Insect food
Film & Food: Through the Snow Protein Plates
In the film "Snowpiercer", dedicated to
Film and Food: Blade Runner, Worm Farm
The film features giant worm farms controlled by complex computer systems.
Modern analogue of the product:Insect protein bars.
Now for protein production on substrateof various wastes, insect larvae are raised and then processed. A large number of startups in the world are doing this. The French company Ÿnsect produces protein from beetle larvae and attracted $204 million in investment in 2020. Insect protein supplements are used as feed in fish farms, for the production of animal feed and as fertilizer in crop production.
For widespread use of insect protein inthe food industry for humans in the world does not yet have a regulatory framework. At the same time, not only the population of the Earth is growing, but also the consumption of protein. In the EU countries, certification of insect protein as a human food product will be possible by the mid-2020s. The first steps in this direction have already begun: in January 2021, the EU food safety agency found the yellow mealworm safe for human consumption.
Movie and food: "The Matrix", protein concentrate
In one of the scenes of the film, the partisan heroes eat fromdeep bowls, something like porridge. The characters discuss among themselves what this food tastes like: soft-boiled eggs, porridge or frog legs. In fact, it is a multicellular protein with the addition of vitamins and amino acids - a protein concentrate.
Modern analogue:powder products for complex nutrition.
Soylent is already on sale - a powder mixtureprotein, fats and micronutrients. Drinks and bars are created based on it. It is impossible to completely replace any other food with such products, since they contain practically no dietary fiber. In addition, research shows that the constant consumption of such foods leads to a lack of emotion from the process of eating, the type of food, the texture and the smell.
Traditional meat is already inferior in terms of benefits forhuman body to protein supplements from insects. Protein ingredients can also replace medications. In the national cuisines of Asia (China, Thailand, India, Japan, Cambodia), Africa (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Botswana, Uganda) and North America (Mexico), insect food has long been common.
Now humanity has begun to raise insects inindustrial conditions, nutrient media and organic waste. Until 2025, this market will increase by 37.5% per year, according to a study of the state and trends of the global FoodTech market by the EFKO group of companies, the Moscow Exchange and J’son&Partners Consulting. The key growth drivers will be the markets of Europe and Latin America.
Lyophilization
Movie and food: Back to the Future 2, mini pizza
In the second part of the film "Back to the Future" motherMcFly's Marty puts a pizza from a package the size of her palm into the oven and says, "Hydrate to level four." After a few seconds, she pulls a large, hot pizza out of the oven for the whole family.
Movie and Food: The Fifth Element, Hydrated Grilled Chicken
In an episode of studying the history of mankind over the past 5,000 years, the heroine of the film Lilu puts a tablet in the microwave for a few seconds, and takes out a huge and hot chicken.
Modern analogue:dishes for tourists.
Such products may be based on technologylyophilization - removal of moisture while preserving the structure of the ingredients. It is completely recreated after adding water. Lyofood and Mountainhouse make ready-made freeze-dried meals like a meat side dish. Just add boiling water before use. Such products have a long shelf life, so they are often used by tourists.
At the moment, technology does not allow achievingmultiple increase or decrease in product volumes. And dishes are saturated with water by adding simple boiling water to the product or by soaking it in water. Such methods are not suitable for pizza. With the development of technology, it is possible that hygroscopic ingredients will be added to such products (they are the ones that significantly increase in volume when water is added). It will probably be possible to make pizza from Back to the Future in real life in 10–15 years.
Vegetable meat
Film and food:"Star Wars ", vegmeat
Mobile rations of stormtroopers from the universeStar Wars included vegmeat, a compressed mixture of nutritious vegetables with the addition of almost all the vitamins. Also in films you can see a powder that turns into a piece of bread in a few seconds after interacting with water.
Modern analogue:vegetable and cellular meat.
Today, vegetable meat is made on the basis oftextured protein, it must be cooked like regular meat before eating. This herbal product can only be stored frozen. There are no analogues to bread made from a handful of powder yet. In the composition of such a product, presumably, there should be hygroscopic ingredients that will significantly increase in volume when water is added; ingredients that will form the porous structure of bread, and a flavoring composition that will recreate its taste and smell. Some analogs of stormtrooper food today exist in army dry rations: for example, in the vegetarian kits of the US army there are vegetable crackers.
