Synthetic and artificial food Synthetic and artificial food products are products, usually of high protein value, created using new technological methods based on individual nutrients (proteins or their constituent amino acids, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, microelements, etc.); By appearance, taste and smell are usually imitated by natural food products.
Synthetic food products (SFP) are products obtained from chemically synthesized food substances. Artificial food products (AFP) are products rich in complete protein, obtained on the basis of natural food substances by preparing a mixture of solutions or dispersions of these substances with food gelling agents and giving them a certain structure (structuring) and shape of specific food products.
For the production of IPP, proteins are used from two main sources: * proteins isolated from non-traditional natural food raw materials, the reserves of which are quite large in the world, vegetable (soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cotton seeds, sesame, rapeseed, as well as cakes and meal from seeds these crops, peas, wheat gluten, green leaves and other green parts of plants) and animals (milk casein, low-value fish, krill and other marine organisms); * proteins synthesized by microorganisms, in particular various types of yeast.
In the USSR, extensive research on the problem of protein PPIs began in the 60-70s. on the initiative of Academician A. N. Nesmeyanov at the Institute of Organoelement Compounds (INEOS) of the USSR Academy of Sciences and developed in three main directions: the development of economically feasible methods for obtaining isolated proteins, as well as individual amino acids and their mixtures from plant, animal and microbial raw materials; creation of methods for structuring from proteins and their complexes with IPP polysaccharides, imitating the structure and appearance of traditional food products; research of natural food odors and artificial recreation of their compositions.
Protein granular caviar is prepared on the basis of the highly valuable milk protein casein, an aqueous solution of which is introduced together with a structure-forming agent (for example, gelatin) into cooled vegetable oil, resulting in the formation of “caviar”. Separating from the oil, the eggs are washed, tanned with tea extract to obtain an elastic shell, colored, then processed in solutions of acidic polysaccharides to form a second shell, salt and a composition of substances that provide taste and smell are added, and a delicious protein product is obtained, practically indistinguishable from natural grains. caviar.
Artificial meat, suitable for any type of culinary processing, is produced by extrusion (pressing through molding devices) and wet spinning of protein to transform it into fibers, which are then collected into strands, washed, impregnated with a gluing mass (gelling agent), pressed and cut into pieces.
A new industry has emerged in the USA, Japan, and Great Britain, producing a wide variety of APIs (fried, jellied, ground and other meats different types, meat broths, cutlets, sausages, frankfurters and other meat products, bread, pasta and cereals, milk, cream, cheeses, candies, berries, drinks, ice cream, etc.). Fried potatoes, vermicelli, rice, egg and other non-meat products are obtained from mixtures of proteins with natural nutrients and gelling agents (alginates, pectins, starch). Tasting artificial caviar - A.N. Nesmeyanov
Functional additives for boiled sausages, frankfurters and poultry sausages produced according to STB. They improve the emulsification of fats, water binding, the structure of the finished product, and the color of minced meat; prevent oxidation, increase shelf life and reduce the cost of the finished product by increasing yield.
Artificial sweeteners - also called non-caloric sweeteners - are extremely sweet synthetic substances used in place of other sugars in food production and cooking because they contain no calories. Saccharin in currently made from a purified substance found in coal tar. Saccharin is 300 times sweeter than sugar, but is slightly bitter and has a metallic aftertaste. It is not digested by the digestive tract and quickly leaves the body with urine. As a result, it does not add calories to the diet.
Five additives that are approved for use in Europe are banned in Russia. They should be remembered! E121 – citrus red dye-2, E123 – amaranth dye, E240 – formaldehyde preservative, E924a – flour and bread improver, E924b – flour and bread improver.
Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation 917 in August 1998, which approved the “Concept of state policy in the field of healthy nutrition of the population of the Russian Federation for the period until 2005.” According to this concept, the basis of the ongoing state policy is the development and implementation of comprehensive programs aimed at creating conditions that ensure the satisfaction of needs various groups population in a rational, healthy diet, taking into account their traditions, habits, economic situation and in accordance with the requirements of medical science. The adoption of this program was largely the result of many years of research by specialists from the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences of the main violations in the nutritional status of the Russian population: · excessive consumption of animal fats · excessive consumption of sugar and salt · deficiency of polyunsaturated fatty acids · deficiency of complete animal proteins · deficiency of most vitamins · deficiency of minerals substances - calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus · deficiency of microelements - iodine, fluorine, selenium, zinc · severe deficiency of dietary fiber (fiber) and starch.
The consequences of identified violations of the nutritional status of the Russian population may include: · a progressive increase in the number of adults with reduced body weight and young children with reduced anthropometric indicators; · widespread prevalence of various forms of obesity (among people over 30 years old - 55% of the population); · frequent identification among the population of persons with reduced immune status, various forms immunodeficiencies, reduced resistance to infections; · increase in the frequency of nutrition-dependent diseases such as iron deficiency anemia, thyroid diseases, caries, osteoporosis, arthritis; · an increase in the proportion of people with high risk factors for developing coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cerebral atherosclerosis, and cancer.
There is a worldwide, global document - CODEX Alimentarius, "Food Code", which regulates many aspects of nutrition. It was adopted in 1962 as a result of the joint efforts of the World Health Organization and the International Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and has been revised and supplemented several times since then. Law “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population of the Russian Federation” (the new version of the law was adopted by the State Duma in 1999). Subsequently, Federal Law 29-FZ “On the quality and safety of food products”, adopted by the State Duma in December 1999, began to play the same important role.
The idea for a science-fiction meal replacement came to Rinehart in December 2012, when he was once again depressed about his diet of burgers, cola and pasta. In February 2013, he wrote a blog post, “How I Stopped Eating Food,” in which he admitted that he felt like “the 6 million dollar man” after thirty days of replacing his food with “a thick, odorless beige liquid” containing “everything.” substances that a person needs for life, plus a few more considered useful.”
Have you ever dreamed of having superpowers? Perhaps it would be nice to be able to fly or see through walls. But if you work a lot, then, most likely, you dream not about this, but about at least one extra hour a day. And even better - an extra day a week during which you can not work, but read, write, catch butterflies or take extreme driving courses.
Lack of free time is perhaps the scourge of our globalized, accelerated way of life. According to Gallup, over the past twenty years, almost 50% of the US population has complained that they do not have time for themselves.
“According to the U.S. Bureau of Employment Statistics, people spend about 90 minutes a day eating,” the 25-year-old engineer and entrepreneur from California explains about Rinehart. This figure is an average that includes shopping, preparing food, eating and washing dishes. Rob claims to have found a solution to the problem. By giving up food and replacing it with Soylent nutritional formula, Rob claims that he "freed up at least an hour a day for himself."
Soylent is nutritional mixture, is synthesized from dietary guidelines regularly issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is similar to protein shakes for weight gain, but in addition to proteins, it contains all the necessary fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Available in powder, drink and nutrition bar form. Tastes terrible.
Rinehart's post about his food invention became a hit on Reddit and Hacker News, with Rinehart inundated with questions about the recipe and offers for partnerships. Three months later, the dispute exceeded Rinehart's wildest expectations, and he quit his job for the startup. When Soylent 1.0 hit the shelves in May 2014, the company already had more than 20 thousand pre-orders, more than $2 million in sales revenue and 2875 years freed time.
Looks impressive. But what will people do with this freed up time? New Renaissance era? Will Soylent make possible the flourishing of literature, painting, or at least computer programs? It may be too early to tell, but for now the signs are vague. For example, the author of the post spent her free hour and a half a week mindlessly clicking on social networks (which angered the editor-in-chief). As for Rinehart, he spent his hour and a half just launching a startup, reading books and taking training courses that he had long put off.
Of course, this is not the first time people have been promised to be freed from kitchen slavery. This problem has its roots in the processed foods boom that began after the Second World War, and is strongly tied to gender issues. As researcher Harvey Levenstein writes in The Paradox of Abundance, processed foods have reduced the time the average housewife spends cooking from 5.5 to 1.5 hours a day.
