Do you know any other examples of food made with science and technology?

As the saying goes, food is what people eat, and technological developments never forget our dinner tables. Recently, the food industry has been flooded with a series of foods created with black technology. In the future, there will be more and more choices on the table, depending on whether you can afford to eat or not!

Two types of artificial meat, which is more acceptable?

The mention of artificial meat, you can not think that some small workshops produced in the "three products", now the artificial meat not only in the taste can be "fake" to mess with the real, but also has a lot of advantages such as safety, environmental protection. That is exactly how the "artificial" method?

Artificial meat is divided into two kinds, one is made of soy protein processing "vegetarian meat", essentially imitating the taste of meat soy products; the other is the extraction of animal cells cultured into the "real meat", growing in a petri dish, there is no bone!

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Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What kind of black-tech food have you eaten?

Laboratory artificial meat (image source: the network)

The former is not unfamiliar to everyone, there are vegetarian chicken, vegetarian duck and other traditional food in China, while abroad is now very popular a vegetarian burger, which has a patty that is made of plant protein artificial meat. It is usually the soybean, pea, black bean plant protein decomposition, and then use the machine to mimic the composition of animal proteins to rearrange, and then through the seasoning to reproduce the texture of meat, some products will also be added to the beet juice to adjust the red color of the meat.

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What black-tech-built food have you eaten?

Dishes made from vegetarian chicken (Photo source: Internet)

Artificial meat made through cell culture is still in the experimental stage, and its practice is more complicated: first extract muscle tissue from animals, isolate muscle cells, and then provide nutrients for the growth and replication of muscle cells through serum, and gradually cultivate the muscle tissues in the laboratory. It sounds a bit heavy-handed, but since it's real meat, it doesn't need much adjustment in terms of taste, and it can also be made more compatible with the needs of a healthy diet by adjusting the fat content during the production process. In addition, the meat cultivated in the laboratory does not need to worry about mad cow disease, swine fever, hormone feed, etc. The production process is not only low-carbon and environmentally friendly compared to traditional animal husbandry, but also saves large areas of land.

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... you have eaten what black technology to create food?

Laboratory artificial meat production process (image source: Eating Well)

This kind of artificial meat is also facing some problems, mainly in the ethical and cost aspects, after all, it is too much to subvert people's common sense, if the petri dish can be "planted" out of the boneless meat, the development of this technology, who knows what else will grow in the future. Who knows what other strange things will grow in the future. However, there is no need to worry too much, although there are many countries of emerging companies are committed to research this technology, but because of the high cost of a small piece of meat pie cost up to tens of thousands of dollars, the distance from the market is still relatively distant, it is impossible for us to accidentally eat it for the time being.

Gene-edited food = genetically modified food?

A while ago, the topic of gene-edited babies made a lot of noise and even triggered a lot of panic. So, what do you think about the following kind of food based on gene technology - gene-edited food?

Foods produced by gene editing technology (CRISPR) are often discussed together with genetically modified foods (GMOs), which have always been controversial, but at present, all walks of life basically have this **** knowledge: GMO foods have uncertain risks and need to be strictly regulated. Most people also try to avoid GM foods when shopping.

While some people believe that gene editing is also a form of genetic modification, there is in fact a big difference between the two. Transgenic technology is used in the breeding process to achieve improvement through the insertion of exogenous DNA sequences, and the organisms bred are different from natural organisms; whereas gene editing technology removes or alters genes at precise sites in the genome of the plant itself, and does not insert exogenous genes, and the organisms bred are similar to natural mutations.

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What black-tech-created foods have you eaten?

CRISPR technology (Image credit: Cambridge University Press)

There are various reasons for gene editing. For example, mushroom growers in Pennsylvania, USA, have removed the browning gene inside mushrooms through gene editing, making the mushrooms less susceptible to spoilage and saving a lot of money on picking and packaging costs. In addition, gene editing technology can also be used to increase yield and improve the nutritional content and taste of food by altering genes, isn't it amazing? Although this technology sounds lofty, the actual funding required is relatively inexpensive and can be applied in large quantities after a one-time development.

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What kind of black-tech-built food have you eaten?

Gene-edited mushrooms (Photo credit: Penn State University)

But, like GM technology, gene editing has raised some concerns. Some believe that the act of cutting and modifying genes carries the potential for errors, also known as off-target effects. While there has been no large-scale rollout yet, there are already many who believe that a specialized guidance agency must be established immediately.

Freeze-dried food: the space food that flew into people's homes

Compared with the previous ones, the following freeze-dried food is much closer to life. We often eat dried strawberries, crispy dates, dried okra and other snacks, is freeze-dried food. There are also some instant drinks and even instant noodles that use freeze-drying technology!

Freeze-drying technology has made food products fly into the hands of ordinary people now, but a few decades ago, it was a high-tech technology used by the United States to make aerospace food.

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What black-tech-built foods have you eaten?

Freeze-dried strawberries (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Freeze-drying technology, whose full name is vacuum freeze-drying technology, is a special type of drying. General drying and dehydration techniques, such as drying and sun-drying, require heating, which not only changes the texture of the food, but also leads to nutrient loss. Freeze-drying technology, on the other hand, is a direct sublimation of solid water under vacuum conditions, with only physical changes throughout the process. Most of the processing is carried out below zero, which greatly reduces the damage to heat-sensitive substances and preserves the original color, flavor and nutrients of the food.

Freeze-dried food has many other advantages. For example, it does not need refrigeration and add preservatives can be preserved for a long time; this food has the texture of potato chips, shrimp crackers, but retains the nutrition of fruits and vegetables, can be used as a substitute for puffed food, snacks will not be so guilty; In addition, freeze-dried food rehydration is good, greatly preserving the original flavor of the food, even if it is a vegetable packet in the instant noodles, if the use of freeze-drying technology, the taste after brewing will be better than drying. Even the vegetable packets in instant noodles, if freeze-dried technology is used, the flavor will be more delicious than the dried vegetable packets after brewing.

3D printed food: game world out of the delicious?

3D printing is a very popular black technology in recent years, can it be used to print food? Can the printed stuff really be eaten?

First of all, let's review the knowledge of 3D printing, which actually follows the same principle as a regular printer, except that instead of ink, it uses raw materials such as plastics, gypsum, and metal, and the target of the printout changes from two-dimensional text and images to three-dimensional models. So it seems that if you want a 3D printer to print food, you need to replace the raw materials with food, and the print target with a digital model of the food, which doesn't sound like an impossible task!

Take a look at the Japanese Open Meals Pixel Food Printer, which is one step ahead of the game, and the products it prints!

Pixel Sushi, Artificial Meat ...... What black-tech created foods have you eaten?

Pixel Sushi (Image credit: Open Meals)

These sushi look like food from the game My World. How are they made? First, a chef makes real sushi, then digitizes all the information about the sushi's color, aroma, and even nutrition, and creates a model for each sushi. Next, a 3D food printer adjusts the edible gel blocks according to the sushi's data, and then a robotic arm yards these adjusted gel blocks together, and a pixel sushi is printed!

Pixel sushi, artificial meat ...... What black-tech-built food have you eaten?

Pixel sushi printer (image source: Open Meals)

Currently, these edible gel blocks have a side length of 5 millimeters, and the printed sushi is rough and dorky, but in the future, if you can further shrink each gel block and further enrich the food database, you can print out a variety of foods in fine detail, and even reproduce the Michelin chef's handiwork perfectly. Imagine, we just need to press the button, we do not have to leave home to taste the world's hottest restaurant food at a fair price, is not it beautiful!