Vegan eggs are made by isolating proteins from plants (most commonly mung beans) and combining them with oils, starches, and flavorings that mimic the taste, color, and cooking behavior of chicken eggs. The exact process varies depending on the product type: liquid scramble replacements, powdered baking eggs, and even hard-boiled alternatives each use different formulations and techniques. A newer category skips plants entirely, using engineered yeast to produce proteins that are chemically identical to those found in real egg whites.
The Protein Base: Mung Beans and Beyond
The most well-known liquid vegan eggs start with mung bean protein isolate. The manufacturing process begins by removing the hulls from raw mung beans, then milling them into a fine flour. That flour gets mixed with water and a defoaming agent to create a slurry. The pH is raised with a sodium hydroxide solution, which causes the target proteins to dissolve into the liquid while fiber and starch stay behind.
A centrifuge then spins the mixture to separate the dissolved protein from the leftover solids. The liquid protein extract is acidified, causing the protein to clump together and drop out of solution. This protein curd is washed to remove residual salts and carbohydrates, pasteurized at high temperature to kill bacteria, and finally spray-dried into a powder with less than 5% moisture. That powder becomes the functional backbone of the product, used at concentrations up to about 20% in the final liquid egg.
Mung bean protein isn’t the only option. Some brands use lupin protein, chickpea flour, soy protein, or blends of several plant sources. Each protein behaves slightly differently when heated, so the choice of base protein shapes the rest of the formula.
How Plant Proteins Mimic Egg Coagulation
The magic of a real egg is what happens when you heat it. Egg white proteins unfold, exposing reactive chemical groups that link together into a firm, interconnected network. This is why a runny egg white turns solid and opaque in a hot pan. The dominant forces holding that gel together are bonds between sulfur-containing parts of the protein molecules, along with interactions between water-repelling regions.
Plant proteins can form similar networks, though they need help. When heated, mung bean and other plant proteins expose their own sulfur-containing groups and form cross-links that create a gel. Research shows that plant proteins can actually increase the number of these sulfur bonds compared to egg white alone, producing a stable structure with good water-holding capacity. The result is a set texture that holds together on a plate, not a runny puddle.
To strengthen this effect, some manufacturers add transglutaminase, an enzyme that acts like molecular glue. It catalyzes permanent bonds between protein strands, creating a tighter, more fibrous network. This improves firmness, springiness, and chewiness, bringing the texture closer to what you’d expect from cooked egg.
Color, Flavor, and Fat
Plant proteins are not yellow, and they don’t taste like eggs. Getting those qualities right requires a separate set of ingredients.
Turmeric is the most common colorant, providing the familiar golden hue of scrambled eggs. Some products use carrot extract or beta-carotene instead. The yellow needs to be subtle enough to look natural rather than neon, so amounts are carefully calibrated.
For flavor, the most important ingredient in many vegan egg recipes is kala namak, a type of black salt from South Asia. Kala namak gets its distinctive eggy smell from sulfur compounds, primarily hydrogen sulfide, the same gas responsible for the smell of cooked eggs. The salt is traditionally made by firing raw salt with charcoal and plant materials in a kiln for 24 hours, which chemically transforms sodium sulfate into hydrogen sulfide and sodium sulfide. Even a small amount gives vegan eggs a convincingly sulfurous, eggy aroma.
Fat matters too. Canola oil or other neutral vegetable oils replicate the richness that yolks provide. The oil also helps with mouthfeel and browning in a pan. Starches like tapioca or potato starch contribute body and help bind moisture during cooking.
Precision Fermentation: Eggs Without Plants
A completely different approach uses microorganisms to produce real egg proteins without any chickens involved. In precision fermentation, yeast cells are genetically programmed to manufacture specific egg white proteins. The yeast species most commonly used is Komagataella phaffii (formerly called Pichia pastoris), chosen because it can grow to very high cell densities and produce large quantities of protein.
The process works by inserting the gene for a target egg protein into the yeast’s DNA. The yeast is cultured in nutrient-rich media, first with glucose to build up cell mass, then switched to methanol to trigger protein production. The yeast secretes the egg protein directly into the surrounding liquid, where it can be collected and purified. The EVERY Company launched the first commercial product using this method in 2022, producing a protein called ovomucoid that functions like conventional egg white in foaming and binding.
Because yeast can perform the same chemical modifications (like adding phosphate or sugar groups to the protein) that a chicken’s cells do, the resulting proteins fold and behave like the originals. This means they whip into meringue, set when baked, and bind ingredients in ways that plant proteins struggle to match.
Types of Vegan Egg Products
Not all vegan eggs are trying to do the same job, and their formulations reflect that.
- Liquid pourable eggs are designed for scrambles and omelets. They come in cartons and cook in a pan almost identically to beaten chicken eggs. These rely heavily on mung bean or lupin protein combined with oils and gelling agents.
- Powder-based egg replacers target baking. They typically contain starches, leavening agents, and sometimes protein isolates. You mix them with water before adding to a recipe. They’re lighter on fat and calories since they don’t need to replicate yolk richness.
- Hard-boiled and poached alternatives are the most complex to engineer. They need distinct white and yolk layers with different textures, often achieved using combinations of starches, plant milks, and setting agents like agar or carrageenan.
Nutrition Compared to Chicken Eggs
A large chicken egg has about 70 calories, 6 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated), and 185 milligrams of cholesterol. Liquid vegan eggs land in a similar range: roughly 70 calories and 5 grams of protein per serving, with 5 grams of fat but zero saturated fat and zero cholesterol.
Powder-based vegan eggs are leaner, coming in around 45 calories with 5 grams of protein and almost no fat. Hard-boiled vegan versions sit at about 80 calories but only 3 grams of protein, since more of their structure comes from starches and fats rather than protein isolates. The biggest nutritional difference across all types is the complete absence of cholesterol and the much lower saturated fat, which matters for people managing heart disease risk.
Where vegan eggs fall short is micronutrients. Chicken eggs naturally supply choline, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and selenium. Most vegan egg products don’t contain meaningful amounts of these unless they’ve been fortified, so it’s worth checking the label if you’re relying on them as a regular protein source.
Environmental Tradeoffs
Plant-based diets broadly reduce environmental impact. Research comparing full dietary patterns found that shifting to a vegan diet cuts greenhouse gas emissions by about 46% and land use by about 33% compared to an omnivorous diet. Water savings were more modest, around 7%. These figures reflect entire diets rather than a one-to-one egg swap, but they illustrate the scale of difference between animal and plant protein production. Growing mung beans requires a fraction of the land, water, and feed inputs that raising laying hens does, and eliminates the methane and manure management issues associated with poultry farming.
The vegan egg market itself is expanding rapidly, valued at roughly $1.75 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $3.84 billion by 2030, growing at about 17% per year. That growth is driving investment in better formulations, which means the texture and taste gap between plant-based and conventional eggs continues to narrow.