Could we make a goo that contains all our nutritional needs?
“The short answer is definitely yes,” says Smárason, leader of the Sustainability and Aquaculture research group at the food and biotech R&D company Matís in Iceland. But whether we’d really want to is an entirely different question. Take livestock, for example: a lot of time, energy and research has gone into figuring out what their exact nutritional needs are, to get the best growth, health and welfare. This has led to the development of foodstuffs such as pellets which provide farmed salmon everything they need. “We could definitely do this for humans as well,” adds Smárason, in the form of a pill or a goo. But we haven’t done it because eating for humans is so much more than just getting the nutrients in. It’s a complex and deeply human social activity, one involving conversation and multiple senses, such as smell, taste and touch. “It’s something that we can’t really dumb down to one pill, because it’s going to be boring,” Smárason remarks. “It’s just not going to taste that good.” There is scope for advanced food development under the auspices of personalised nutrition, however, a trend taking into account the nutritional needs of individuals – which differ between people. In the near future, Smárason foresees equipment similar to 3D printers seen on the long-running science fiction TV series ‘Star Trek’, which can create food at the push of a button. This could be done with canisters containing ingredients and nutrients which could be formed into delicious, nutritious food, he says. Making this printed food would still require nutrients to be grown, however, which could leave as much of a harmful impact on our planet as current food production systems. This, Smárason explains, is where alternative proteins come in. In the EU-funded NextGenProteins project, Smárason led a team developing some of these alternative proteins, from microalgae, insects or microbials such as yeast, for example. One idea developed under the project works with by-products from the European forestry industry, converting woody biomass into sugars which can be fed to yeast to create nutrient-rich protein powders. “What many alternative proteins have in common is that they have almost no competition with traditional food production,” adds Smárason. “They offer high levels of nutrition with drastically reduced environmental footprints.” While we’re closer to developing 3D-printed food than the warp speed spaceships of ‘Star Trek’, there is still a long way to go. It’s possible to make something that looks like a fish fillet – and even tastes like it – but achieving the right texture is much more difficult. As early testing with cultured meat has shown, the texture has to be right for humans to accept it as an alternative food. Printed food could be with us as soon as in the next couple of decades, says Smárason. But unless we give up some of our sensory pleasures regarding food, or are forced to eat it because of future external pressures, he notes, it’s unlikely we’ll be giving up our culinary delights in favour of a nutritional goo any time soon. Click here to find out more about Birgir Örn Smárason’s research: Novel proteins could meet our food security needs.
Keywords
NextGenProteins, nutritional, goo, science fiction, food production, sustainability, 3D printers, microalgae