In partnership with award-winning chef Greg Baxtrom and his acclaimed New York City restaurant Olmsted, Finnish food company Solar Foods unveils its groundbreaking Solein protein, which was discovered in nature and is produced with air and electricity, resulting in one of the most sustainable, nutritious and adaptable food ingredients ever discovered.
Discovered in Nordic nature, Solein is a nutritious protein-rich powder, made up of a single-cell organism that is grown with carbon dioxide and hydrogen, completely independent of land use and agriculture. Taking the form of a flour-like powder, the protein can be used as a nutritional ingredient in everything from pasta to beverages to ice cream, as it blends into both savory and sweet foods. Solein can be used to replace existing proteins in a variety of foods, for example in alternative dairy and meat, or in different snacks and beverages, noodles and pasta, breads and spreads. With its mild, umami flavor, Solein also enriches and deepens the natural character of different foods and products. It also has an unmatched nutritional profile, composed of 75% protein, along with dietary fibers, unsaturated fats, minerals and vitamins including iron and B12.
Unlike other comparable proteins, Solein does not rely on agriculture at all, and instead requires only renewable energy, airborne materials, and a small amount of minerals - the same ones a plant would take with its roots from the soil - for its production, offering an exciting answer to many of the food production problems humanity faces. As the first ever food ingredient at this production scale, whose production is disconnected from the limits of traditional agriculture, Solein has the potential to drastically transform what we eat and where food can be produced.
