A natural protein produced from carbon dioxide and renewable electricity, which is ‘100 times more climate-friendly than meat and ten times better than plants’ could fix many of the global challenges we currently face.

That’s the suggestion from Pasi Vainikka, Co-Founder and CEO of Solar Foods, who spoke to ELN about the pioneering discovery of the Solein protein, which he suggests could revolutionise the food chain as we know it.

He said: “Our bioprocess is similar to wine and beer making. But instead of using sugar, we use bubbles of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Our protein can be the next big competitor in the meat market and the basic difference that our technology has is that we disconnect food from agriculture. We are not dependent on the availability of agricultural land.”

He also suggests that the ‘neutral-flavour’ protein as a potential ingredient on food products would make them cheaper than the usual meat and plant-based products and could hit the shelves by the end of next year.