Future Foods: How Modern Science Is Transforming the Way We Eat

By David Julian McClements

We are in the midst of an unprecedented era of rapid scientific and technological advances that are transforming the way our foods are produced and consumed.  Food architecture is being used to construct healthier, tastier, and more sustainable foods.  Functional foods are being created to combat chronic diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.  These foods are fortified with nutraceuticals or probiotics to improve our mood, performance, and health.  The behavior of foods inside our guts is being controlled to increase their healthiness.  Precision nutrition is being used to tailor diets to our unique genetic profiles, microbiomes, and metabolisms.  Gene editing, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence are being used to address modern food challenges such as feeding the growing global population, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing waste, and improving sustainability.  However, the application of these technologies is facing a backlash from consumers concerned about the potential risks posed to human and environmental health.  

Some of the questions addressed in this book are:  What is food architecture?  How does sound and color impact taste?  Will we all have 3D food printers in all our homes?  Should nanotechnology and gene editing be used to enhance our foods?  Are these new technologies safe?  Would you eat bug-foods if it led to a more sustainable food supply?  Should vegetarians eat themselves?  Can nutraceuticals and probiotics stop cancer?  What is the molecular basis of a tasty sustainable burger?  

David Julian McClements is a Distinguished Professor in food science who has used physics, chemistry, and biology to improve the quality, safety, and healthiness of foods for over 30 years.  He has published over 900 scientific articles and 10 books in this area and is currently the most highly cited food scientist in the world.  He has won numerous scientific awards for his work.  The aim of this book is to highlight the many exciting advances being made in the science of foods, and to show their application for solving important problems related to the modern food supply, such as tackling chronic diseases, feeding a global population, reducing food waste, and creating healthier and tastier foods. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copernicus
• Release date: Apr 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9783030129958

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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

David Julian McClementsFuture Foodshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12995-8_1

1. The Science of Foods: Designing Our Edible Future

David Julian McClements¹ 

(1)

Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

A Local Food Challenge: Breakfast in New England

The struggle between those who advocate for the application of technology to foods, and those who oppose it, is not a new one. Eat whole foods, not too much, mainly plants. Avoid food additives and processed foods. These recommendations sound like the pronouncements of a contemporary critic of the modern food industry but were actually advocated by Sylvester Graham (1794–1851) over a century and a half ago. Many Americans are familiar with the name of this pioneering whole food advocate because he was the inspiration for the Graham cracker, a dense whole wheat cookie similar to the iconic digestive biscuit in Britain – my birthplace. I first came across his name by chance one chilly winter morning in Northampton, a quaint New England college town located in the beautiful pioneer valley of Western Massachusetts, where I live now. This small town has a lively art and music scene, as well as lots of independent cafes and restaurants. Sylvester’s is one of the most popular breakfast places in town, and there is often a line to get in. On this particular morning it was so cold outside we decided to wait in the entrance hall. There, I noticed a fading sepia poster outlining the history of Sylvester Graham – apparently, the building had once been his home and the restaurant was named after him. He came across as a fascinating but slightly odd character.

Graham was born in 1794 in Connecticut to a 70 year old father and a mentally ill mother, who already had 17 children. He trained as a preacher in Amherst, the town where I work, and is said to have had remarkable oratory skills. Despite this, he was expelled before graduating for inappropriate behavior and suffered a nervous breakdown. He then started a life as an itinerant preacher and was briefly associated with the Philadelphia Temperance Society, where he was exposed to the ideas of abstinence, vegetarianism, and the perils of food adulteration. Later, he focused his fiery speaking skills on advocating for improved spiritual and bodily health through diet and lifestyle changes. He believed people should only eat plant-based foods prepared simply at home without the use of additives, much like many modern-day food activists. In his lifetime, he became famous as a dietary reformer and inspired a movement called Grahamism that practiced vegetarianism, alcoholic abstinence, frequent bathing, and brushing one’s teeth every day. Graham co-founded the American Vegetarian Society and had a scientific periodical named after him, The Graham Journal of Health and Longevity, which is quite a legacy. Towards the end of his eventful life, he moved to Northampton, my hometown, where he struggled with mental health problems and died at the age of 57. He is buried in a modest ochre colored grave next to my daughter’s elementary school, which I visited while writing this book (Fig. 1.1). Graham would certainly not have approved of the fare currently being served at his namesake restaurant. Huge plates piled high with bacon, sausages, and chocolate chip pancakes must have him turning in his grave.

