The AI Platform Behind a Bezos-Backed Startup’s Vegan Burgers

Not Company SpA has concocted some innovative recipes for its meat and dairy alternatives, with the assistance of an artificial intelligence platform named Giuseppe. Among the ingredients in NotMilk—NotCo’s plant-based milk—are pineapple juice, cabbage juice, and pea protein. Its NotBurger contains beet juice powder, pea and rice proteins, bamboo fiber, and chia protein concentrate. But Giuseppe’s work is never done, and the war in Ukraine is disrupting supplies of a key component in both products: sunflower oil.

Food scientists at the startup in Santiago have asked Giuseppe to find a replacement that can mimic the neutral flavor and other prized traits of sunflower oil, an ingredient in more than one-third of all plant-based burgers, nuggets, sausages, and other meat alternatives, according to the Good Food Institute. The stand-in could include a combination of different kinds of fats, but not unsustainable palm oil, says Matías Muchnick, the company’s 33-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer. “What NotCo is trying to do is offer a solution to the entire industry,” he says.