Engineering Food at the Molecular Level 297
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a New York Times article about the possibility of manipulating food at a molecular level. Though some of the initial suggestions are a little pointless (lower-fat ice cream, harder-to-melt M&Ms), weighter goals could eventually be achieved here as well. From the article: "Given the uncertainty about the risks of consuming new nano products, many analysts expect near-term investment to focus on novel food processing and packaging technology. That is the niche targeted by Sunny Oh, whose start-up company, OilFresh, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is marketing a novel device to keep frying oil fresh. OilFresh grinds zeolite, a mineral, into tiny beads averaging 20 nanometers across and coats them with an undisclosed material. Packed into a shelf inside the fryer, the beads interfere with chemical processes that break down the oil or form hydrocarbon clusters, Mr. Oh says. As a result, restaurants can use oil longer and transfer heat to food at lower temperatures, although they still need traditional filters to remove food waste from the oil. Mr. Oh said OilFresh will move beyond restaurants into food processing by the end of the month, when it delivers a 1,000-ton version of the device to a 'midsized potato chip company' that he said did not want to be identified. "
real food lover here (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm all for engineering but when it comes to what I eat I'm very oldfashioned. No reconstituted, GM, reprocessed anything.
Anyone else nervous ? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll take my potato chips without undisclosed materials, thank you very much.
Are zeolite nano-particles safe? (Score:3, Interesting)
Moon dust was a big problem huge problem for Apollo astronauts as it got past seals. I've heard that it's supposed to consist at least partially of nano-particles. The question is, do ordinary substances behave a lot differently when we grind them up into nano-particles?
My guess it that the FDA rules don't mention particle size when specifying food additives, so something like this could fly under the radar until someone thinks that maybe nano food additives might be a little different.
if technology allows it- we need ice 9 (Score:3, Interesting)
ice 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9 [wikipedia.org] among other interesting tidbits, should become a solid WITHOUT increasing in volume, this means for suspended animation- the cells don't burst.
is there no way to stack water molecules, so they stack neatly and tightly?
Re:real food lover here (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's take tomatoes for an example.
The fiber (basically cardboard) portion has been selected for to make a tomato that grows fast, is pest resistant, doesn't spoil, doesn't bruise, and basically has about 20% of the "good" stuff compared to a tomato that does spoil and bruise.
So... improvement is great- the question is what did they "improve"?
If they measured the nutrition provided by a natural tomato and scored these other tomatoes and provided a rating, then the growers would improve nutrition. Currently they are only being scored on pest resistance, resistance to shipping damage, and shelf life.
What you are eating that looks like a tomato, isn't really a tomato- it's really a mass of colored cardboard.
This extends to all food items. They are masses of odd substances that are cheaper than the real thing but produce a similar look and feel. They are not always toxic but they don't have any nutritional value.
So when we start scoring food based on the "good stuff" that matters- improvement will be beneficial to us.
Re:Call me old fashion... (Score:2, Interesting)
As to what needs to happen in the coming decades:
Increase in computing power 1000 fold (or more) for cellular stimulation runs of human cells representative of all the phenotypes.
Cheaper and automated recombintive techniques, so you can create variations fast and cheaply to test in at least a p3 biohazard environment. Then use those on testing of the human cell cultures to backup the simulations above.
ANd most of all better understanding of the genome we are trying to alter.
until that happens the only GM that should happen is adding genes from from other edible plants. These aswaping genes from animals to plants is too much of an unkown.
Very scary (Score:3, Interesting)
And what happens when you digest some of those beads? They prevent your liver from breaking down the oil?
Toothpaste too. (Score:3, Interesting)
Also toothpaste and some tattoos. [wikipedia.org] Am I supposed to be spooked by this?