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Fig. 1.1

Sylvester Graham’s modest gravestone is located in the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, Massachusetts where he died in 1851. (Photograph taken by the author in September 2018)

Around the same time that Graham and his followers were advocating for fresh produce and homemade foods, another social movement was advocating for a more rigorous application of science and technology to food and agriculture. This movement eventually led to the passing of the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. Justin Smith Morrill (1810–1898), a senator from Vermont, who was also a farmer and a lawyer, sponsored this bill. It aimed to establish at least one center of higher learning in every state that would be accessible to all and that would emphasize the teaching of agriculture and mechanics. He believed that America urgently needed more people educated in these practical sciences as they were the foundation of all present and future prosperity. The Massachusetts Agricultural College was established in Amherst in 1863 as a result of this bill, which eventually became the University of Massachusetts, where I work. The foundation of the land-grant universities was a pivotal moment in the application of scientific principles to food and agriculture. In 1918, the first academic department within the United States dedicated entirely to the science and technology of foods was established at the University of Massachusetts. The evolution of this department has followed a similar path to many other food science departments. Initially, it focused on teaching students and homemakers the technology of food perseveration, then it shifted towards the development of new and more efficient food manufacturing processes, and now it has a major emphasis on the science linking diet to health.

The pioneering efforts of the people working or trained in these new academic institutions helped to create the modern food landscape. Globally, we are feeding billions of more people now than we were in the nineteenth century. Our supermarkets are crammed full of fruits, vegetables, and other products from all around the world, many of which were utterly unknown to our grandparents or great-grandparents. Foods are more convenient, better quality, safer, and more affordable than ever before. The availability of these foods has liberated us from many arduous and time-consuming tasks, giving us the freedom to pursue more personally rewarding goals (like watching cat videos on our phones). In many respects, we are living in the golden age of food. But, before we get carried away, Sylvester Graham had a point when he cautioned against eating highly processed foods and encouraged consumption of more plant-based foods. The large-scale industrial production of cheap and convenient processed foods, especially those derived from animals, has led to a food culture that is damaging the health of many of us, as well as our environment. It is clear that science and technology do have great potential for improving our food supply, but we must use them wisely.

From a practical point of view, one of the most pressing questions food science can answer is What should we eat? As an example, like most parents, I want to give my daughter a healthy breakfast before she goes to school, but what should I give her? There are many options, and I have highlighted just a few of them in Table 1.1, along with their calorie contents and nutritional profiles – I am a food science nerd after all. The high schools in Massachusetts start far too early (7:30 am in my daughter’s case) and so we are always in a rush to get ready in the morning, so I want something quick and convenient. However, it should also be something my daughter will eat. She might love to have chocolate chip pancakes and maple syrup every morning, but this calorie bomb would undoubtedly be an unwise choice from a health standpoint. But, calories are not the only factor to consider.

Table 1.1

Nutritional information of different breakfasts typically eaten in the McClements household (before and after becoming vegetarian). The nutritional content of the Full English Breakfast is from guysandgoodhealt​h.​com. %RV = percentage of recommended daily value

The healthiness of a breakfast also depends on the type and level of nutrients it contains, such as fat, carbohydrate, and protein. Foods with high levels of carbohydrate and fat are (probably) less healthy than those with high levels of protein. Moreover, the specific type of each nutrient may also affect their healthiness: fats may be saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated; carbohydrates may be sugars, starches, or dietary fibers; proteins may be allergenic or not. Polyunsaturated fats are healthier than saturated fats, whereas dietary fibers are healthier than sugars and starches, provided you are not starving. Each breakfast contains different levels of vitamins, minerals, and nutraceuticals that (may) have beneficial health effects, as well as different salt and cholesterol levels that (may) have adverse health effects. A comparison of the nutritional attributes of different breakfasts quickly becomes extremely complicated, and there are still many other factors to consider. Will my daughter eat it? Will it fill her up? Will she have to eat again before lunch? Is it sustainable, ethical, and environmentally friendly?

Moreover, breakfast is only one of the meals we consume during the day, and similar questions arise for everything we eat. On top of this, we are continually bombarded with nutritional advice and health claims from academics, government officials, food companies, and the media. It quickly became apparent how complicated and confusing it was to rationally decide what was the best diet for my family and me. Was Sylvester Graham’s, and much later Michael Pollan’s, simple evocation to "Eat Foods, Not Too Much, Mainly Plants" the best guide to navigating the modern food landscape? This may be good advice for a relatively well-off professional living in an affluent college town, but was it good advice for those struggling to make ends meet with limited resources and time?

