Artificial Intelligence Now Being Used To Create Realistic Fake Meat
A burger has been made using artificial intelligence in the wake of increased demands for meat-free alternatives.
A Swiss company has successfully created a burger using artificial intelligence (AI), and it looks identical to what you’d expect a beef burger to look like.
Veganism has been on the rise in recent years, leading to sales in meat-free alternatives skyrocketing. Fast food giant Burger King even announced last month that it was opening a store that would only sell 100% vegan products.
Firmenich, who created the AI burger, is described as one of the world’s leading flavour manufacturers, and insists that creating meat-free alternatives isn’t just about flavour, texture and colour, but how the product responds to being cooked, and what it’s like to eat.
Speaking about its new burger, Emmanuel Butstraen, head of Firmenich’s flavours unit, said, ‘Finding a protein that resembles meat from a vegetable protein is highly complex.’
Faux meat’s aftertaste is often an issue as pea proteins some veggie burgers are made from can leave a bitter taste, Phys.org reports. In a bid to mask this bitter flavour, Firmenich’s aromatic experts have been adding other tastes.
9 months agoJerome Barra, the company’s innovation director, further explained that vegetable proteins sometimes give off hints of apple and pear, an aftertaste of beans, and astringency or even a feeling of dryness.
Barra isn’t too concerned about this, however, as he says AI ‘can generate millions of possibilities’ thanks to their innovative algorithm, which can create a wide range of flavour combinations. He compared their database to ‘a piano with 5,000 keys’, from which millions of possibilities can be created. Flavour combinations are suggested by the AI, before chefs road-test them in the kitchen.
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Topics: Food, AI, Artificial Intelligence, burger, Burger King, Now, Technology
