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All you should eat: What future food will look like Food. Scientists are exploring ways of breaking down basic nutrients and serving them to people as viable food sources. For years, we’ve enjoyed endless helpings of food at ‘allyou-can-eat’ restaurants. But that way of eating could be a thing of the past, as scientists develop foods of the future based on our specific nutritional needs – a notion of ‘allyou-should-eat’. The world’s largest food company Nestle is developing an ‘instant nutrient machine’, which would give people little jolts of basic vitamins and minerals a person needs for their diet. “These products might be liquids, powders or pills, delivered using a machine at home,” Hilary Green, Head of R & D Communications of Nestle told Metro. However, the food group has said an affordable “Nepresso of Nutrients” could take years to develop. Eating for the sake of nutrients only is the philosophy of Rob Rhinehart, a 25-yearold Silicon Valley engineer, who invented Soylent, a meal replacement concoction that he claims contains all the nutritional requirements a body needs. “I hypothesized that the body doesn’t need food itself, merely the chemicals and elements it contains,” Rhinehart said in his personal blog . “What if I consumed only the raw ingredients the body uses for energy?” With a release date later this year, the wait is shorter for the Foodini, a 3D food printer that can replicate an array of different foods. The appliance uses capsules of ingredients to print layers of food items, such as pasta, burgers and chocolate. It is also connected to the internet, explained Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines (the firm behind the Foodini), meaning users can print their dinner off with a few clicks on a tablet or computer.
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Nestle nutrient machine The Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences is working on extensive research to help identify people’s specific micronutrient needs. This research will help provide the scientific basis for more
DAN ABELOW
American inventor, author, speaker and
technology consultant
What do you think about the machines that create food. Do you see a future in this technology? We’re in the early years in terms of new technology for 3D printed food. Commercialization will take years before such food is developed into off-the-shelf products.In each stage of this coming evolu-
targeted nutrition in the future. Potentially these products might be liquids, powders or pills and may be delivered using a home-based appliance.
The idea behind 3D-printed food is to replicate what your need, without the waste./ CONTRIBUTED
The device is very similar to a $125,000 printer NASA is using to replicate pizzas for their astronauts in orbit. Natural Machines will flog their sci-fi food-maker for a fraction of the cost at $1,300. Indeed, innovative ways of protecting the planet are central to the future food movement. Biologists Cor van der Weele and Johannes Tramper from Holland’s Wageningen University are using animal stem cells to make laboratorygrown ‘eco-friendly’ meat, as an alternative to raising cattle which impacts the environment. “Cultured meat has the potential to improve the global food situation, for example because it requires only a small fraction of the land needed for meat production,” the scientists told Metro. Despite its proclaimed environmental benefits, in vitro meat is expensive and would take years to be affordable: last year, scientists in London unveiled the world’s first labgrown burger, a 140-g patty costing around $425,000 The price for future foods may seem astronomical, but
Facts Global food problems • Hunger. More than 842 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and malnutrition. 60% of them are women, according to recent data from The United Nations. • Food waste. The amount of food wasted every year is staggering. It’s about one-third of the food produced worldwide for human consumption, about 1.3 billion tons.
experts believe we must embrace it. Techno-philosopher and futurist Scott Gray reckons that the way we think about food is about to change on our planet and that we must be open to technology. “The future of food will be abundant if we use these futuristic technologies and abandon our fear of the future,” Gray told Metro. Technology will make us far more eco-effective in the way we eat, said Dan Abelow, a U.S.-based inventor and
• Contamination for food production. Food production in the world produces between 13 and 30 percent of the emission of greenhouse gases that are causing global warming. • Animal abuse. Numerous animal rights organizations protest the conditions in which many animals are raised, such as factory farms in which thousands of animals spend their lives packed together.
technology consultant. “If we expand again to self-printed food, we can eliminate a lot of food waste and feed many more people with the available supplies,” he stated. Ultimately, the question now is what is more valuable to use: the cost to our environment of our food choices, or the cost of eating for the future?
DANIEL CASILLAS MWN
Análisis
“3D printed food for the masses”
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tion, the quality and market responses will determine the speed and scope of the new food products that will be made with 3D printing and marketed for sale. Do you know some examples of this type of technology currently under development? Like many high-tech advances, NASA is funding the development of 3D printed food for long-haul space missions, like a Mars flight. When it feels 3D food printing is ready, NASA is good at transferring new technology for commercial development. In Germany a project called “Smoothfood” creates normal-looking,
jellified 3D printed food that doesn’t need to be chewed to be swallowed. How can such technology help fight world hunger? Many advances are likely to happen at the same time, such as cutting early stage food waste in developing countries, and late stage waste of fresh food in highincome countries. One of the biggest advances could be the long shelf life of the powdered nutrients and oils used in 3D food printing; they can be stored for up to 30 years. We’ve already expanded our thinking from fresh food in previous generations to today’s processed foods. If we
expand again to self-printed food, we can eliminate a lot of food waste and feed many more people with the available supplies. Do you think that the great dishes of world cuisine can be replaced by nutrient substances or pills? Like all advances, 3D printed food will take decades to reach today’s highest standards. But in 5 or 10 years it may be high enough in quality for mass market enjoyment. Some of today’s early steps show what’s to come, such as 3D printed meals in care homes for the elderly, pizza, fruit, candy and sugar cakes.
Cultured meat Cultured meat, produced in an animal-cell cultivation process, is a technically feasible alternative. Theoretically speaking it has the
potential to greatly improve the global food crisis as it requires only a small fraction of the land that is needed for meat production.
Foodini (3D printed food) Foodini has a built-in touch screen on the front that provides the user with an interface for printing food. Once the user has chosen the recipe they want to
print (from the onboard touchscreen, or from a user’s tablet, laptop, etc.), Foodini will instruct what food to put in each capsule, and then printing can begin.
Soylent Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent
provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort. It requires no heating or other cooking and has an extended shelf life.