美初創企業欲研製"植物蛋"取代雞蛋

The ordinary chicken egg is one the world's most perfect foods. Eggs are a cheap, abundant, delicious source of protein. They're also extremely flexible, capable of performing as many as 22 different culinary functions in a wide array of foods.

貌不驚人的雞蛋是世界上最完美的食品之一。雞蛋不僅是便宜、豐富且美味的蛋白質來源，而且可以變化多端，能夠在大量的食品中發揮多達22種不同的烹飪功能。

In cakes, eggs trap gasses in the batter, creating a light, airy texture. In mayonnaise, egg yolks stabilize an emulsion of oil and an acid. In a meatloaf, they bind disparate ingredients together. In a custard, they thicken liquids to form a gel.

在製作蛋糕時，雞蛋能鎖住麪糊中的空氣，製造出輕盈而蓬鬆的質地。在做蛋黃醬時，蛋黃能穩定油酸乳狀液。在做肉餅時，雞蛋將不同的原料黏合在一起。在製作奶黃時，雞蛋能使液體凝固成膠狀。

There's only one problem with eggs. 'They are fantastically inefficient, ' said Josh Tetrick, the founder of a San Francisco food-technology startup called Hampton Creek Foods, only he uses an F-word other than 'fantastically.'

雞蛋只有一個缺點。舊金山食品科技初創企業Hampton Creek Foods的創始人蒂特里克(Josh Tetrick)說，它們的效率極爲低下。

Egg production is the fastest-growing segment of intensive agriculture as demand skyrockets in emerging economies. Mr. Tetrick points out that 1.8 trillion eggs are laid globally each year, and chicken feed--much of it soy and corn, which require vast amounts of land, water, and fossil fuels to grow--accounts for 70% of the cost of an egg.

隨着新興經濟體雞蛋需求的飆升，生產雞蛋成了集約農業中增長最快的領域。蒂特里克指出，全球每年生產的雞蛋爲1.8萬億個，而其中雞飼料就佔到雞蛋成本的70%。雞飼料大多爲大豆和玉米，生長過程中需要大量土地、水和礦物燃料。

Mr. Tetrick thinks he can do better. He has secured financing from some of the tech industry's largest venture backers to do what most egg-loving foodies, myself included, consider both sacrilegious and impossible: He wants to replace the chicken egg with plant-based protein sources.

蒂特里克認爲他能製造出比雞蛋更好的食品。他已從科技行業規模最大的幾家風投公司那裏獲得了融資，打算將這些資金用來做一件在大多數愛好雞蛋的美食家（包括我自己在內）看來是褻瀆神明也是不可能的事情，那就是用來自植物的蛋白質取代雞蛋。

Actually, that's underselling the goal: Hampton Creek wants to 'surpass' the egg, to make eggless foods that taste better, are free of cholesterol, last longer on the shelf, are more ecologically sustainable and humane, and are far cheaper than their eggy counterparts.

實際上，說取代還是低估了Hampton Creek的目標。該公司希望“超越”雞蛋，不用雞蛋做出口感更好、沒有膽固醇、保存時間更長、從生態方面更加可持續和更人道的食品，而且這些食品的價格要比用雞蛋做出來的食品便宜得多。

This is a gargantuan goal, and Mr. Tetrick concedes that the company isn't close to achieving it. But Hampton Creek is far enough along to illustrate the power of what you might call 'food engineering.'

這是一個宏偉的目標，蒂特里克也承認，他的公司還沒有接近實現這一目標。不過，Hampton Creek已經做足了功課，充分展示了你可以稱之爲“食品工程”的力量。

To create its eggless products, the company's battalion of biochemists, food scientists, and software engineers are modeling their efforts on processes first used in drug companies and the tech industry. If their plan works--and my taste buds suggest it might--Hampton Creek may show how the software and biotech industries' innovation techniques might alter sectors far beyond.

