Solein Protein: My Thoughts On Thin Air Nutrition

Is Solein From Thin Air The Future Food? Solar Foods First Tasting

The notion of creating protein from air seemed impossible. At first, I thought it was a marketing tactic. I was intrigued but doubtful. Green Queen's editor-in-chief asked me to try Solein protein, created out of air, and share my thoughts. I agreed. It was a historic first tasting.

I didn't search about Solar Foods before the tasting. I wanted to make my own opinion without any biases.

I think about fake meat for eco-friendly diets when I hear about alternative proteins. I asked Solar Foods which meat they are emulating and how the texture is. They looked at me strangely, and I realized I was mistaken. Solein isn't making artificial meat. I felt ashamed of my lack of knowledge.

What's Solein? It comes "from thin air," but what does that mean? One main thing caught my attention: its appearance. It's a beautiful golden powder, similar to the rose in "Beauty and the Beast."

I looked at a microbe product made through fermentation, like kombucha or beer. They use renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then feed the microbes CO2 and nutrients. These microbes turn into a dry powder called Solein, which is orange. The Chief Commercial Officer compared it to making protein with a SodaStream machine.

Solein is mostly made of protein, around 65-70%. It also contains a bit of fat (5-8%), dietary fibres (10-15%) and minerals (3-5%). Solein has a lot of the same nutrients as soy or algae. It has iron and B vitamins, which are important for your body. Usually, they come from animal products.

Solein is good, but does it taste good? We tried it and it's not bad. You can taste a bit of butter and nuts, like flour with taste.

I tasted Solein in different ways at Fico. It's a new restaurant owned by The Lo & Behold Group. Two chefs, Oliver Truesdale Jutras and Michelin-starred Mirko Febbrile, made the dishes for the tasting menu. They're both leaders in the future of food.

Chefs Oliver and Mirko got to use Solein powder in a challenge. They created a vegan meal. The first dish was Ozoni Misolein Soup in the Kansai-style.

The chefs served Ozoni soup first at the event. It's a traditional Japanese dish for New Year's Day. The event was all about the future of food. The soup was light orange and salty. It had an umami taste which is savory. It wasn't clear if the taste came from the soup or Solein. But it was tasty and I finished all of it.

Next up was the Solein Pasta With Singapore Pesto. Chef Mirko showed us how they made the pasta with Solein in liquid form. He also said they can change the texture to make it like egg yolk. I saw for myself how this works when I played with the pasta on the countertop. We didn't eat that though. The pasta was really tasty and salty. My friends also tasted some laksa leaves in it.

The third dish was yummy Smoked Pumpkin and Solein Salted Egg Sauce. Solein sauce had a creamy taste with a spice of curry leaves, which matched the pumpkin's buttery essence. Pumpkin was like steak and dipping it in the sauce filled us up. It was soft, and I didn't feel like eating meat after having it. Adding chilli padi could level up the taste.

I missed two dishes, but I was interested in how Solein taste can stand out in light dishes like bean curd and ice cream. These dishes don't have strong flavors like the sauces in previous dishes.

Solein is different from other protein brands because it's in powder form. Other brands face problems with texture and flavour, but Solein doesn't. It can blend easily with different flavours, so it's hard to tell it apart from other foods.

Solein passed the flavour test, but is it environmentally friendly? My environmentalist brain is thinking. Is the solar-powered powder sustainable?

Many in the alternative protein industry aim to create substitutes for animal protein that don't harm the planet, our health, or animals.

All food production needs electricity. Even if we use less land and water for cultivated meat. But fossil fuels make most electricity. We have to stop using them to fight the climate crisis.

Studies have found that microbial protein production's impact on the environment is tied to electricity usage. If clean energy sources are used, the greenhouse gas emissions could be lessened. That's where Solein comes in, as it gets its power from the sun (which is why the product and company share the same name).

Solein is called the world's most sustainable protein by the company. They believe it has the biggest potential to change food production.

Solar Foods was started in 2017 by academics and researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University. They want to free protein production from traditional farming. Solar Foods is creating a commercial production facility. Their product, Solein, will be produced in 2024.

Solar Foods got approval from Singapore for its novel food in September 2022. They chose Singapore for their first taste launch. The CEO compared their product to the discovery of potatoes in South America. It is a new ingredient for the world of food. He said it is a big moment for how we think about food.

I ate good food and wondered if only rich people eat alternative protein. Chefs said fancy places serve it, but it needs to be available to everyone. They used local ingredients to make it easy to try for regular people.

Could Solein replace all other proteins? I'm not sure if I would buy it yet, but I do think it has potential to be a common ingredient. It's a subtle enhancer for meals, and it would be great in food establishments. But, it will need more funding to produce it in larger quantities.

Alternative protein technology got me genuinely excited for the first time! I'm so honored to taste Solein before anyone else. Congrats on the launch and welcome to Singapore!