Thanks to the boom in processed foods, the number of people working married women doubled by 1960, while the number of working mothers quadrupled.
In a particularly striking example, astronomical historian Rachel Laudan says that just 20 years ago, a simple Mexican woman spent 4-5 hours a day just grinding corn cobs into flour for tortillas to feed a family of five. But in the early 90s, a boom in fast food also began in Mexico, tortillas began to be sold in stores and the number of working Mexican women increased from 30% to 50%. "Mexican women know that supermarket tortillas don't taste as good, but they don't care," Laudan explains. “If they want to have time for work and children, then taste is no longer as important as extra money and the opportunity to move into the middle class.”
But can semi-finished products really save that much time? The authors of the ethnography "Home Life in the Twenty-First Century" note that families who prepared dinner on weekdays using fresh ingredients spent only 10-12 minutes more time cooking than families who dined on frozen pizza, ready-made macaroni and cheese, microwave dishes and takeaway food from cafes.
Then where did the myth come from that semi-finished products save time? According to research, all the salt is hidden in reducing the mental load on the brain. “Perhaps the most important and obvious effect of prepared food is that it reduces the complexity of dinner planning. The family cook can think less about what to cook during the week,” they write. In other words, in a world where nearly 100,000 new food products hit supermarket shelves every year, processed foods offer valuable freedom from decision-making.
Soylent follows this logic further: truncated reality becomes its trump card, not a miscalculation. The Soylent consumer can tune out all the media noise about the dangers of gluten, the benefits of diets, the controversy about veganism, etc. As stated on the packaging, the bar guarantees “maximum nutrition with minimal effort.”
But how will the abolition of food affect culture? Many critics of “astronaut food” trumpet that the rituals associated with the preparation and consumption of food are one of the most important aspects of our culture. In particular, sociologists argue that regular family dinners reduce childhood crime, alcoholism, the risk of obesity, improve health and psychological well-being, and are even the key to academic success.
The end of the breakfast-lunch-dinner era doesn't bother Rinehart at all, since regular meals "were originally invented artificially." Historian Abigail Carroll writes that the American family dinner, despite its sacred role in culture, appeared about 150 years ago. Families did not have tables in the 16th century, she said, and bowls and cutlery only became abundant in the 19th century. And Carroll associates the growing popularity of family dinners with the industrial revolution, when working from 9 to 5 in a factory did not replace agricultural work, and evening time became the only opportunity for the family to get together. In this context, it is difficult to disagree with Rinehart: the tradition of three meals a day is indeed relatively young and comes from external conditions, and is not dictated by our nature.
Another argument from Rinehart’s critics also doesn’t look very convincing.
If replacing food with a liquid analogue makes the mechanism of our mouth meaningless, then what will be the consequences of our appearance? Walk without teeth, or what?
But don’t rush to sadly look at your bite in the mirror because... The scientific basis for this hypothesis is frankly weak. And it seems that only the Japanese are concerned about this issue. One 2013 Japanese study found that chewing food did increase insulin production, preparing the body for food intake, but the association was minimal. Another Japanese study found that eating foods that are difficult to chew led to a slimmer waist, but did not reduce overall body weight.
There is also one interesting hypothesis that food directly affects our appearance. Studying the skulls of Europeans, American anthropologist Sea Loring Brace discovered that the current human bite formed about 250 years ago, when the mass distribution of spoons and forks began. Before the advent of utensils, Europeans would bite into large pieces of meat with their teeth and then cut them off with a dagger - a style of eating that Brace called "gnaw and cut." As a counterbalance, the researcher cites the Chinese, who began using chopsticks 900 years earlier, and their bite is almost as many years older. If Brace's theory is correct, then replacing food with liquid could noticeably change the appearance of the human jaw, and "Soylent Face" would become recognizable as DiCaprio's doppelgänger.
