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Prions and Synthesized Foods

April 23rd, 2019 | Posted by pftq in Ideas | #
More an open-ended question here.  Prions, or misfolded proteins, are the cause of mad-cow disease when eating meat.  The animal itself is more likely to be produce misfolded proteins when eating brain tissue, but sometimes it's also just luck (or perhaps environmental, stress, etc).  The prions themselves cannot be destroyed by heating or other means once created, as it's more a mutation than a "disease." Once in the body, it causes other proteins to be misfolded as well in a tumor-like fashion.  

With regards to new synthesized foods like vegan or lab-grown meats,  I wonder what ways (if any) are there to unintentionally create misfolded proteins in the process as well.  Right now, it seems that they try to mess with the vegetable ingredients as little as possible when creating the meat flavor and texture.  Some of these opt for an organic and non-GMO label to make it distinct, but a concern would be if something like lab grown meats could misleadingly have the label as well out of technicality for not coming from an animal in the first place.  It may become a concern if in the future companies become more aggressive with manipulating the proteins to refine the meat or if they're responsible for creating the proteins from scratch (how much can you trust them not to mess up?).
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Responses

  1. pftq said,
    Dec-15-2023, 08:23pm

    Looks like the problem came from a different product instead but just as concerning.
    https://www.science.org/content/article/mrna-vaccines-may-make-unintended-proteins-there-s-no-evidence-harm

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