Scientists are predicting that the familiar taste of vanilla or smell of roses, along with thousands of other scents and flavours, will increasingly come from a very unfamiliar source - yeast - a trend that is worrying some farming experts.
A revolution in science means the DNA of plants can be transferred into yeast, bacteria or algae which can produce the required ingredient in laboratories within days.
— Read more at Fragrance-producing yeasts may not smell of roses for farmers at Thomas Reuters Foundation.
My guess is that would make things come down in cost? Seems sad that rose will not be from a rose. Here we are in CA with the slow food movement etc… trying to be local and seasonal and at the other end is a vat somewhere that has yeast making scents. Hard to know what to think.
Ha, I seriously doubt it. So far, heavier use of synthetics does not appear to have brought costs down at all. Also important to remember that the juice is a relatively minor part of the cost of a fragrance.
Thanks for the heads up. Interesting article. I read the interview with the MIT start up and it sounds like it’s in the early stages of research, and probably not cost effective yet.
My gut instinct is I sure hope it doesn’t turn out to be.
My take is that you’re going to get synthetics one way or another — I personally don’t know enough to say if this is better or worse than other methods.