Soylent promises to meet all your body's needs. “It contains all the elements of a healthy diet, with limited addition of less desirable components such as sugars, saturated fat and cholesterol,” the Soylent website assures. Rinehart's formula was formulated according to the recommendations of the US Institute of Medicine, tested on Rinehart and his friends, and refined under the supervision of Xavier Pi-Sunier, professor of medicine at the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University.
But is this idea really new? As historian Warren Belasco writes in his book The Food to Come, this is not the first time people have tried to reproduce the properties of food from its ingredients. The discovery of vitamins in the early decades of the 20th century gave rise to a similar belief that "nutrition can be reduced to individual substances that can be synthesized in a test tube." But vitamin B12, necessary for liver health, was isolated only in 1948, so the “chemical man” of that time would most likely suffer from pernicious anemia.
Rinehart is optimistic his product will continue to evolve, which is why the label says “Soylent 1.0.” However, I manage to catch him with an awkward question about the effect of Soylent on the intestinal microflora. In short, the microbes in Rinehart's gut are markedly different from those in other Americans. Although the study of microflora is still in its infancy, it appears that Soylent may not be a very good food substitute for the microbes in our gut.
Soylent's ingredients seem simple and pure: the essential squeeze of nutrients.
In fact, its production chains and environmental impacts are as complex, and even more mysterious, than the food it replaces. Warren Belasco notes this "desire to make food production disappear, if not from the face of the earth, then at least from the consciousness of consumers" - this is a long-standing dream of people in an effort to reduce food to chemicals. This is perhaps the most important drawback of Soylent. After all, food is our main way to establish contact with our changing environment. And Soylent wants to cut off this rich connection.
After five days of living exclusively on Soylent, I can safely say that its main problem is the disgusting taste. It's like you're eating foamy vanilla shower gel with the consistency of river silt. Yes, I lost weight, but only because I found it more enjoyable to go to bed hungry than to drink more Soylent.
The main advantage of Soylent for me personally was not the time saved, but the taste of real food forgotten during the week. Half a New York bagel with butter, a slice of cheese and a perfect Jersey tomato was so delicious that the hand holding the food was shaking with excitement. I will remember this breakfast for the rest of my life. Perhaps the ability to return love to ordinary food is the main value of Soylent? To me, Soylent is a Rorschach test of our personal and social attitudes toward food.
By the way, I have a few bars left in my cupboard, write to anyone who needs it and I’ll share it.
Not so long ago artificial food passed from one science fiction novel to another, in the form of “nutrient pills.” A time traveler, arriving in the distant future and desperately hungry, was treated to one or two button-sized candies. Artificial food. These sweet pills, as a rule, “melted easily” in the mouth, “were pleasant to the taste,” the hero suddenly felt absolutely full and immediately became an ardent supporter of “pill nutrition.”
Food energy
Today, artificial foods have come out of the realm of science fiction. The human body should receive an average of 500-3000 calories of energy per day. This energy is hidden in the chemical compounds of food molecules and is released during their decomposition in the body, just as chemical energy hidden in a piece of coal is released during the combustion process (more details:). But the process of liberation and use food energy is incomparably more complex and subtle than the process of fuel combustion. Food is needed by the body for two purposes.- The first goal is to replenish energy costs (this purpose of food is just like the purpose of fuel burned in a firebox).
- The second purpose of food is to serve as a building material from which the body synthesizes itself.
Food to replenish energy costs. In order for the human body to successfully carry out both tasks, food must contain substances of five groups: - proteins,
- fats,
- carbohydrates,
- salt,
- vitamins.
- The body needs about 20 grams of salts per day,
- vitamin - about a gram,
- fats and proteins - approximately 100 grams each,
- carbohydrates - about half a kilogram,
- The average human body consumes about two liters of water.
- the absence of microscopic doses of iodine causes the appearance of goiter,
- deficiency results in scurvy.
