Someday the flavors and smells added to most foods and drinks could be created in yeast-brewing tanks rather than extracted from plants or synthesized in labs, some researchers predict. Around two decades ago, scientists found that tweaking the genes in yeast—a single-cell fungus—could cause it to produce a variety of compounds. Today yeasts are being genetically engineered to produce flavor molecules in research that could eventually lead to entirely new and unfamiliar tastes.
“We can get certain flavors and fragrances that you may really like from a plant, but you’re limited in terms of how much you can extract, or it’s not feasible to grow that kind of crop,” says Patrick Boyle, a synthetic biologist at Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks, whose products include flavors and aromas produced from genetically modified yeasts. He heads the “codebase” team that investigates and stores genetic code to create various flavors and other products for the biotech startup.
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