More Food Innovations
Posted by terrepruitt on October 21, 2019
A few posts back I wrote about how I get magazines from a neighbor and a title on one caught my eye. I said I was thinking it would take me at least two posts to summarize the information. In continuing my read of the section in Eating Well about food innovations, it seems the very next little article is not so innovating. Maybe to some people it is or maybe in the way they want to do it, it is, but it talks about how science is just now figuring out that food is medicine. Well, it doesn’t really state that, it states that science is now looking at food as “whole food”. In other words how manipulating it to be one thing (gluten free, low fat, low carb as examples) takes away from the complexity of the food and so the food we eat is not giving us all the nutrients and benefits it could be. I guess, sadly, this is new news to scientist so it is a new area of science.
Additional information in the section: Mike Lee of Alpha Foods shares that there are ideas about grocery stores allowing a consumer to order food from a kiosk, say in a subway, then a self-driving car will drive it to its destination and could be waiting for the consumer upon arriving home. He goes on to say that when that type of thing becomes the norm grocery stores will have to be more outlandish and be more of place people want to go and hang out than just a store to shop. There are stores along these lines already in China. Hema is like Walmart, but you can also pick out a lobster from a tank and have it cooked so you can eat it in their dining area. People can see information on the origin of the food there. He thinks the next step will be indoor farming in grocery stores. Also, a place where meat can be produced in store. He shares that the future of grocery stores might be where they actually create the food and not just sell it.
All my life I have heard that the world HAS enough food, the problem is just getting it to the people that need it. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot of Feeding America states that “72 billion pounds of quality, nutritious food goes to waste each year”. She envisions smartphones could help solve the problem of people in need. They could use their smartphones to get notifications that would allow them to get food that would be wasted. The application could send them to the grocery store or restaurant that is about to dispose of the food. Seems like there is something like that, Y Waste, already being used in Australia.
Next is actual tracking of what is eaten. ACTUAL TRACKING, not a food journal. Food journals are unreliable for all kinds of reasons so Sarah Smith at Food Futures Lab talks about actual sensors that can track what is consumed. There is a research project going on at Tufts University where a small device stuck to a tooth tracks glucose, salt, and alcohol intake. As technology develops trackers might be able to track calories and other things to help in so many ways.
Well, this post will complete the information in one section, but there is another article regarding “GMOs” that I might want to post about. I started reading it thinking I could include it here, but it looks a little long. So I might just use it as another post idea. THEN . . . the next issue I received has an article regarding the microbiome (gut bacteria) and since I mentioned that in the first post, I thought that article might have some interesting stuff to share. I better get to readin’!
What do you think about these possible food innovations?
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Paula Light said
I think one of the most terrible things about our world is that people are starving when there is actually enough food for them… and in the West we’re not only overeating/trying desperately to stop stuffing our faces, but also throwing so much food away.
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terrepruitt said
So the idea of an app that people can have on their smartphones so they can get food must be exciting to you!
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Paula Light said
😂
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Frank Hubeny said
Those trackers sound interesting. And also finding a use for food that would be wasted.
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, lots of interesting stuff going on.
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