When a processed food label includes the word “eggs” in the ingredients list, it typically means dehydrated or powdered eggs as opposed to fresh, real eggs.
Used as early as 1912 in camp cooking and for food rationing in the United Kingdom during WWII, powdered eggs are made by spray drying real eggs in a manner similar to how powdered milk is produced.
Powdered eggs are preferred by food manufacturers over fresh eggs as they have a long shelf life, easier shipping and storage (no need for refrigeration) and significantly lower price.
Powdered eggs are used as is without any rehydration for baking and can be easily reconstituted with water for making scrambled eggs and omelettes by the restaurant industry.
The major health related problem with powdered eggs is that the spray drying process oxidizes the cholesterol in the egg. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to heart disease whereas undamaged, unoxidized cholesterol in fresh eggs does not.
While oxidized cholesterol is certainly a concern, at least powdered eggs are actually made from real eggs!
Now, processed eggs are about to go even further down the rabbit hole by going vegan!
Hampton Creek Foods, a company with interest from the likes of billionaire investor Bill Gates, has developed a powdered egg substitute made entirely of plant matter.
Vegan CEO Josh Tetrick explains that his company’s Beyond Eggs egg-substitute was created by completely deconstructing a real egg, analyzing its 22 special functions, and then reconstructing nature’s perfect food using nothing but plant material.
The unappetizing grey-green powder that resulted is made from sunflower lecithin, canola, peas, and natural gums from tree sap. It must be reconstituted with water to use. Tetrick claims Beyond Eggs tastes just like the real thing, but one has to wonder how a vegan would know this.
Given that the product is not organic, the canola used is most likely genetically modified. Beyond Eggs is nearly 20% cheaper than even battery-produced eggs.
Tetrick envisions Beyond Eggs as a replacement for the real and powdered eggs currently used in processed foods like mayonnaise, ranch dressing, and factory made muffins and cookies. Eggs supplying these sources account for roughly one third of the 79 billion eggs produced in the United States alone every year.
Tetrick insists that the motivation for Beyond Eggs is about economics and not about the morality of eating animal foods.
“I think the reason people like Bill Gates are interested in this is that the world population is expanding to 9 billion, and people are going to need good cheap sources of protein. Some of the economics of meat production, particularly around feed, aren’t good.”
Hampton Creek Foods already has two major Fortune 500 companies as customers. One of these has plans to use Beyond Eggs in a line of products marketed as egg free. The other is staying on the down low for the time being.
Beyond Eggs will be available online in the next one to two weeks. After that, it will likely be available through major retailers.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: You Can’t Tell That This New, Cheap Egg Substitute is Made from Plants
Danielle Venable via Facebook
I guess in a way I’m glad they are using fake eggs in artificial crap! Less animal torture. But in another way I wish they would stop screwing with our food. We have enough information out there that it is frustrating people are so ignorant about it. We are getting poisoned at every angle. Food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, water. It is so discouraging
Lauren Bryant Riley via Facebook
Yuck
Jacqui Thompson via Facebook
They can always come with all the various fake ingredients in the supermarkets – i will not be partaking. Makes me sick just to think of how they manipulate and mess around (to put it nicely) with our food.
Brittany Ardito
Great. Another processed, fake food item made using GMOs. Seriously, how much more contaminated can our food supply get before we all start dying off? I personally think that is what the government is trying to find out…
Joyce
The government knows this stuff is happening. They don’t care… You can’t make a profit off of healthy people. We are government tests subjects on a daily basis…
Helen T
Brittany and Joyce – I stopped sratching my head and trying to make sense of this along time ago. This goes to explaining it a bit:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Corporatism-or-the-True-Fa-by-Siv-O-Neall-130306-770.html
thehealthyhomeeconomist via Facebook
Gluten Free Pantry thanks .. just trying to give folks the heads up.
Gluten Free Pantry via Facebook
Eggs, the perfect food. Why the heck mess with something so nourishing for the body?! Thanks for the another fabulous article Sarah!
Josh
Hey Gluten Free Pantry – Thanks for caring about our food :). You’d probably agree that plants are pretty healthy, too! I think the problem is the system of egg production, not the egg. Anyway, I think you’re work on Gluten Free is important – so thanks for it!
Laura DeChamps via Facebook
Gross. 🙁
Nevra @ ChurnYourOwn
When are people going to learn that mother nature’s amazing creations, like eggs, are so much more than the deconstructed, dried, powdered and reconstituted sum of their individual parts – or in this case, similar-ish parts?
