The world of food and beverages is one of constant change and innovation. Tastes change, as they say. And the only thing that changes faster than tastes is technology.
Consider the extraordinary impact that technological advances such as refrigeration and microwave energy have had on food in the past century. Science changed the world, and food changed with it.
But imagine if the reverse turned out to be true in the next century. What if researchers and scientists working on food problems wound up inventing technologies with significance well beyond what we eat and drink. Could food science change the world?
Here are our picks for four new food technologies with potential beyond the industry.
4. The nutrient Nespresso
Researchers at Nestle are hard at work on a project they have dubbed "Iron Man." In essence, the idea is to fabricate a device that creates customized and personalized doses of nutrients and then serves them.
The idea, apparently, is based on some imaginative thinking that connects Nestle's single-serve coffee machine, known as the Nespresso, with the company's plan to rebrand as a health and wellness company.
If Nestle is able to actually create such a nutrients Nespresso, it would be a dramatic leap forward in the effort to create "personalized medicine" that joins molecular analysis, genetics and drug delivery. In other words, that single-serve coffee machine might morph into a single-serve cure for cancer.
3. Soylent
One particularly interesting -- and dare we say, weird -- development in food technology is Soylent. The nutrient-dense drink has won support from the technology community, which has invested in the product.
That's not all that surprising, given that Soylent was created by noted technologist Rob Rhinehart.
Soylent is meant to serve as food replacement, making it possible for humans to avoid eating actual food.
As we've said before, we're not convinced that Soylent has much of a future ... except in emergency situations. And the more we think about it, the more the potential use of Soylent for famine, war, and assorted catastrophes seems significant.
Emergency food supplies nowadays tend to be giant sacks of commodities crops (which often require recipients to have access to fuel and pots for cooking) or military-style rations such as the MRE, which can be expensive to ship and package.
Soylent may be exactly what the world needs when people are at their most vulnerable.
2. Coke's bio cooler
When Coca-Cola developed a machine that could chill soda cans without using electricity or ice, it made for a pretty cool video.
But it turns out the implications for the technology are far broader than soft drinks.
By using a modern take on ancient technologies that employ the power of the sun and evaporation, Coke and some affiliated researchers created a device that can be used to cool medicines and vaccines in some of the most inhospitable environments on earth.
We can picture a time when rescue workers arrive to weather-ravaged lands armed with Coke bio-coolers full of medicines and Soylent.
1. Pathogen and ingredient sensors
We've noted a slew of developments in recent weeks focusing on hand-held technologies that identify what the human eye cannot.
Most promisingly, researchers in Europe are testing a device that can warn of the presence of the deadly bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.
Other developments in this space include SCiO, which can read the chemical makeup of food and drinks, and Vessyl, a high-tech cup that can identify what you pour into it.
Our sense is that all of these scanners are pointing in the same general direction -- the tricorder device long sought by science and Star Trek fans. It would appear that the good folks at XPRIZE would agree. They recently teamed with Qualcomm to offer $10 million to the first person to build a handheld scanner that can monitor and diagnose health conditions.
Our prediction is that the device will be here shortly. And perhaps the winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE will be someone from the food industry.
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