The search for an egg substitute started long before when the vegan train left the station and that is because egg allergies are one of the most common allergies in children, across the world.
There have been a few revelations of how to make certain foods using alternative products while still getting the same outcome.
The ideal substitute would replace eggs in all applications and nutritional aspects and that is what Plantible Foods thinks they have found in Duckweed.
What is Duckweed?
Duckweed has nothing to do with being a weed, it was named after researchers found that the ducks found nourishment from these aquatic plants and that their growth was sporadic and unpredictable, like that of a weed.
Duckweed looks a lot like green peas that are floating in a compact way at the surface of stagnant freshwater. For many years duckweed was seen only as a menace when it came to water maintenance projects until the dietary benefits were discovered.
How does it replace eggs?
The California based business, Plantible Foods, harvests the Duckweed and puts it through a cold-press extraction process. The result of this process is a thick white protein that is similar to the white of an egg.
Together with its texture and protein count, it replaces an egg almost exactly, unlike other known egg substitutes. The added benefit is that it has a very subtitle flavor, some say it has no flavor at all meaning no one would even have to know eggs were not used.
On paper all the boxes are ticked, it is now up to a collaboration with food scientists to decide how exactly the Duckweed can and cannot be used.
Is it sustainable?
While egg allergies are still around and more and more people turn to veganism each day, the question stands that whether or not duckweed is a suitable and sustainable substitute?
The answer at this point is unknown. Advances in agriculture have been made to assist in predicting the growth cycle of duckweed, and as it is now, there is more than enough to be harvested daily.
The uncertainty lies in the fact that this is all new and unknown, but for now, it works without harming anyone or anything.
Other egg substitutes
There are a few other egg substitutes that you can experiment with if Duckweed is not easily available. Flax, Chia, Silken Tofu and Mankai can be used as an alternative for eggs and are 100% vegan.
The problem with the alternative egg substitutes is that they each have their own flavors, Flax and Mankai both have a vegetable or root flavor. The vegan community found Duckweed as the first neutral egg substitute protein.