Chemistry is the creator of artificial food
Chemistry- one of the leading sciences modern life. The innovations she introduced into people's lives are enormous. She has the main role in creating artificial food. Natural dyes, herbal medicines, rubber from Hevea juice have long been replaced by synthetic products. They were followed synthetic fabrics, leather and fur substitutes are beautiful, durable, hygienic, and cheaper than their predecessors. So what next? What else can be replaced synthetically? Food, the chemists answer. Indeed, our food today remains largely the same as it was centuries and millennia ago. Literally everything has changed. A man moved from a tarantass and a cart to a car and an airplane. The signal drum “there-there” and fast-walking couriers were replaced by telephones and radios. Hundred-story buildings stood up, electric suns lit up. Is there much in our diet that would have been unknown to people a hundred or a thousand years ago? Animal meat, plant fruits, dairy products.
Human food. However, the best minds of mankind have long foreseen the approaching revolution. This is what the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev wrote: As a chemist, I am convinced of the possibility of obtaining nutrients from a combination of the elements of air, water and earth, in addition to ordinary culture, that is, in ordinary factories and factories.And here are the words of the famous French chemist M. Berthelot, spoken by him at the very end of the 19th century:
The problem of food is the problem of life. Once cheap energy is available, it will be possible to synthesize food from carbon (derived from carbon dioxide), from hydrogen (from water), from nitrogen and oxygen (from the atmosphere).Today, this long-foreseen revolution is on the agenda.
Obtaining synthetic products
The body needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, salts. It is extremely easy to cover up a deficiency in mineral salts. The problem of synthetic production of vitamins has also been solved: today you can simply buy any vitamin at the pharmacy. And if goiter, scurvy, beriberi and other diseases associated with deficiencies in food of certain vitamins and salts are still found on the globe, it is not science that is to blame, but social conditions. It hardly makes sense to talk about carbohydrates: there is no shortage of them on our planet and is not expected. The production processes have been known for two hundred years. And today sugar is even obtained from wood.
Types of sugar. The issue of synthesis has actually been resolved. They remain. If the body uses fats mainly as a source of energy, then We need proteins primarily as a building material.. And unfortunately, it is food protein that is still lacking on our planet. According to UNESCO, a third of the population is currently hungry globe. In most cases, this is protein starvation. Protein variety
Probably, many have heard about the fantastic difficulty of protein synthesis, that biochemists have been struggling with this problem for more than a hundred years, but that even today only a few simple proteins have been synthesized. Yes, indeed, there are countless proteins, and extremely complex ones at that. Moreover, each organism has its own proteins. But everything is endless protein diversity is made up of a very limited number of amino acids, just as an infinite variety of words is made up of just a few dozen letters.Amino acids
Such amino acids, not very complex organic compounds - two dozen. This is how small the alphabet of the protein world is. Any proteins that enter the human digestive tract are decomposed by enzymes into these amino acids, and they are absorbed by the body. Consequently, we will only make the work of digestion easier if we feed a person not with proteins, but with amino acids. By the way, some of these acids can be synthesized in the body from other amino acids, but there are only eight essential acids.
Amino acid molecules. Their ratio in food should be quite strict; a lack of at least one can lead to tragic results. This is largely the reason for protein hunger, since in some cases the body receives a lot of protein, but cannot absorb it due to the lack of just one amino acid. The synthesis of amino acids is incomparably simpler than protein synthesis. In a number of countries, some amino acids are produced on an industrial scale. World production of one of the essential amino acids - methionine - in the middle of the last century exceeded 70 thousand tons. At the same time, more than 10 thousand tons of another essential amino acid - lysine - are produced in the USA and Japan. The production of amino acids, which completely replace protein in the human diet, is possible with modern chemistry. Synthetic food for humans
It is no coincidence that the issue on the agenda is synthetic food for humans, and not about synthetic animal feed that could then be consumed. It is easier to solve the problem of synthetic feed, and it has already been practically solved in a number of cases. But this is too expensive and a long way: the synthetic feed - animal - meat system has an efficiency coefficient of only 10-20 percent. This means that the total volume of synthetic feed should be 5-10 times greater than human food, and considerable labor costs are also required to maintain intermediate links - animal husbandry. The famous Soviet scientist Academician A.N. Nesmeyanov, under whose leadership many fundamental issues of creating synthetic food were resolved, persistently emphasized that we should be talking about a fundamental solution to the problem, about creating synthetic food for humans, and not feed for livestock. But two questions arise:- Will a synthetic mixture of essential and non-essential amino acids and four other components, plus water, provide everything necessary for development and life? human body? There is an answer to this question: yes, it will. The synthetic mixture, compiled according to the precise recipes of modern science, has been tested more than once; it has been fed to animals - not just one, but a number of successive generations. In some cases, people are fed with it - it is used as therapeutic diet. And people get better and get stronger.
