Beyond the Clone
Cloned meat has stolen the headlines, but what about an eel protein that can make ice cream softer? Or a ground-up fish that can make your orange juice healthier? Food science is taking leaps to improve what we eat and how it’s stored
Omega-3, Arctic eel protein, carbon dioxide processing – sometimes food science can sound like something out of 1970s alien flick. Now everyone is talking about cloning.
On Jan. 15, 2007, the FDA made headlines by announcing that meat and milk from the cloned animals and their offspring is safe enough to enter the food supply. According to the FDA, “food derived from these sources is no different from food derived from conventionally bred animals” and thus would need no special labeling.
Because clones – exact genetic copies of another animal – cost thousands of dollars each, clones themselves would most likely not enter the food supply. Instead they would be used as elite breeding animals, passing their favorable traits onto a whole herd of sexually produced offspring. Nonetheless many consumers are wary the FDA might have missed something in its research and consumer groups such as the Humane Society of the United States, Washington D.C., say the higher rate of mortality and birth defects among clones jeopardizes the animals’ welfare.
“People see [cloning and genetically modified organisms] as playing Frankenstein – Frankenfoods,” says Barry Swanson, professor of food science at Washington State University, St. Louis. “Change is very difficult to accept. It’s the same with food, even more so.”
Also in the news is controversy over artificial bovine growth hormones (rBGH or rbST), which are injected into dairy cows to increase milk production. Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Starbucks are a few of the companies that sell rBGH-free milk due to ethical concerns over hormone use in cows. As of Feb. 1, however, Pennsylvania has banned rBGH-free labeling, saying it’s misleading to tout what is not in a product.
But while some technology draws the spotlight and lingers there, breakthroughs in food science are making it into your grocery basket every day, often without you even knowing it. Here are three of the more subtle ways science has permeated your supermarket:
Health
You’ve seen calcium-enriched orange juice before, but what about omega-3 enriched orange juice? It’s all part of food scientists’ quest to make food healthier.
After researchers discovered that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish reduce inflammation, help prevent heart disease and may even reduce risk for certain types of cancer, being able to add omega-3 to a variety of products sounded like a pretty good idea, especially since fish is not readily available in all of America. So how do food scientists go about doing something like that?
“The first issue is, ‘Where do you get the fats?’” explains John Coupland, chemistry specialist and professor at Penn State University’s food science department. “Then the next question is, ‘How do you add this to food?’ since omega-3 oxidizes quickly and starts smelling like rancid fish.”
Scientists discovered they could either grind up small, fatty fish and extract the oil or grow huge vats of algae naturally rich in the acid. They also solved the problem of the smell. The result – healthier orange juice.
Packaging
While probably the least glamorous, and certainly one of the least controversial sectors of food science, food packaging has had a large impact on the quality and economics of food. What used to spoil in a few days now stays fresh – and tastes fresh – on the shelf for weeks.
“If you were to pick up two packages, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” says David P. Brown a dairy specialist at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. “But maybe one package has a new film layer on the inside that acts as a moisture barrier so the food doesn’t spoil. To you it looks just like a cellophane package.”
Brown says one of the major advances in his department was the use of carbon dioxide in cottage cheese processing. By infusing cottage cheese with carbon dioxide when packaged, the cheese stayed fresh for much, much longer.
Another area of progress has been microwaveable packaging.
“There’s food that’s microwaveable that 10 years ago you would never even think about microwaving,” he says. “There have been changes in packaging technology that can make microwave food look like you’re taking it out of the oven.”
You may not rate mold-resistant cottage cheese or microwaveable steak as the discoveries of the decade, but a little help from the laboratory can make your mealtimes a little better nonetheless.
Taste
Ice cream with half the fat and a third of the calories sounds like a recipe for really horrible-tasting ice cream. But with the help of food scientists and an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish called the arctic pout, light ice cream has suddenly become, well, tasty.
By cloning a protein that prevents the pout’s blood from freezing in arctic waters, ice cream-makers have been able to prevent ice crystals from forming in their product, resulting in a dense, creamy ice cream with fewer additives. And, no, it doesn’t taste fishy.
The advance has sent sales of light ice cream through the roof. Edy’s (know as Dreyers west of Colorado) now markets the ice cream as “Slow Churned” and Breyers uses the term “Double Churned.” Both varieties can be found in freezer aisles around the country.
So while the cloning and hormone controversies on the nightly news may sound like distant issues, food science is something you can get excited about in your own kitchen – today.
“It’s not like talking about a nuclear supercollider or a nuclear power plant,” says Jim Klapthor, media relations manager for the Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago. “These are things people can walk to any local grocery store and pick up and purchase. That’s what’s cool.”
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