Subject: Re: OT: Hershey
Jim re:
"If it's not cocoa bean based, it's not cocoa butter. What's that word they use to describe a statement that isn't true...?"

Sorry I should have provided more context around precision fermentation. That was just a link to one company I found doing it.

Precision fermentation is what they use to create "real" human insulin, that's not "human based". My understanding is that they take the appropriate protein DNA and splice it into yeast. Then they feed yeast and the yeast produce that particular protein. I'm not sure how it works for fat but I assume there's a similar pathway?

According to a recent presentation I watched by Tony Seba, it looks like in the next five to ten years precision fermentation is going to continue to get cheaper to the point that it will be cheaper to produce precision specific proteins and other foods from big vats of yeast (like they do with beer) than from the original source. The actual proteins will be molecularly the same since they will be produced from the original DNA.

One of the first markets that will likely be disrupted is the dairy industry as they will be able to produce whey and casein, the two main proteins from milk (and something like 3% of the milk by weight or volume), at a much higher efficiency than it can be retrieved from cows. Tony Seba thinks this could lead to about a third of the cow farming industry to be decimated but time will tell...