- Will artificial food taste good? And won’t it replace the pleasure that each of us gets from food with monotonous and boring satiation?
Artificial red caviar. Artificial food has already undergone essentially extensive testing. So, in England back in 1974, approximately 1,500 tons were sold artificial meat- pork, poultry, beef. Currently, 600 thousand tons of amino acids are produced on a global scale per year, and artificial glucose-fructose syrups are produced more than 3 million tons per year. In the United States, 30 percent of school lunches are allowed to be replaced with “soy meat.” Here, about 300 thousand tons of protein are produced annually from beans and soybeans; they will replace 10% of raw meat. World Health Organization experts believe that by 2020 daily ration each person will consist of at least a third of artificial milk and meat. The creation of artificial food is the grandest of the revolutions that chemistry has made and is making. Man has long mastered the technology of isolating pure protein from soybeans, cotton, rapeseed, sunflowers, peanuts, rice, corn, peas, wheat, green leaves, potatoes, hemp and many other plants. However, these are incomplete plant proteins that do not contain some essential amino acids. And in nutrition, a person needs sufficient amounts of complete animal protein. But where can I get it?
And man has learned, with the help of yeast, bacteria, unicellular algae and microorganisms, to convert carbohydrates, alcohols, paraffins, grass and even oil into cheap, complete food protein containing all the essential amino acids. Refining just 2% of the world's annual oil production can produce up to 25 million tons of protein - enough to feed 2 billion people for a year.
And this method of processing available cheap raw materials into scarce animal protein using microorganisms is called microbiological synthesis. The technology for producing microbial biomass as a source of valuable food proteins was developed back in the early 1960s. Then a number of European companies drew attention to the possibility of growing microbes on a substrate such as petroleum hydrocarbons to obtain the so-called. protein of unicellular organisms (SOO). A technological triumph was the production of a product consisting of dried microbial biomass grown in methanol. The process took place continuously in a fermenter with a working volume of 1.5 million liters.
However, due to rising prices for oil and its products, this project became economically unprofitable, temporarily giving way to the production of soybean and fishmeal. By the end of the 1980s, the BW production plants were dismantled, which put an end to the rapid but short period of development of this branch of the microbiological industry.
Biomass from waste
Another process turned out to be more promising - the production of mushroom biomass and complete mushroom protein mycoprotein using as a substrate a mixture of petroleum paraffins (very cheap waste from the oil refining industry), vegetable carbohydrates from food waste, mineral fertilizers and poultry waste.
The task of industrial microbiologists was to create mutant forms of microorganisms that are dramatically superior to their natural counterparts, i.e.
obtaining superproducers of complete protein from raw materials. Great progress has been made in this area: for example, it was possible to obtain microorganisms that synthesize proteins up to a concentration of 100 g/l (for comparison: wild-type organisms accumulate proteins in quantities calculated in milligrams). As microbial protein producers, the researchers chose two types of all-consuming microorganisms that can feed even on oil paraffins: the filamentous fungus Endomycopsis fibuligera and the yeast-like fungus Candida tropicalis (one of the causative agents of candidiasis and intestinal dysbiosis in humans). Each of these producers forms about 40% of the complete protein.
Scientists have also selected conditions for pre-treatment of waste added to oil paraffins for optimal growth of fungal microflora. Chicken manure is diluted and hydrolyzed under acidic conditions, and brewer's grains are also hydrolyzed with sulfuric acid. After such treatment, no foreign microorganisms that were in the waste survive and do not interfere with the growth of microscopic fungi sown on the substrate.
