I know that egg replacer has been around for ages and it a pretty decent alternative to the real thing in terms of baking, but I never expected that science could replicate the true uniqueness of an actual egg.

Science has done just that: there will soon be such a thing as a vegan boiled egg. There have been several attempts at cornering this much-anticipated market of egg-desiring vegans, but the most recent news this week seems to offer a very promising effort.

A group of students scientists based in Italy spent 18 months perfecting their vegan egg until they matched the texture, consistency, and flavour of the real thing. It is made from protein from a mystery vegetable and, most significantly, it has a yellow yolk.

You don’t even have to be vegan, veggie, or a science fan to be intrigued; health freaks will be impressed by the lack of cholesterol. The students have patented their product and will be looking to get food companies on board.

There’s plenty of other methods of consuming eggs to get on with replicating in the meantime: scrambled egg, poached egg, fried egg… they had better get cracking! (Ho ho ho ho….)