I have been a Professor of Food Science for over two decades and spend my days studying, teaching, and writing about foods. However, like many research scientists, my field of interest is extremely narrow, in my case the use of nanotechnology in foods. As a result, when I started writing this book, I was only vaguely aware of the broader issues associated with food, nutrition, and the environment. If even a professional food scientist was confused, what hope was there for others? One of my main motivations for writing Future Foods was, therefore, to better understand the complex issues surrounding food and its impact on the health of us and our environments. I also wanted to highlight some of the exciting scientific and technological advances that have the potential to transform our food supply and change the way we eat.

Global Food Challenges: Feeding the World

Deciding what to eat for breakfast is a very local food challenge – as my nephew Jake would say it’s a first world problem. As a whole, humankind needs to consider how and what to feed all of the people on our planet. A well-functioning global society should address a hierarchy of needs associated with foods, ranging from meeting people’s basic nutritional requirements, ensuring what people eat is safe, maintaining a sustainable environment, providing rewarding employment, and contributing to a healthy food culture.

Meeting Basic Nutritional Needs

Of course, the first requirement of the global food supply is to provide us all with enough calories and nutrients to survive and thrive. Malnutrition and undernutrition are still major challenges around the world. The percentage of people suffering from these problems has actually decreased since the start of the twenty-first century, which is a remarkable achievement (Fig. 1.2). Still, UNICEF has reported that nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to undernutrition, translating into the loss of about 3 million young lives a year, with Africa and Asia being the worst affected areas. Moreover, there are still over 700 million people who are malnourished, and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations predicts that the global population will continue to grow, increasing from around 7.4 billion in 2017 to around nine billion in 2048 (Fig. 1.3). The agricultural and food manufacturing industries, therefore, need to create more food, while societies need to ensure it is distributed to all who need it. A diverse range of strategies will be required to increase the productivity and efficiency of food production, while minimizing damage to the environment, including conventional, organic, and advanced technological approaches.

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Fig. 1.2

The absolute number of malnourished people in the world decreased slightly from 2000 to 2014, but increased slightly after that. The percentage of malnourished people fell quite steeply because the global population increased. Data from FAO (www.​fao.​org/​state-of-food-security-nutrition/​en/​)

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Fig. 1.3

The global population is estimated to increase to over nine billion by 2050. Moreover, there are a higher fraction of people moving to urban centers, becoming wealthier, and desiring more meat products. These changes are putting a strain on global resources. Data from Wikipedia World_Population_Estimates

Genetic engineering can be used to create crops that grow in areas that cannot currently be cultivated, that have increased yields, and that are more resistant to infection. Nevertheless, the benefits of these genetic tools will only be realized if they are adopted. Many people are vehemently opposed to foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and many governments currently ban or restrict their application. It is certainly appropriate to be cautious when adopting any new technology, especially one that can affect billions of people. However, when rigorous scientific testing shows that a genetically modified food does not harm us or our environment, and the benefits clearly outweigh the costs, then it should be adopted. Advanced genetic tools, such as CRISPR, which enable one to precisely edit the genes of plants and animals, have the potential to revolutionize agriculture and food production and should be actively but cautiously pursued. Moreover, the public should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with these new technologies, so they can make informed choices about what to eat. The judicious use of these advanced technologies, as well as others, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, may prove critical to ensuring there is sufficient food for us all. However, technological solutions are only one element in the global strategy needed to address these issues. Changes in trade policies, agricultural subsidies, taxes, investment priorities, and logistics are also extremely important. We will need to use all of the tools available to us.

