• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Departments
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
    • Aerospace program
    • Engineering Science program
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Commencement
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Space reservations
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Buildings & facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • New students
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • New students
    • Advising & counseling
    • ESS programs
    • CAEE academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • > Degree requirements
    • > Policies & procedures
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
    • Sustainability and resiliency
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > Lab to table

Lab to table

Cover of the Spring 2017 Berkeley Engineer magazine, featuring Costas Spanos biking past the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
May 1, 2017
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Spring 2017
  • In this issue
    Students with 3D printer waste

    Smart moves

    Cartoon from story on campus startups

    Startups on campus

    Dean Shankar Sastry introduces a faculty panel at a Dean’s Society event

    Dean's word

    Upfront

    • Lab to table
    • Carol Christ named chancellor
    • Crowdfunding disperses capital
    • Boosting robotics in manufacturing
    • Exercising with Cal Fitness
    • Q+A on resilient communities
    • Comments
    • High jump
    • Reading minds
    • Safer transfusions
    • The rule-breaker
    • Small wonder

    Alumni notes

    • NAE Class of 2017
    • Four alumni named to Forbes' 30­-Under­-30 list
    • Shielding ice sheets
    • New UC Davis chancellor
    • Bob Jewett's double life
    • Farewell
  • Past issues

From plant to meat in 5 steps1. SOY: Most commercially available plant-based meat alternatives start as soybeans.
2. REDUCTION: Harvested soybeans undergo a chemical de-fattening process to isolate protein by removing soy oil.
3. POWDER: Soy isolate is reduced to powder, like the kind commonly found in vegan protein shakes. Protein is a critical part of meat, but studying other components, such as fat and collagen, helps researchers reverse-engineer the flavor and texture of cooked meat.
4. TEXTURIXING: Animal protein comes from muscle and is organized in straight lines. Plant protein, like soy, is erratically shaped. A mechanical extruder is used to make plant protein fibers behave more like animal protein — a crucial, difficult step that may vary from stock to stock.
5. CHEF: The resulting plant-based meat product looks like manicured chicken strips. To best mimic meat, the flavor and texture should be artfully prepared.
Making a plant-based substitute to replace energy- and resource-intensive factory-farmed meat is among the latest challenges taken up by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET). This semester, 45 students are studying the market dynamics of plant-based protein and trying to create vegetarian options that look, feel and taste like real meat but are more environmentally sustainable.

Factory-farmed meat accounts for about a quarter of global carbon emissions, according to the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is partnering with SCET on the course.

“Some of the students enrolled because they are convinced that this is urgently needed,” says Ricardo San Martin, visiting SCET faculty member, course instructor and entrepreneur. “But all of them share a desire for impact — to be a force in the world.”

The course is part of the center’s Challenge Lab series and is formatted like an incubator: Teams design a product and pitch it to a panel of experts in hopes of winning prize money to form a company.

Topics: Sustainability & environment, Entrepreneurship, Health
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • X logo
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2025 UC Regents