爲了製造出不含雞蛋的產品，該公司由生物化學家、食品科學家和軟件工程師組成的團隊正在模仿最初用於製藥公司和科技行業的研發程序。如果他們的計劃能成功（我的味蕾暗示他們或許會成功），Hampton Creek或許將向世人展示軟件和生物科技行業的創新科技將如何改變衆多其他行業。

Take Hampton Creek's cookie dough, which will go on sale in February. In a blind test, I was able to tell the difference between Mr. Tetrick's cookies and those containing eggs.

說說Hampton Creek將在2月份推向市場的曲奇餅吧。我在一次盲試中能夠嚐出蒂特里克做的曲奇和用雞蛋做的曲奇之間的不同之處。

The eggy ones were slightly browner. Yet I preferred the eggless cookie's taste and texture. They weren't too sweet, were slightly salty, and achieved just the right balance between crunchy and chewy.

加入了雞蛋的曲奇略爲粗糙一些。不過，我更喜歡不加雞蛋的曲奇的味道和質感。這些曲奇不是太甜，略帶鹹味，而且咀嚼起來的脆軟程度正好合適。

And the cookies are almost a side-benefit of the dough. Because the dough has no eggs, you don't even have to bother baking it. Indeed, Hampton Creek's product is called Eat the Dough. It comes in a carton with a spoon set in the lid, like something you'd buy from the ice-cream man.

而且曲奇可以說是麪糰的附帶產品。由於麪糰中不含雞蛋，你甚至都沒必要去烘焙麪糰。實際上，Hampton Creek的產品叫做“吃麪團”( Eat the Dough)。這種產品裝在紙盒中，盒蓋上附有勺子，和你從冰淇淋店買的冰淇淋類似。

Mr. Tetrick grew up in Birmingham, Ala., on a diet of 'chicken wings and gristle.' He's now a vegan and, while animal welfare was part of his motivation for founding Hampton Creek, he has been careful to play down that goal for his company . 'That's a losing proposition in the marketplace,' he said.

蒂特里克在亞拉巴馬州伯明翰長大，經常吃“雞翅和脆骨”。他現在是素食主義者。雖然動物福利是他創辦Hampton Creek的動力之一，但他爲了公司謹慎地淡化這一目標。他說，動物福利在市場上是個日薄西山的主題。

For Mr. Tetrick there are many more hard-nosed reasons for creating a better egg substitute. To borrow a favorite tech-industry slight, eggs can't scale.

對於蒂特里克來說，創造更好的雞蛋替代品還有衆多實際的理由。借用科技行業常說的一句話，雞蛋無法規模化。

He argues that they require too many resources for their production to grow indefinitely. And he has persuaded several tech luminaries to join his mission. Hampton Creek's investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.

他說，雞蛋的生產需要太多的資源才能無限增長。他已經說服了幾位科技行業明星加入他的使命。Hampton Creek的投資者包括科斯拉創投(Khosla Ventures)、比爾?蓋茨(Bill Gates)和彼得?蒂爾(Peter Thiel)的創達基金(Founders Fund)。

Altogether, Hampton Creek has raised $6 million, with which Mr. Tetrick believes it can eventually render eggs 'obsolete' across every dimension, including price. At the moment, Hampton Creek's egg replacement costs about 39 cents a pound, about half the price of a pound of liquid eggs.

Hampton Creek總計已經籌資600萬美元，蒂特里克相信其最終能憑藉這筆資金在各方面淘汰雞蛋，包括價格。目前，Hampton Creek的雞蛋替代品價格約爲每磅39美分，約爲一磅去殼蛋價格的一半。

'We want to drive the price through the floor so radically that it would be silly to consider anything else,' he said.

他說，我們希望將價格壓到極低，以至考慮其他任何產品都是愚蠢的。

How can Hampton Creek do that? Josh Klein, its director of biochemistry R&D, likens the company's egg-replacing strategy to the process a drug company might use to fight disease. Every day, the lab screens dozens of new plant species in search of applications that might be similar to those of eggs. Armed with the database, they mix and match plants to create new, eggless foods. Then, they prototype, taste, and repeat.

