This startup is using machine learning to create animal product substitutes

The future of food looks a lot like advanced animal product substitutes; we've already gone beyond tofurkey to plant-based burgers that "bleed." Down in Santiago, Chile, a five-person startup is using machine learning to figure out how to create its own versions of vegetarian substitutes for animal products. Called the Not Company (or NotCo), the one-year-old company is rolling out its first products -- NotMilk, NotMayo. "All I can tell you is that there are some star ingredients ranging from legumes to flowers," NotCo cofounder Matias Muchnick tells Tech Insider. Machine learning, the programming technique where algorithms learn from data sets, has become the hot new thing in Silicon Valley.