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Plant-based Salmon by New School Foods

For Chris Bryson, the founder and CEO of New School Foods, a Toronto-based start-up that has created one of the world’s first plant-based salmon products, a key way to change people’s perceptions of alternative proteins was design. “Look at other industries, like cars,” he says, pointing to electric and hybrid vehicles that date back to the early 1990s. “But [EVs] never really took off until Tesla created a product that didn’t feel like a compromise. It felt like an upgrade.”

BY JENNIFER FODEN
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NEW SCHOOL FOODS

Plant-based Salmon by New School Foods - 31-Raw-vegan-salmon-fillet-on-parchment-paper-in-a-metal-tray-1

1. Bryson’s first step: funding research at some of the top food-science schools in the world. The most successful project created a proprietary muscle fibre and scaffolding technology, which Bryson describes as an “empty piece of meat” or “like a sponge,” where different ingredients get added during production.

2. The scaffolding has “tiny little channels” the exact width of a protein fibre you’d find in an animal-based protein. “Then we fill that in with ingredients like proteins and fats and flavours,” says Bryson. “The protein and fats you’re going to use will depend on the animals you’re trying to emulate.”

3. For their whole-cut salmon, New School Foods uses a potato protein and seaweed extracts for texture and flavour. The scaffolding is a semi-transparent material, so when they infuse the proteins, they incorporate natural red colours to create that familiar salmon colour.

4. There’s also an injection technology that creates white lines. They’re designed with a different material, so they melt and separate when the product is cooked. “That’s how you get the flake,” says Bryson. Once cooked, the proteins also solidify and create the texture of a traditional muscle fibre.

5. The product currently on the market is version 21—available at several restaurants in Toronto and Montréal, like And/Ore, Gia and Sushi Momo—and they’re soon releasing version 26. “We actually went through four or five iterations before getting to the one we’re going to launch next.”