Technologists also selected the conditions for filtering the multiplied biomass of microorganisms from the nutrient medium. All tests performed have shown that the resulting product is non-toxic, which means that complete microbial protein can be obtained from a mixture of petroleum paraffins, chicken manure and vegetable carbohydrate raw materials. Thus, at the same time, a way has been found to effectively dispose of manure, which is one of the main problems in the development of industrial poultry farming. The result is an artificial “cycle of nutrients in nature” - what comes out of the stomach will return to it.
The next task was that the proteins isolated from fungi grown on the substrate and supplied to food processing plants under the name “biomass” were purified and deodorized, i.e. They are tasteless and odorless, colorless and are a powder, paste or viscous solution.
Designing food
There are hardly any people who want to eat them in this form, despite all the advantages in terms of nutritional and biological value. Therefore, at the first stage, they tried to simply add isolated tasteless proteins to traditional meat, and not only meat, products to enrich their amino acid composition.
But this path did not allow us to radically solve the protein problem. And scientists decided to create and construct artificial food products that do not differ in appearance from the traditional products we are accustomed to, based on the use of existing protein resources. This approach made it possible to regulate the composition, properties and degree of digestibility of the resulting food analogues, which is of particular importance in the organization of children's, therapeutic and preventive nutrition. And the use of special technology and equipment makes it possible to recreate the structure, appearance, taste, smell, color and all other properties , imitating a familiar product. In short, food engineering involves isolating protein from raw materials of various natures and converting it mechanically into an analogue of a food product with a given composition and properties.
At the end of the USSR (in 1989), the annual production of artificial protein substances exceeded 1 million tons. In conditions modern Russia the high profitability of such productions has made it possible to sharply increase the production of protein surrogates and now replace almost all meat in industrial minced meat products. Artificial meat products are produced in several ways, allowing one to obtain products that imitate meat, chopped cutlets, steaks, lump semi-finished products, sausages, frankfurters, ham and much more. Of course, it is impossible to create an indistinguishable imitation of a piece of meat - its structure is too complex. Another thing is minced meat and products made from it - sausages, frankfurters, sausages, etc. The technique and technology for producing meat analogues varies depending on the type of product. We will only tell you about some of the most interesting ones. In accordance with one of the methods, a solution of the isolated protein is fed under high pressure through a spinneret into a bath with a special acid-salt solution, where the protein coagulates, hardens, strengthens and undergoes orientation stretching, resulting in a protein thread.
Fillers containing binders, food (amino acids, vitamins, fats, micro- and macroelements), flavoring, aromatic and coloring substances are added to the fiber. The resulting fibers are grouped into bundles, formed into plates, cubes, pieces, granules by pressing and sintering when heated.
According to the experience of the textile industry, the resulting protein threads can be converted into a fiber-like food material, which, after swelling in water and cutting into pieces, differs little from natural meat products, but still different... It is not yet possible to reliably fake the complex structure of a piece of meat.
But in the production of meat products for sausages and minced meat products, they use another technology that allows them to optimally hide the counterfeit: animal and hydrogenated vegetable fats, spices, synthetic flavorings, aromatic substances and artificial dyes are introduced into jellies obtained by heating concentrated protein solutions. Modern chemistry is capable of creating a taste and smell of any product that, even by experts, is indistinguishable from natural ones. The liquid mass is injected into the sausage casing, boiled, fried and cooled. An analogue of ready-made minced sausage is completely indistinguishable from the natural product in taste, smell, appearance, and structure.
To obtain artificial meat products with a porous structure, highly concentrated protein solutions are mixed with fillers and under pressure at high temperature injected into an environment with lower temperature and pressure.
Due to the boiling of the liquid part, a product with a loose-porous structure is obtained. Some people are frightened by the very term “artificial” or “synthetic” meat, since this supposedly creates associations with something made of nylon or polyester. It should be noted that both the main components and all fillers used in the production of meat product analogs are harmless and balanced in the ratio of various essential nutritional components in accordance with physiological standards.
