Tender Food's chicken and pork as used in the bowls on Clover's menu.Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A local company is using a similar process as making cotton candy and re-growing human heart muscle to make a plant-based meat product that area restaurants have started serving to customers.
Breakthroughs in how some food products are developed have led to companies coming up with ingenious ways of making new, healthier food items such as meatless meat.
A start-up in Somerville called 'Tender Food' with its roots at Harvard has figured out a way to engineer plant material into meat substitute dishes.
Tender Food Scientist Sankita Vasikaran said they have developed a plant-based meat product with just the right texture by using a machine similar to one that makes a sweet treat. "Think of it like a cotton candy machine," she said. "Instead of putting in sugar, we put in plant protein, and we get these nice long plant fibers."
She said those plant fibers are used to make the meat substitute product so that it has a similar texture as real meat.
The process is also similar to the one that re-grows human heart muscle.
While experts say the vegetarian meat industry is still evolving, Tender Food is already experiencing some commercial success with its products now being offered at Boston-area restaurants such as Clover.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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