Farm to fungi: UC Davis researchers turn food waste into more sustainable foods
DAVIS — You've heard of trash to treasure, but what about fungi to food?
It's waste to what's next when it comes to sustainability.
Inside a lab at UC Davis, researchers are perfecting a product by using a microprocessor to take food waste and turn it into fuel in less than a week.
"The goal is to achieve zero waste, so we can use products from agriculture and convert them to food and other valuable products," Professor Ruihong Zhang told CBS Sacramento.
Zhang pioneered the process, which she says is all-natural and safe. It's based on data showing more than a third of food is wasted globally. She showed us the types of agricultural by-products used, which are thrown away or used for livestock.
"The cost is low and very competitive and affordable, and especially, this Myco Food has high protein content, high dietary fiber and low fat," Zhang said. "So it's healthy, nutritious and sustainable food."
But it's not just about sustainability.
"This is about saving a species as well because sturgeon are endangered," said grad student Minami Ogawa. "We don't have to kill a fish. We can just keep replicating cells and create delicious caviar."
Ogawa and fellow grad student Cody Yothers co-founded Optimized Foods, a spinoff company of UC Davis that leverages technologies developed in the lab. They are using the fungi to create cultured meat from sturgeon.
"Growing animal cells on these mycelium structures, which we call scaffolds or microcarriers, it allows animal cells to grow and make a product like cultured caviar," Ogawa said.
They're using what would be trash and turning it into one of the most expensive foods in the world.
"Right now, it's certainly more expensive," "As technology develops, it has the promise to be, at least price parity over time."
The research team is looking at profitability and large-scale commercial production to bring this cutting-edge technology mainstream.
Optimized Foods is currently in discussion with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on approval for their cultured caviar.