Voice on air: JODY PUGLISI – From plant-based meat and beyond

Nowadays, we can find plant-based products in any supermarket, as the demand is constantly increasing among consumers. This leads many companies to invest in research and innovation to develops new products that must satisfy some determined features, such as taste, texture, and price. We had the chance to learn more about plant proteins and ingredients with Jody Puglisi, professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University, who has worked as a scientific advisor for the then small start-up Beyond Meat, in the development of their iconic Beyond Burger.

1. Hi Jody, thank you very much for accepting our proposal interview. We know that you’re currently teaching structural biology, investigating the role of RNA in cellular processes and disease. But you have been interested also in the field of plant-based proteins, which is the focus of this interview. Could you tell us how you became interested in this theme?

I have long studied the physical basis for how biological molecules function, but never thought about applying that knowledge to foods. I had long provided advice to biotechnology companies on building their R&D teams to tackle complex problems. In 2014, I was asked by colleagues to help a small, struggling company called Beyond Meat, that wanted to form plant proteins into plant-based meat. I was excited about the idea and agreed to help them build their program. That started a deep, 6-year engagement where we applied simple ideas of science and engineering to develop plant-based meat products. Most fun of all, you can eat your experiments!

2. Could you tell us more about your experience as a scientific advisor at Beyond Meat? How came up with the idea of this plant-based meat? And how consumers firstly reacted to this product?

Like all great scientific ideas, there is no one person or moment where this idea came to fruition. This is the mythology of science, of the lone genius inventor. In reality, there already were plant-based meat substitutes already sold, but they were not very good, were sold frozen, and just did not look like meat. Our approach was to use plant-based ingredients and mimic the full experience of eating meat: from the appearance raw that you see at a butcher shop, to the raw texture, the aroma and color changes while cooking, and the final taste, texture, and eating experience of the product. We initially applied this approach to reconstitute the hamburger, which has a central place in American food, and is widely sold. Like any new food product, we required multiple trials, iterations and sensory testing before confronting consumers. However, once in the marketplace, there was great excitement about the products. Part of success is timing—the consumers of the world, especially younger consumers, were aware of the risks of meat consumption and sustainability of meat production and were willing to try something new. Timing, as in many aspects of life, is everything.

3. What do you think about the current situation in the plant-based market? What kind of development do you think will occur in the future in the field of plant-based food?

Obviously, this is an exciting time for plant-based foods. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are selling products and expanding throughout the world. Oatley just did an IPO, and plant-based milks are hugely successful. There are many new start-ups in the sector, and many copycat products being introduced almost weekly. To me the biggest challenge remains making plant-based foods that are indistinguishable from the animal version. This requires improvements in all aspects of plant-based products: texture, functionality, flavors and off-flavors, color, color transitions, creating connective tissue.

4. What do you think are the major challenges for plant-based ingredients and food producers? And how to overcome them?

There are several major issues with plant-based ingredients that must be addressed. Of course, price is important, as plant-based products should be less expensive or at least at price parity with their animal equivalents. Another major issue would be guaranteed supply—there cannot be major fluctuations in supply amounts, quality or price. Finally, producers should improve the functionality of plant-based ingredients. Most such products were originally waste streams for starch or oil production or were not developed with the plant-based food market in mind. New ingredients should embrace the needs of the final plant-based products.

5. What can we expect from Science in the next five years in this field? And you, if you had to make a wish, what would be your dream discovery in alternative proteins?

Science is moving at a remarkable pace. We will continue to see the application of “omics” approaches to all aspects of the food system, and plant biology in general. These include whole genome sequencing, proteomics and metabolomics approaches at the global organism level down to single cells. This granular knowledge coupled with advances in imaging will allow us to understand the growth and control of plants to produce our desired outcomes. Efficient genome editing approaches will allow plant biologists to tailor or change the compositions final products with unprecedented flexibility.  Synthetic biology approaches will allow construction of organisms from scratch, whether to produce proteins or other biological products through fermentation, or to create new vehicles for protein production. Computational methods will continue to grow in importance, with machine learning and other AI approaches being integral to understanding and designing biological systems.  This is an amazing time to be working on biology.

What is most missing in plant-based proteins is an alternative to connective tissue or collagen. A protein or mixture from plants that mimic connective tissue would be a fantastic discovery.