A Minor Perk of A Post-Animal-Testing World

I am a fan of molecular gastronomy, where cooks use scientific understanding and new technology to make better and more novel food.  In a moment of half-baked entrepreneurial spirit, I wondered if the techniques for drug discovery could be applied to developing new flavorings.  So in the same way that the side chain on the penicillin molecule is varied to create benzylpenicillin and phenoxymethylpenicillin, I wondered if one could take vanillin and modify it.  I know there already exists ethylvanillin, but what about butylvanillin, pentylvanillin, or putting something crazier on there?  I think the market for novel capsaicinoids would be immense, especially if one could boost the heat.

Those of you more into the wilds more than the lab, could use a chemical prospecting approach.  There are more than 1,740,330 species of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and archaea, and humanity has yet to taste them all.  Especially archaea, which to my knowledge none are eaten by humans intentionally.  Some of the inedible/poisonous ones could still have interesting flavor compounds developed through evolutionary processes.

But I bumped into a hurdle that would be pretty big even without involving my ethics.  Before putting a new chemical in food, it needs safety testing just like a drug would.  I know many labs dread the whole FDA approval process, and that's for life-saving drugs and not frivolities like funny flavors.  Personally, I do not think all those animal lives are worth it.

The science of toxicology is still very young, as evidenced by the century-old animal testing methods still in practice.  But as I have brought to your attention on a few occasions, science is slowly progressing to cheaper, more accurate, and less cruel models of testing.  As with other technological advancements like the Internet and plastics, many other advancements follow as a result.  I think that with the advancement of animal-free tox testing one of the results will be more food options.  Perhaps some new kind of algae, chytrid, or other wee thing we can grow in bulk.

In the long meantime before that day, we'll have to settle for self-testing with 'universal' edibilty tests or by desperation at times of famine. Of course, those of you that forage know that the number of edible plants, protists, and fungi far exceeds what is at the mega-mart.  So you really have no excuse for not trying something new, and living part of the dream today.

Meat Glue Used for Evil

I don't hide the fact that I'm a fan of molecular gastronomy.  I like experimentation, that's why I'm all sciency.  Plus I like food, hence the vegany.  So when a friend showed me this article on The Dangers of Meat Glue and Processed Meat, I was pretty intrigued.

I've seen chefs make meat noodles and all sorts of strange things with transglutaminase (b.k.a. meat glue, though it really should be called protein glue), and I even had an idea to make reverse pasta where I make pasta out of tomatoes (and no flour) and then make a sauce from polenta or farina.  It basically cross-links glutamine-containing protein strands to make one big protein blob.

The above article and video show that some companies and restaurants are using transglutaminase in disreputable ways.  Or atleast alludes to it.  I agree that selling chicken nuggets as prime cuts of meat is shady and possibly already illegal.  However, I think the health risks may be overblown.

First, unlike with transfats there is no health risk from simply eating these 'glued' proteins.  Humans have enzymes to break down these crosslinks, which occur naturally in many proteins we eat.


Although I do agree that the risks of contamination are multiplied, this risk is background to most meat eaters.  Eating fishballs at an Asian restaurant, which is made with transglutaminase, does not show any large risk of disease.  A more apt analogy for Western diets is ground beef, which is made form unglued bits of countless animals.  We know it's made from low-quality meat, and it has shown a higher risk for contamination, but most people eat it anyways. 

The real contamination risk is the meat itself, and the sum total of shady practices of which using meat glue to sell remnants is such a tiny fraction of the horrible and unhealthy things that happen.  It's like shunning the late Osama bin Laden (or أسامة بن لادن) for picking his nose.  Plus they have vegan fishballs that taste great to me.

One last note for vegan molecular gastronomers (and protein biochemists) who may have missed it in the viddie:  Transglutaminase can come from bacterial sources, but can also be derived from swine and bovine blood as a slaughterhouse byproduct.  So check with your manufacturer.  Let me know if you hear anything about brands/products that are vegan and I'll post them.