The screen itself, which is a small and completely mundane LCD, sits below a thin transparent film. That film comes off of a roller, over the top of the LCD’s surface, and onto another output roller (where it will, presumably, be stored until disposal). Between licks, the rollers spin to advance fresh film onto the screen.

That roller system is also key to how the system dispenses flavors for you to taste. Before the film slides in front of the LCD, it sits in a chamber. In that chamber, there are a handful of aerosolized flavors. Those are “five basic tastes” (plus a few extras, apparently) which the machine can combine to create the full spectrum of flavor — theoretically, at least. It’s similar how the LCD itself can produce the full visible color spectrum using just red, blue, and green subpixels. In reality, I have my doubts that these flavor sprays can actually create convincing approximations of real foods.

Researchers at Columbia have used multi-wavelength lasers to cook 3D-printed chicken. Apparently, it tastes like chicken. We were not overly surprised that 3D printed chicken protein cooked up to taste like chicken, but, then again, you have to do the science.

https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/news/now-were-cooking-lasers

Expect Fungi-Based Steak On Your Plate By 2022: Meati Raises $50 Million
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2021/07/06/expect-fungi-based-steak-on-your-plate-by-2022-meati-raises-50-million/?sh=4daa1bbd3264&utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflowForbesMainFB

The race to commercialize the best-tasting alternatives to meat is starting to sizzle: A mushroom-based startup headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, called “Meati,” just raised $50 million.

How The Better Meat Co. Is Turning Tiny Organisms Into Plant-Based Meat
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetforgrieve/2021/06/08/how-the-better-meat-co-is-turning-tiny-organisms-into-plant-based-meat/

The Better Meat Co. is using a fermentation process to create a realistic plant-based meat alternative that can replicate ground meats or whole muscle cuts. The Better Meat Co.

Today’s plant-based food companies are clear on the fact that they’ll need to win over flexitarians to succeed rather than just appealing to the tiny percentage of the population that’s already vegetarian or vegan.

The Sacramento-based B2B company makes plant-based ingredients for companies that turn them into either 100% plant-based meat, seafood and poultry alternatives or blended products that replace a portion of the animal meat with the plant-based alternative. 

“We only sell plant-based formulations, both to plant-based companies and also to animal- based companies. Our goal is to help the food industry use fewer animals,” co-founder and CEO Paul Shapiro says.

On Tuesday, the three-year-old company unveiled its newest product, a fermented plant-based ingredient called Rhiza. Rhiza is made by feeding potatoes and sorghum to a specific type of microflora, in a fermentation set-up that resembles a brewery operation, Shapiro explains. The process can create pounds of the plant-based ingredient in several hours, and the end product has a neutral flavor and texture that lends itself to everything from ground meat to whole muscle cuts, he says. 

Rhiza is high in protein, iron and fiber, the company says, and the only production limitation is sourcing the quantity of sorghum and potatoes needed to keep fermentation going full-time. 

The Better Meat Co. built its business on a signature product that is actually made with peas, algae and a few other plant ingredients, and the the products are tailored to the type of meat, poultry or seafood product the customer plans to produce. 

The process isn’t unusual in the industry — most plant-based meats are made with protein from either soy, wheat or peas, Shapiro says. The ingredients work, but the process of growing and harvesting the crop, milling it into a powder and isolating it to increase the protein content is time consuming and making it mimic the texture of animal meat has been a big challenge.

Rhiza, the new product unveiled today, provides a way to overcome those challenges and time constraints, Shapiro says.

“We use a microflora and we feed it common ingredients, and [the process] converts those common ingredients into a product that’s naturally textured like meat,” he says. “We create a meat textured product simply through fermentation of common ingredients. You can take it out of the fermenter and add oils and flavors and turn it into a finished product.”

Shapiro has been vegan for 30 years and is the author of the 2018 book “Clean Meat” about the quest to grow meat without animals. 

“Basically I was concerned that meat consumption continues to be on the rise,” he says. “Despite a rising awareness of the problems associated with raising animals for food, demand for meat continues to rise. Despite all the progress being made in the plant-based meat sector, we have never raised more animals for food than we do today.”