The EVERY Company: Making Eggs Without The Hens
Eggs play a crucial role in our day-to-day lives in everything from vegetarian meat substitutes, baked goods like meringues, macarons, confectionaries, soufflés, as well as protein powders and supplements.
In the U.S. alone, table egg production totaled 96.9 billion in 2020 with the industry operating over 325 million commercial laying hens.
In our society, there has been an increasing dependency on specifically the use of egg whites; yet the process in which these eggs are produced is especially inefficient.
An Inefficient Process
Egg production is often associated with ganders such as diseases like Avian flu and salmonella — in addition to the concerns of animal welfare — which compromise the health of both the hens and the consumer.
In the spring of 2015, an Avian flu epidemic in the Midwest killed over 48 million farm chickens suspected of contracting the disease, leaving many markets and restaurants scrambling for alternatives. In response, the price of eggs more than doubled. More recently, the industry has seen an unprecedented explosion of outbreaks of new bird flu viruses. Historically these viruses have presented a significant pandemic risk and many scientists are concerned with the potential of outbreaks becoming more destructive than COVID-19.
In addition to the public health concerns, as many as 300 million chicks are slaughtered in the United States annually, and more than 6 billion are killed each year around the world. The process is a disturbing and wasteful practice.
Chickens are our Protein Factories
Today, the majority of the eggs produced are in high-density industrial systems:
- Laying chickens are bred, male chicks are culled, and female hens are kept in small, crowded cages.
- Laying hens have their beaks trimmed to prevent them from injuring each other while confined in the crowded cages.
- Hens will begin producing eggs at the age of 18–20 weeks and continue to produce one egg per day until 100–130 weeks.
- Then these hens are slaughtered.
- These chickens do not become meat — their bones are too delicate to be processed as traditional meat since they were designed for egg-laying.
The billions of chickens that are brutally killed work to produce protein based-products: eggs. The problem is this so-called factory is really inefficient and unproductive. Much of the food that goes into feeding these living things transfer to their everyday living functions, rather than actually creating the protein and egg whites desired.
Chicken cells contain DNA that transcribes itself into RNA to produce the proteins that build the expected characteristics of eggs. The cells are able to ferment nutrients to create these egg whites. However not all the nutrients being fed to the chickens go into the egg whites, more specifically only a mere 3% of nutrients are converted into protein. That’s what makes chickens so unsustainable.
Egg Whites are Simple
Egg whites are just 90% water and 10% protein (albumins, mucoproteins, and globulins). Essentially, we’re using 24 billion chickens across the globe to produce a relatively simple substance.
Like every other living thing, chickens require movement and survival. However, the majority of the nutrients they intake contribute to their day-to-day functions, with a mere percentage of the original nutrients actually present in the final product (egg whites). Using up animals products to produce a simple substance is eating up our planet’s resources while exacerbating the issues the agriculture industry has already generated.
There’s got to be a better way to do this, right?
Well, an egg white is composed of 12 key proteins. These proteins make up the functionality of an egg white and cause it to gel when cooked, make rigid peaks when whipped, or act as a binding ingredient. We can produce the same exact proteins found in egg whites using an effective, cruelty-free mechanism: yeast.
Introducing The EVERY Company
The EVERY Company, formerly known as Clara Foods is a biotechnology company working to disrupt the traditional food and agriculture industry by creating egg whites without the use of a single hen in the process.
We believe in a safe, sustainable, ethical approach to protein, fit for a 21st-century food system.
At The EVERY Company, they go beyond the current paradigm of plant-based vs. animal-based. Using precision fermentation, the company can create the proteins we all know and love, as well as super-functional ingredients — without the animal.
So, how can EVERY protein become animal-free?
The process at The EVERY Company starts with making egg white proteins through yeast, rather than using the factory-farmed laying hens. The yeast/microflora cells are genetically engineered to possess the necessary genes or DNA sequence that code for the egg white proteins. Using a recombinant plasmid reconstruction, the yeast cells now contain the same DNA ovulating hens have to produce egg whites. As these yeast cells grow, it consumes simple sugars, saving much more resources and feed than a single chicken requires. Once enough egg white proteins have been produced by the yeast cells, the yeast and egg mixture is separated so only the egg white proteins remain present.
Essentially, by replicating the proteins being produced by chickens, all that is needed to create egg whites is the addition of water. Proteins are what give egg whites their specific characteristics that we know and love. Just like proteins in your body determine your eye color, proteins in chicken egg whites have a unique taste and functionality. Therefore, as we produce these proteins using yeast cells, we will not be compromising their taste, texture, or feasibility provided through traditional egg production.
Not only can we produce the same characteristics of egg whites, we can produce better ones. Since we are already engineering the yeast cells to contain genes of egg whites on a molecular level, we can essentially customize the characteristics coded for to be even better. One such example is inserting genes that enhance the egg whites to become fluffier than traditional egg whites; which is a big win for everyone (especially bakers and people like me who love macaroons and other such desserts).
Recap of the Process
- DNA Sequence Library — DNA is a recipe for making proteins. It contains the step-by-step genetic instructions needed to make all the proteins necessary for cells to function. The EVERY Company can access the DNA sequences animals use to make proteins from a data library thanks to decades of scientific research. Then they can easily assemble these DNA sequences without the use of a single animal cell.
- Precision Fermentation — They then use 2 simple ingredients found in every kitchen: yeast and sugar. The DNA sequence for the chicken egg proteins is inserted into the yeast. The yeast is fed sugar, which is naturally converted into proteins through fermentation, ensuring the highest-quality and most consistent version of an egg protein every time; without all the water, land, and energy.
- Nature-Equivalent Proteins — The result is nature-equivalent animal protein, without using a single animal. The eggs whites produced contain no sugar, no genetically modified organisms, and no rDNA.
Key Takeaways
First, there are ZERO animals involved in this process. In turn, there is no opportunity for bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli, which thrive in the gut and feces of animals, to contaminate the egg whites.
Second, it is much easier to maintain a stable supply of egg proteins when made using yeast. The crowded conditions of egg-producing factory farms are prone to disease outbreaks which historically have proven impossible to prevent and extremely difficult to contain.
Third, since yeast — a very simple organism — is being used, the process requires less land and water inputs when generating hen-free egg whites. Yeast doubles every couple of hours, while chickens must wait at least 6 months before they can begin laying eggs. In addition, yeast produces significantly fewer waste products and a much safer working environment.
Lastly, this yeast-based system used to produce egg whites also allows us to do things we could never do before. As scientists choose which proteins and components to produce, they can tailor the egg white proteins to enhance the taste, texture, and other capabilities of egg whites.
The world is already shifting to animal-free protein. The EVERY Company exists to accelerate that transition.
In the process, we will leave a lasting impact on human health, animal welfare, and planetary well-being, while revolutionizing the way we produce eggs.
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