Hampton Creek怎樣才能實現這一點？該公司生化研發主任約什?克萊恩(Josh Klein)將其取代雞蛋的策略比作藥品公司可能用於對抗疾病的過程。實驗室每天篩選數十種新的植物種類，尋找可能與雞蛋相似的用途。他們利用數據庫，將不同植物混合配對，創造新的不含雞蛋的食品。然後他們製造出原型、品嚐並重復這個過程。

In a way, Hampton Creek is treating food like software, borrowing various bits of code from different kinds of plants.

在某種程度上，Hampton Creek是將食品當成了軟件，從不同種類的植物那裏借用了不同的代碼。

It's a novel, mathematical way to think about food--one that confounds the sensibilities of those who reject 'processed foods' but may ultimately realize the dream of providing sustainable, tasty, healthy and affordable food for the entire planet.

這是一種思考食物的新奇數學方式――它令那些拒絕“加工食品”的人感到挫敗，但或許最終會實現爲地球上的所有人提供可持續、美味、健康、負擔得起的食品的夢想。

So far the results are quite good. Hampton Creek discovered a specific kind of yellow pea that has fantastic powers of emulsion, leading to a mayonnaise that the firm claims beats leading brands in taste tests.

到目前爲止，實驗結果很不錯。Hampton Creek發現了一種特殊的具有極強乳化效力的黃色豆子，該公司聲稱，用這種豆子製造的蛋黃醬在品嚐測試中打敗了領先品牌的產品。

I found the texture exquisitely creamy and, compared with eggy store-bought mayo, Hampton Creek's mayo had a cleaner, less aggressive flavor profile.

我發現這種醬的口感極爲柔滑，而且比起帶有蛋腥味的市售蛋黃醬，Hampton Creek製造的蛋黃醬的口味較爲清淡，不那麼衝。

Mr. Tetrick says that, in large quantities, he can make eggless mayo 10% cheaper than conventional egg mayo. Driven by price, many Whole Foods stores across the country have switched to Hampton Creek's mayo in their store-prepared foods (like the potato salad). But at retail, Hampton Creek's mayo isn't very cheap: It sells for $3.50 or $4.49 a jar at most Whole Foods stores. That's about the same price as egg-based mayo, but Mr. Tetrick says that Hampton Creek has room to cut its prices substantially.

蒂特里克說，如果大批生產的話，不含蛋的蛋黃醬可以比傳統蛋黃醬便宜10%。在價格驅動下，美國各地很多Whole Foods門店都在自制食品（比如土豆沙拉）中改用了Hampton Creek的蛋黃醬。但Hampton Creek的蛋黃醬零售價格不算便宜：在大多數Whole Foods門店的售價爲每罐3.5或4.49美元。這與用雞蛋製作的蛋黃醬差不多，但蒂特里克說，Hampton Creek還有大幅降價的空間。

The company's next goal is to make an eggless liquid that, when fried, turns into scrambled eggs. Right now, the product is in the prototype stage. One of Hampton Creek's scientists cooked up a plate for me, and I found the fake scramble slightly rubbery and grainy, more like a spongy crepe than an egg.

該公司的下一個目標是製造一種可以做成炒雞蛋的不含蛋液體。目前，這一產品尚處於原型階段。Hampton Creek的一位科學家爲我炒了一盤，我覺得這種仿製的炒雞蛋有點韌性，吃起來疙疙瘩瘩的，更像是蓬鬆的可麗餅，而不像雞蛋。

But Mr. Tetrick says he believes that it won't be long till the company creates the perfect eggless scramble. 'The chicken is great, but it isn't getting any better,' he said. In other words, it's a sitting duck.

但蒂特里克說，他認爲公司用不了多久就能創造出完美的無蛋炒雞蛋。他說，雞蛋很不錯，但已經沒有改進餘地。換句話說，要勝過它是輕而易舉的。