聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版下