Inno Under 25: Kelly Pan and Adrián Miranda of Impact Food

Editor's note: This year we honored some of the brightest young minds in the Bay Area innovation sector as part of our Inno Under 25 feature. Check out all the profiles from this year's honorees here.

There are a plethora of alternative protein companies developing plant-based and cell-cultured replacements for ingredients like chicken, pork and beef, but few are tackling seafood. So that’s exactly what Kelly Pan and Adrián Miranda decided to go after when they met at U.C. Berkeley’s Alternative Food Lab. Pan, Miranda and their co-founder Stephanie Claudino launched Impact Food’s first product, a plant-based bluefin tuna alternative made from pea protein and marine-based plants like seaweed. It’s available at a handful of restaurants and corporate cafeterias in the Bay Area and Southern California. Salmon and Otoro tuna are next in line for research and development, and everything is currently manufactured at their facility in San Francisco.

Kelly Pan

 

Why did you decide to tackle seafood, rather than other types of animal protein?

Kelly: It was definitely more of the environmental factor behind it. When we were first looking at the alternative protein landscape, we were seeing more terrestrial meats like pork, chicken, beef, but nothing really in the seafood space. Our oceans make up about 70% of our planet, and they’re already really sick from climate change. But our commercial food production system continues to over-fish and deplete our oceans, and also wreaks havoc on marine ecosystems. Once the fish are all gone from the ocean, they don’t have time to restore those fish stocks. We wanted to focus on this novel category of something that’s very realistic — whole muscle replacement for seafood — starting with tuna.

How did you go about formulating flavors and texture?

Adrián: Hydrocolloids are a subset of starches that can bind water to make muscle-like textures. We discovered that we can make these gummy-like textures that are similar to the texture and mouthfeel of raw seafood.

In our early days, we were trying a lot of different flavorings, and it was very unappealing. It might have smelled just like fish or had a fishy taste, but it wasn’t appetizing. It became less about the science and more about the tasting and the craft of it.

Are you early birds or night owls when it comes to your working style?

Kelly: It depends on the day. Sometimes I like to get up earlier in the morning and have a set routine, but sometimes when the flow is there, just working late at night and needing to get something done. It’s more about just making sure that I have everything done but also making sure that I’m energized to do work the next day, too. Taking care of yourself is a really important part of running a startup and being an entrepreneur and making sure that you’re at your best every single day. And if there’s a day that you aren’t, then to take that break so that you don’t get to a state of burnout.

Adrián: I’m definitely a night owl. My first job out of college was working at a biotech startup on the nightshift. Now that I’m in a more regular 9 to 5 schedule, I’m adapting to that, but I do think I still have those night owl tendencies.