Nothing appears remarkable about a dish of freshly made ravioli made with solein at first glance. It looks the same as normal pasta. It . But the origins of the proteins which give it its full-bodied flavour are extraordinary: they come from Europe’s first factory dedicated to making human food from electricity and air. The factory’s owner, Solar Foods, has started production at a site in Vantaa, near the Finnish capital of Helsinki, that will be able to produce 160 tonnes of food a year. It follows several years of experimenting at lab scale. Solar Foods has already gained novel food approval for solein in Singapore, and is seeking to introduce its products in the US this autumn, followed by the EU by the end of 2025 – and the UK too, if the regulator can get through the deluge of cannabis-related products. The factory’s output may be small in terms of the global food industry, but Pasi Vainikka, the Solar Foods co-founder and chief executive, hopes that proving its technology works will be a crucial step in revolutionising what humans eat. Food and agriculture is responsible for about a quarter of all planet-heating carbon emissions. Its share of pollution...