Scientific contribution of the USSR
You might be interested to know that in addition to artificial meat products, artificial milk and dairy products (based on emulsions of cheap vegetable fats), cereals, pasta, “potato” chips, “berry” and “fruit” products, and “nut” butters are produced. For confectionery, similarities to oysters and even black granular caviar. (In particular, on cans of artificial condensed “milk” they write not “Condensed Milk”, but “Condensed Milk” - be careful when choosing; look on the labels for instructions about the presence of vegetable fats, which cannot be in real dairy products.). Although the volume of production of artificial food products is constantly increasing, this does not mean that analogues of meat products will soon replace natural products.
Obviously, there will be (and is already happening) the distribution of these types of meat products in the diets of rich and poor, primarily through more complete and more rational processing of protein waste from the meat industry into cheaper artificial meat products. The production of food analogues is a relatively young area, but it is already generating enormous profits and providing food to billions of consumers around the world, including Russia. Moreover, it was the USSR, which ruined its agriculture, that made a special scientific and technological contribution to the development of this new branch of the food industry in the second half of the twentieth century.
In today's world, food has become too important. Eating food has become a leisure and entertainment activity. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as we are able to enjoy food. But rules and regulations must be followed if you want to be energetic and stay healthy, especially since artificial food began to prevail over natural.
Synthetic food
In terms of economic benefits, artificial food has many advantages, which is why it is present in large quantities on store shelves. It does not spoil for years, is addictive, smells good, tastes good, automated and inexpensive production, you can create any taste, eliminates the feeling of hunger. There are also benefits for buyers: low cost, tasty, can be bought everywhere. Not food, but a fairy tale. But the topic of health is completely ignored. Therefore, the choice is yours.
The pace of the big city dictates its own rules and there is practically no time left to eat, you have to throw in whatever you can get. Artificial food is a great helper in this. A chocolate bar, soda, hamburger, chips are wonderfully filling, tasty and inexpensive. You can chew on the go or while driving. Very comfortably. It seems like there are only advantages. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, behind which health problems are hidden in the future.
Moreover, some products seem to be natural, this includes fast food, but it is a semi-finished product, which means there is nothing natural there. Let's take for example a hamburger, like bread, a cutlet, some vegetables and sauce. But let's take a deeper look at what the bread, cutlet, sauce are made of, what kind of vegetables they are, how long they have been stored, where they are prepared and in what oil. It seems like meticulousness, but you put such food into yourself, and new cells will be created from this.
Now let's talk about the main substances used in artificial food.
Flavor enhancers
The most famous flavor enhancer is monosodium glutamate E621, which can be found everywhere. In small doses it has no harmful effects. Its insidious effect is the emergence of dependence on products, along with sugar and salt.
Flavors
Some are natural, some are artificial. Flavors identical to natural ones are obtained chemically, so they can hardly be called natural. Add aroma and taste to the product. Essential oils- These are natural flavors.
Flavor Substitutes
The flavor molecules of a particular product are chemically collected and used as additives. Flavor substitutes also include sweeteners.
Dyes
There are natural and artificial dyes. Natural dyes include beetroot or charcoal dye. Artificial colors are pure chemicals, although they are called food colors.
Preservatives
These are substances that extend the shelf life of the product. Natural ingredients include salt, honey, smoke, alcohol, vinegar, smoke, and seasonings. Artificial preservatives have not been fully studied; they are not dangerous in small quantities, but it is better to avoid them.
Margarine
Used as a substitute butter. Consists of various modified vegetable oils and animal fats with added salt, sugar, emulsifiers and flavorings. Mostly consists of trans fats. A dangerous product that can hardly be called natural.
Milk fat substitute
Consists of vegetable oils, mainly palm. Similar to margarine, but does not contain trans fats. Increases shelf life and reduces the cost of the product. Not fully studied, but used everywhere.
Emulsifiers
Give thickness, viscosity and uniformity to the product. In most cases, synthetic emulsifiers are used.
Synthetic food mainly consists of such substances; by adding flour or potato starch you can get a wonderful lunch or dinner.
