Скачать или смотреть This food-tech startup spins plants into meat (literally), with founders of Project Eaden

What if your favorite meat didn’t come from animals... and you couldn’t tell the difference?

In this episode, we meet Jan Wilmking and David Schmelzeisen, co-founders of Project Eaden, the food-tech company using textile engineering to create a new generation of plant-based meat.

Project Eaden is pioneering a fiber-spinning technology that recreates muscle structure from plant proteins, proving that innovation at the intersection of science and sustainability can transform how (and what) we eat.

We explore:
• Why climate confusion led the founders to reinvent meat
• The cultural and sensory reasons meat is so hard to replace
• Why first-generation plant-based products disappointed consumers
• How textile machines inspired a breakthrough in whole-cut realism
• The five sensory gaps plant-based meat must close to win the mainstream
• How spinning plant proteins into fibers recreates real muscle structure
• Why taste beats sustainability in consumer adoption
• The emotional vs rational mistake companies make in food marketing
• The founders’ vision for global scalability and licensing their tech

Chapters:
00:00 – Why selling impact and scaling impact can coexist
00:40 – Meet Project Eaden: science, sustainability, and flavor
02:00 – The climate confusion that sparked the idea
03:00 – Roots in farming, food, textiles, and engineering
05:00 – How a Zalando supply-chain challenge brought the founders together
07:00 – The real problem: meat as a “beautiful, invisible sin”
08:30 – Why meat alternatives failed: expectation vs reality
10:30 – The five sensory rules of replicating real meat
12:00 – The breakthrough insight: “meat is an organic fiber composite”
13:00 – Spinning plant proteins like textiles
15:00 – The wellness trend vs “real food” critique
16:00 – Why Project Eaden refuses to market health on the front of the pack
17:00 – Building emotional, sensory trust with consumers
18:30 – Inside their factory-studio: prototype, test, iterate
20:00 – The hardest challenges: color, natural irregularity, and realism
23:00 – Is plant-based meat healthier? The nuanced answer
25:00 – Scaling with purpose: culture, collaboration, and speed
27:00 – Why resilience comes from loving both the mission and the numbers
29:00 – Rethinking animals as “inefficient bioreactors”
31:00 – The long-term vision: global scale and a licensing model
33:00 – Where to find Project Eaden products today

💼 Connect with Project Eaden’s founders on LinkedIn –
David:   / david-schmelzeisen  
Jan:   / janwilmking  

🔗 Learn more about Project Eaden – https://www.projecteaden.com
🧑‍💼 Explore job openings – https://www.projecteaden.com/careers

🎧 Reinventing Capitalism is the podcast where we decode the success of for-profit, mission-driven businesses, hosted by Claudia Tomas.

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Project Eaden, plant-based meat, whole-cut alternatives, food-tech, fiber-spinning, textile technology, sustainable protein, alternative protein, protein transition, climate tech, plant protein innovation, sensory experience, food design, food engineering, sustainable food systems, flexitarian, meat reduction, purpose-driven innovation, Reinventing Capitalism