Startups Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods managedattract US consumers to plant-based meats. Such products became especially relevant during the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, when large meat production plants were closed due to worker illness. Russian restaurant chains have also already added plant-based meat to their menus: White Rabbit offered Beyond Meat to guests in April 2019; T.G.I. Friday's - in September 2019; KFC has announced plans to 3D print chicken meat.
In the fall of 2020, in the project of EFKO shareholders “Foodof the future" the first similar product appeared - a highburger (from the English. Healthy Innovations - “healthy innovations”). More often they are interested in people who want to reduce their consumption of animal protein. Based on market research, the company planned to produce 28,000 tons of plant-based meat by the end of 2021 and 40,000 tons by 2022. It is expected that the company's products will occupy less than 0.5% of the meat products market. At the beginning of 2021, the highburger appeared in chain stores.
Greenhouses in megacities
Film and Food: The Martian Potato Growing
The hero of the film, engineer and biologist Mark Watney, managed to get a potato crop on Mars. In fact, the movie is about the usual cultivation of vegetables, humanity already has more serious technologies.
Modern analogue:vertical farm
Multi-tier greenhouse - the basis of the conceptmodern vertical farms. Vegetables and herbs with a short growing season are grown in them using hydroponic or aeroponic technologies. In such greenhouses you can cultivate salads, spices, berries, and flowers.
A number of companies produce ready-made complexesvertical greenhouses: American Urban Crop Solutions, Ural AgroTechFarm. Grow Pod produces substrates infused with essential ingredients for growing crops. The Russian company iFarm has created the iFarm Growtune platform for greenhouse management: regulation of humidity, temperature, light level and carbon dioxide.
Virtual reality and scent diffuser
Film and food: "The Matrix", virtual reality steak
In one of the scenes of the 1999 cult film, the heroCypher Reagan tastes the steak and says he knows it's not real. “And when I put it in my mouth, the taste will be instilled in me by the Matrix,” he adds. - Do you know what I decided during the 10 years that I was free? Ignorance is bliss." The steak scene contrasts sharply with the episode in which the partisans eat a mushy protein gruel.
Modern analogue:in developing.
Re-enact the steak scene from The Matrixpossible: the potential development of technologies for stimulating areas of the cerebral cortex could create a simulation of taste sensations. And VR technologies - visualization of appetizing food when consuming nutritional concentrate. The American startup Project Nourished is already working in this direction. To recreate the feeling of eating delicious food, developers use a VR headset, an aroma diffuser (a device that simulates chewing sounds transmitted from the chewer's mouth to the eardrums), gyroscopic dishes and tasteless 3D-printed food. The development of the sum of these technologies will allow, for example, diabetics to eat “everything” they want - to maintain a good mood.
What food trends of the future haven't been shown to us in the movies
Humanity is currently experiencing its mostrapid and serious transformation of the food industry under the influence of modern technologies. In addition, the world's population will grow to 9.7 billion people by 2050, which could lead not only to food shortages and hunger, but also to climate catastrophe.
Alternative proteins.Vegetable sources and biomass of insects will be more activeused to create protein ingredients instead of animal proteins. An example is already Brave Robot ice cream. It is free of lactose, cholesterol, hormones and antibiotics. At the same time, biotechnological milk protein is used for its preparation. Developers from the United States, Israel and Russia have already presented vegetable meat that does not differ from animal in appearance, taste and texture.
Economic efficiency is also changingproduction of alternative protein: by 2030 it will cost 10 times less than animal protein. At the same time, the alternative will be more nutritious, tastier, and more varied. It is important that the production of vegetable protein reduces the environmental burden and greenhouse gas emissions.
Classic sugar will disappear.It will be replaced by rare sugars allulose and tagatose.They have a lower calorie content, do not harm tooth enamel, and do not differ in taste from regular sugar. Sweet proteins are also an effective sweetener.
Personalized food.Startup DayTwo has developed an algorithmic dietwith dish recommendations based on a personal analysis of the intestinal microbiome. In general, more and more people in the world are undergoing tests to determine their susceptibility to allergies, deficiencies of vitamins and microelements, and to determine genetic characteristics for which specialized nutrition is important. Humanity is gradually moving towards individual nutrition. The stores already have sports, children's, and women's nutrition.
See also:
Oxygen will definitely disappear: what will happen to the Earth without the main source of life
Solar energy made liquid fuel in China
Physicists have created an analogue of a black hole and confirmed Hawking's theory. Where it leads?