Students Develop Plant-Based Burger That Mimics Salmon

New food-technology startup Terramino Foods recently developed a vegan salmon burger that mimics the taste and nutritional profile of its animal-based counterpart. Founders Kimberlie Le and Joshua Nixon began working on the concept while attending the “Plant-Based Seafood Collider” course at the University of California, Berkeley and perfected the product during Indiebio’s four-month incubator program. Terramino creates the cruelty-free salmon by using plant-based ingredients (primarily koji fungus and algae) and a growth medium to mimic the muscle fibers of animals, but without animal cells. Media outlet Fast Company compared Terramino’s burger to a salmon-based version it sourced from Whole Foods Market and found the two to be indistinguishable. Terramino plans to debut its first vegan products, a filet and a burger, by the end of the year. In 2019, the team hopes to increase production to sell its products—which will include other vegan seafood alternatives and fungi-based meat replacements—at cost parity, and, eventually, for a lower price than animal-based foods.