Food Of The Future

Edible insects

Two billion people in the world, mainly in Southeast Asia and Africa, constantly eat insects : locusts, grasshoppers, spiders, wasps and ants. Today, with the growing threat of food shortages, efforts are being made to normalize the concept of entomophagy - eating insects - for the remaining 5 billion people. In 2012, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published a list of more than 1,900 species of edible insects . The European Union, for its part, offered its member states three million dollars to research the use of insects in cooking. There are a number of reasons for such serious steps. For example, insects, compared to livestock and fish, is a more reliable source of food. There is a sufficient number of them: for every person on earth there are 40 tons of insects. Also, insects have higher food productivity than livestock (meaning they use fewer resources to produce the same amount of nutrients) and produce fewer greenhouse gases. As one type of fast food (that's how people treat them in countries like Thailand), insects are a more acceptable food source given the water and other resources required to breed them. In addition, they are quite nutritious: rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol, high in calcium and iron.

But the question of their taste remains open. People look at insects mostly with disgust, but over time attitudes begin to change little by little. Thanks to enterprising restaurateurs (Copenhagen's Noma, for example, serves dishes made from ants and grasshoppers) and innovative organizations like London's Ento, we may soon come to terms with the idea that insects can actually be good food .  

Edible packaging

Our food system is extremely wasteful. According to some calculations that were made in January 2012, half of all food in the world is simply thrown into the trash. In the UK alone, 6.6 million tonnes of food, drink and packaging are produced each year, with a total value of £5 billion, according to WRAP, a British government organization that works to reduce food waste. The fight against waste has led to some intriguing solutions. For Harvard bioengineer David Edwards, the answer to the packaging problem is simple: just eat it. In 2012, Edward founded WikiCells, a company that makes edible packagingfor fruit juices, coffee, ice cream and other products. Its design resembles a piece of fruit. The packaging consists of a soft edible skin (these are natural food elements that are held together by food ions), embedded in a protective layer that is also edible, or at least biodegradable. Membranes are not only more environmentally friendly than plastic, but also tasty.  

Other packaging innovations promise to extend the shelf life of perishable products, which in turn will mean less food and drink waste. The Pepceuticals company (Leicester, Great Britain) is developing an antimicrobial film that should significantly prevent spoilage of fresh meat and reduce its losses.  

Food substitutes and innovations in eco-food

One of the hottest trends attracting investors in Silicon Valley has a lot to do with our future eating habits. More and more young entrepreneurs, who are guided not only by the desire to make a profit, but also adhere to the principles of ecological preservation, are working on the problems of replacing resource-intensive types of food (such as meat) with synthetic plant alternatives. For example, the founders of Twitter, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, consider it appropriate to allocate money for these ideas. Their motives are completely justified. With the world's population projected to reach 9 billion in 2050, and Western eating habits spreading to countries like China and India, more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to produce protein-rich food will come in handy. Imitation meat isn't a new idea, but innovators from the San Francisco Bay Area,

Meanwhile, Hampton Creek Foods, which was founded by 32-year-old businessman Josh Therick, is working on a substitute for egg yolks, which are used to make muffins, mayonnaise and other sauces.  

Augmented reality kitchen

The popularity of TV programs such as Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen means we have become a nation of food enthusiasts. Nevertheless, among all novice culinary geniuses there will always be a culinary "kettle" who gets confused in the recipe and burns everything to the ground. According to Yu Suzuki, a computer specialist from the University of Kyoto (Japan), what we need most now is a helping hand from modern technologies. Going a step further than online video instructions, Suzuki and colleagues outfitted the kitchen with ceiling-mounted cameras and projectors that project cooking instructions onto the ingredients. For example, by defining the outline of a fish, Suzuki's system will help separate the fillet by showing where the cuts should be made.

Meanwhile, Gina Lei, a scientist at the University of Washington, is developing a system that uses highly sensitive cameras to monitor what the cook is doing. If the cook makes a mistake, the system will notify him and he can make the necessary changes. While this may sound great, many people believe that these innovations will greatly reduce the enjoyment of the cooking process itself.  

Golden Rice

Thirty years ago, scientists announced the creation of the world's first genetically modified plant. There were hopes that the new technology could increase crop yields around the world and reduce global malnutrition. Since then, the fate of GMO food has been ambiguous. Its consumption was limited to only a few countries and many prospects have not yet been realized. For example, there were hopes that genetically modified crops would reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere that affect climate change. But, despite the long -term resistance to GMO food among environmentalists and those who are wary of the corporations that manufacture them, positive developments in this direction are expected in the near future. There are plans for 2014 that golden rice(which is common rice genetically modified to produce beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A) will be grown by farmers in the Philippines. If successful, golden rice will help fight blindness and other diseases in children in developing countries.

Meanwhile, other varieties of " improved " rice are being bred, but only conventional breeding technologies are used. Jihang Li, a Chinese breeder, hopes that green super rice, which produces more grain and is more resistant to drought, floods and disease, will help feed an extra 100 million people a year.