“Many have tried to extract rubisco protein in the past, but nobody has got this far,” she says. A discovery to emerge from that work is Leaft Blade – a performance fuel shot combining the rubisco protein with other macronutrients in a liquid form that’s rapidly digested. So the environmental footprint of producing the rubisco protein is far lower than from meat or dairy,” Leyland-Penno says. About six months ago, the company tried Leaft Blade with a woman who wasn’t an elite athlete, who struggled with low iron levels. Olympic kayaker Lucy Matehaere started taking Leaft Blade after the Paris Olympic Games, struggling to get enough protein to fuel her intense training.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 05, 2026 02:20 UTC