Space, the final frontier for food science

A range of Mediterranean foods supplied by the Italian food firm COOP used a high pressure processing technology that eliminates bacteria and provides long-term storage at room temperature. The first food experiment of its kind in space, cosmonauts will assess the food products for taste, texture and colour. "The first step is to investigate the possibility of preserving foods for more than three months, also a criteria for the space station," Franck Salzgeber from the European Space Agency tells FoodNavigator.com. In general there are two routes for research, says Salzgeber, the institutional way or the commercial way. The Mediet is the first commerical food experiment we have taken on board. The European Space Agency is pushing the food and nutrition direction for research and is currently looking for stakeholders in the food industry. "We are hoping to perform more and to test more in the field of food and nutrition. We want to speak with food-linked organistions interested in going beyond the global," said Salzgeber. Conditions are exaggerated in space and astronauts need the right diet to keep fit and healthy, we need to ensure that they get a nutrition balance, added the ESA representative, implying that this is a clear avenue for food scientists working in the area of nutrition. Research in space in this area could eventually lead to developments in the field of foods for extreme physical conditions, including sports and activites such as mountaineering. The Mediet experiment that flew into orbit with the Dutch Delta mission earlier this month consists of an ergonomic tray, made of aluminium, with five items of Mediterranean food from Italy: dried tomatoes, mature cheese, piadina bread (Italian white bread), peaches and chocolate. The food has passed all mandatory tests for use on Earth, but has also been subjected to a number of special microbiological analyses, which are required for all the nutrients and food items delivered to the International Space Station. The food is individually packaged for convenient consumption in special space flight qualified transparent plastic bags, and in meal-size portions. It is processed using the High Pressure Processing (4000-6000 atu) technology, which is able to eliminate enzymes and bacteria without altering the properties of fresh food. The food inside the bags is either pre-cut into a bite-size pieces (cheese, bread and chocolate), or has such a viscosity that it remains intact in weightlessness: while the cosmonaut picks up a piece with a fork, the rest of the bag content remains in place (tomatoes in oil and peaches in jelly). During the experiment, one of the two Russian cosmonauts - Alexander Kaleri and Gennadi Padalka - will evaluate the quality of the food, considering such parameters as odour, flavour, texture, colour, and overall appearance. The second cosmonaut will make a video recording of the test. According to ESA, the video material may later be used to 'illustrate the benefits of the new technology to the expert community' and to the consumer.

Space, the final frontier for food science

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