When you take a bite of your food, do you ever wonder where it comes from? Do you ever think what innovative breakthroughs are being made in the field of food when you are having a bowl of popcorn while playing vulkan vegas casino.
Well, you will be surprised to know that food is now being innovated from water. In fact, a Finnish start-up has produced meals from water, air, and electricity. This is a carbon-neutral way to develop food fit for human consumption.
The burning question that bothers many is what the future of food is? As the world population keeps growing before it stabilises in the next five decades, traditional agricultural methods are going to bear the brunt. This is the reason scientists are looking for new and innovative methods to create food for feeding future generations.
Innovative Food from Water
Solar Food, a company based in Helsinki, came up with a new way to create protein-rich ingredients that depend only on water, air, and electricity. At first, it was being developed for astronauts who go on space missions. But with time, they planned to feed the masses with their innovation. The company had the goal of 50 million meals worth of this innovative product on the shelves of grocery stores in the coming years.
According to Guardian, Solar Food has joined hands with the European Space Agency to provide food to astronauts on a mission to Mars. The new food has been named Solein. This product looks like wheat flour. However, the price is as little as €5 per kilo.
The process to produce Solein is like brewing beer. In this, live microbes are fed with hydrogen bubbles and carbon dioxide released from water with the application of electricity. Microbes are responsible for creating protein. When the protein is dried, it gives a powder. With the help of 3D printing, scientists are giving the powder a texture. However, it can also be used as a food ingredient. The power can be pulled in fibres just as bread or meat.
Solar Food believes their product is a new type of harvest. They strongly feel that their innovation can disrupt the production methods that have been practised since time immemorial. It is a carbon-neutral protein source. It can serve as an excellent solution to the rising demand for food in the world. But researchers must refine the process for producing this protein on a larger scale. This requires new reactors, adjusting energy levels, and working on efficiency.
We Need to Be Patient
Food from water is hardly the revolution you have heard or read about anywhere. But scientists believe that the production process can be scaled up. The protein powder from water can be a cheap livestock feeding food. This can free up land for growing crops for humans or planting trees that suck carbon dioxide. In time to come, it can be an alternative to meat for humans. However, all of these are going to take some time.
