I want to make it so easy, make it taste so good, make it so accessible, that you cannot help but choose it Josh Tetrick, Hampton Creek

The global food industry is not sustainable, says Josh Tetrick. So he's trying to rebuild it, from scratch -- and is meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration in the next few weeks to figure out how to integrate food sustainability into the current system. "I want to share with them our vision for food," Tetrick told WIRED 2015 at London's Tobacco Dock. The ultimate goal is to create what Tetrick terms "the good thing" -- food that's environmentally positive, healthy, and tasty. "[We have to] make it so easy, make it taste so good, make it so accessible, that you cannot help but choose it," he explained.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. .@joshtetrick is trying to reinvent the food industry, from scratch #wired2015 http://t.co/TvZ6jmd7ikhttps://t.co/qgO5XDXjFN — WIRED UK (@WiredUK) October 15, 2015


Tetrick is the CEO of Hampton Creek -- a company that's rethinking food manufacture. He founded the company to explore the question "What would it look like if we started over?"

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Most people assume 'disruptive' food start ups rely on genetically modified organisms or other artificial techniques. Tetrick denies that has to be the case; there are more than 400,000 plants species on Earth, he says, and 92 percent of those have been neglected by the food industry. "What we've done is actually explore them," he said.

The team at Hampton Creek started analysing some of these plants and created a database of the molecular make-ups -- with some interesting results. For example, when ground down, the Canadian yellow pea acts as an emulsifier, much like egg yolk.


With this pea they've created egg-free "Mayo" that is healthier, cheaper, uses less water and has fewer associated carbon emissions than normal mayonnaise. Across all of its products this year, Hampton Creek claims to have saved 1.5 billion gallons of water and 6 billion grams of carbon emissions.

Tetrick told WIRED 2015 that his products -- which also include egg-free biscuits -- are being distributed by major companies, including Tesco, Costco and 7/11. Compass Group -- a global distributor -- has dropped Unilever products in favour of those by Hampton Creek. Tetrick and his team hope to expand their range of products, and are currently looking into high nutrient, low cost snack bars.

But it's not been a completely easy ride for Hampton Creek and its mayo. The reason Tetrick is meeting with the FDA is because it has taken issue with the name "mayo" -- FDA guidelines define mayonnaise as an egg-based product. Internal emails leaked from the powerful American Egg Board also show how afraid established industries are of his company and the potential of his products. Whether or not the FSA will let Tetrick reinvent the ingredient list of traditional products hangs in the balance. "I'm optimistic about it," Tetrick said, "but you never know.