Smart Food: From Chemistry to Gastronomy

Our food system is broken. The distribution of food worldwide is not equally divided. In some countries food is limited and the lack of nutrients leads to malnutrition. On the other hand, in other places, food is most abundant but fails to keep us healthy by leading to obesity. Furthermore, at the current pace of global growth, the model of food production has become unsustainable in terms of low output and negative environmental impact. Do we want to continue with a food system of which we know it is malfunctioning? A system that uses a large part of its raw materials to raise cattle. Can we still pay the economic and ecological prices to transport around the globe food products that contain predominantly water? Surely not!

Perhaps we can reinvent our food system to provide 9 billion people worldwide with healthy, sustainable and cheap food. We propose a new, bottom-up approach for processing and producing food. One can engineer food starting from its chemical constituents; starch, proteins, fats, nutrients, vitamins, flavours, and emulsifiers, gelators, texturizers. They can be assembled to deliver edible polymers that will meet the demands of any customer. Giving food processing a scientific approach will lead to better food in terms of, e.g., health, price and taste. Synthetic food has the potential to be even healthier because the use of preservatives will be avoided. It will be cheaper because the cost of transport and storage will be reduced, for a lot of current food contains mostly water.[1] Food will also be tastier because we can precisely compose the content and mimic the ideal taste of any natural ingredients. When doing so, it also opens up the world of 3D printing. How great would it be to have a sports watch that registers your sugar level at night and 3D print your healthy and customised breakfast in the morning? This is the power of having your personal food factory in your kitchen, giving you the perfectly balanced plate of food while saving time. [1] United States Department of Agriculture. “National Nutrient Database.” https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list, February 4, 2018 [18 January, 2018]