Karen in Texas
Yuck. Eggs are one of the perfect food sources and they want to create a fake egg? Wow.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
The fake egg has already been created and is coming to the processed food aisle in your local supermarket soon!
Marianne
But now that we know better than to eat processed food, we at least don’t have this to worry about. I heard the other day, a comment (I forget where), that the boomers will have the longest life span in US history, but after them, the average lifespans will revert because the children who come after them will have been raised on convenience foods, fast foods, and processed foods, and be over vaccinated, denying them of being able to build healthy bodies from infancy onward.
Josh
Hey Sarah – We’re not any more processed than the chick pea flour in your local, organic grocery store. I just think that most eggs (well, over 99% of them) aren’t reflective of the values of your readers – or you. I’d be happy to invite you to our HQ to see our process; I’m not sure the same could be said for large egg producers. We can all do better. And free range eggs are a core part of the solution, too.
Josh
Hey Karen – We don’t have an issue with the eggs at all. I think the problem is how the system of animal agriculture has negatively impacted the production of the egg – over 1.7 trillion laid per year. It’s kind of absurd when you open the door… Most (not all) egg production is defined by a massive amount of antibiotics, inhumane treatment, massive water consumption, etc. It doesn’t reflect our values. And we can do better. I think sustainable, free-range eggs are an important part of how the world answers this challenge.
Alek
Then I have a simple solution, Josh – visit your local farmers market and get fresh REAL eggs straight from the farm – NOT a factory farm. Or, if you are able, keep a couple of chickens in your backyard and there you go! Fresh, happy eggs from happy chickens. Either way, problem solved.
What we DON’T need is any more processed glop masquerading as food.
Mike
Josh, unfortunately when a company associates itself with the likes of Bill Gates and Monsanto (aka the most evil corporation in the world) they are guilty by association.
All this talk about feeding the world, climate change, animal cruelty, etc. are important talking points, however companies like Monsanto DO NOT care about this issues. Their objective is about money, power and most importantly control of the worlds food supply.
Stanley Fishman
I thought no form of eggs could be worse than powdered eggs, but this canola containing glop could actually be worse.
We seem to be moving toward a world where food is steadily becoming less nutritious, more artificial, and less able to sustain human health. We need the healthy real foods of our ancestors, not phoney frankenfoods.
You have wonder about Gates, who is a great supporter of Monsanto, GMOs, and now this.
B
It’s all fuel for the “technology will solve everything” malaise that we find rampant in society, allowing people to keep their head in the sand about the accelerating degradation of our food, soil, water, climate and health. The numbers are staggering in all these areas but it seems nobody wants to really address it. We need some good old consciousness raising foment — a rousing global chorus of people, and especially young people who have the most energy and the most to lose if things don’t improve, to rise up against this malaise and this corporate influence like in the 60s.
Paula
Gates also is one of the biggest funders of worldwide vaccination, which he champions as the idea way to reduce population.
Deborah
Gates has his greedy hands in everything these days. He’s particularly interested in issues that affect enormous numbers of people, but his real motives are anything but philanthropic…
Mary
Care to share your source?
Lydia
Just search “Bill Gates vaccination” or something along those lines. You should easily come up with plenty, including a video of his presentation stating that good healthcare and vaccination would help to *reduce* world population growth.
Josh
Hey Stanley – We actually don’t even use canola in our product. And I agree w/you – our ancestors consumed a whole lot of natural, plant-based foods. We don’t grow anything in a lab; we don’t use chemicals, either. – Josh
Stanley Fishman
Josh,
The article says you use Canola. What ingredients do you use?
bianca
….it goes on and on, ad nauseum. BIll Gates needs to be educated.
Such a shame on him for his complete ignorance. He is a fine example of
too much money and poor taste ! Education is where it’s at.
Lest we forget, Nature (God) is in charge… and nature always wins…
we will pay dearly for our ignorance.
Mary M
I assume that Bill Gates means well, but his knowledge of human nutrition seems to fall far behind his expertise in software engineering. Steve Jobs, also brilliant in the same way, paid with his life for his poor understanding of the difference between a gorilla’s intestines on a fruit diet and a human’s intestine. I shudder to think of the negative repercussions from Gate’s misguided efforts. Africa has long been the victim of well intentioned efforts gone very, very wrong.