Even in developed countries, there are large numbers of people who do not have enough to eat or who cannot afford a healthy diet. There are currently over 40 million people in the US who go hungry, which is shocking for such a wealthy country. The USDA’s Economic Research Service reported that the risk of low-income adults developing a chronic disease increases as their food security worsens. The bottom quarter of the population who suffer from food security is over 6%, 110%, 150%, and 400% more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and asthma than the top quarter (Fig. 1.4). These dramatic disparities in health outcomes are not all due to differences in diet, but the type and amount of food we consume certainly plays an important role. The fraction of disposable income spent by the average American consumer on food has fallen steadily for decades, dropping from around 23% in 1953 to only 11% in 2013, which is a testament to the increased efficiency of food production. However, there are large disparities between the amount spent on foods by the rich and poor in the United States. In 2015, the richest fifth of the population spent $12,350 per year on food in grocery stores and eating out, which was less than 9% of their income. Conversely, the poorest fifth spent only $3700, but this corresponded to 36% of their income. It may seem surprising that poorer people are much more likely to be overweight and obese than richer people, despite having considerably less disposable income to spend on food. This situation arises because those with less money and resources often have to select cheaper processed foods containing high levels of fat, sugar, and salt, which increases their chances of getting chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

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Fig. 1.4

A variety of diseases are more prevalent in the poor than in the rich. Data from USDA database (www.​ers.​usda.​gov)

This is a dreadful state of affairs for such an advanced country and one that will require the concerted efforts of governments, industry, and consumers to address. The government should implement policies that make fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods more affordable and available, as well as encouraging people to eat fewer foods containing high levels of salts, sugars, fats, and calories. This will require a combination of subsidies, taxes, regulations, and education programs. However, for many people, processed foods will continue to play a central role in their diets because they are affordable and convenient. Based on our growing knowledge of the relationship between food and health, as well as the advanced processing technologies now available to us, it is possible to create healthier versions of processed foods. The challenge is to make these foods affordable, convenient, and desirable; otherwise, they will never be consumed.

This should be a major goal of the modern food industry – to create a new generation of healthy processed foods for both the rich and the poor. Some forward-thinking and socially responsible food companies are already working on this challenge. Others are, however, just creating healthy-sounding foods that are still packed full of calories, such as protein-rich snack bars with more calories than a chocolate bar. As consumers, we need to become better informed and to choose foods from those companies doing the right thing.

Managing Our Edible Environment: Sustainability

While striving to meet the nutritional requirements of the current global population, it is essential that we do not damage our environment so we can meet the food, water, and energy needs of future generations. Farming, fishing, and food manufacturing are major industries that have a substantial environmental footprint. One of the most comprehensive surveys of the impact of food production on the environment was recently published in the prestigious journal Science by Professor Joseph Poore from the University of Oxford and his colleague Thomas Nemecek from Agroscope in Zurich [1]. This study was an impressive piece of work with the researchers reviewing over 1500 earlier studies. Eventually, they included data from over 38 thousand farms and 1600 food producers in the final report, which included foods representing around 90% of global calorie consumption.

The authors found that the modern food supply contributes over a quarter of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the leading causes of terrestrial and water pollution, requires vast quantities of land and freshwater resources, and is rapidly reducing biodiversity and resilience. The researchers assessed the impact of the whole food supply chain on our environment, including farms, processors, retailers, and consumers. They reported that there are hundreds of millions of farms around the world producing our food in varying climatic and soil conditions. A particularly interesting finding was that there was as much as a 50-fold difference in the efficiency of different farms producing comparable foods, even under reasonably similar conditions. Thus, substantial improvements could be made by the less efficient farms adopting the practices of the more efficient ones. The authors suggested that if farms monitored their food production activities more closely and collected more detailed data about these activities, it would be possible to make substantial improvements in all farms. However, this is unlikely to happen within our current economic system because farmers and producers want to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Government policy changes may be required to encourage farmers and food manufacturers to report more information about their food production operations so that consumers can choose the most efficient and sustainable ones, thereby giving food producers a greater incentive to optimize their operations.

Another key recommendation of this study was that farmers should be encouraged to change from growing a single crop (monoculture) to growing a wider diversity of crops to reduce agricultural land use and greenhouse gas emissions. From an environmental and sustainability viewpoint, the impact of switching from an animal-based to a plant-based diet was particularly dramatic. Animal products, such as meat, fish, eggs, and milk, require about 83% of the total farmland to produce only 18% of our calories and 37% of our protein. The production of animal products also has a much greater negative impact on our environment in terms of pollution, land use, and waste. The researchers estimated that if everyone on the planet switched to an exclusively plant-based diet there would be enormous benefits, including a 76% reduction in land use for food production, a 49% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 50% reduction in soil pollution due to acidification, and a 49% reduction in water pollution due to eutrophication.¹

The study identified many reasons for the different impacts of animals and plants on our environment, including the low feed-to-protein conversion rate of animals, the deforestation required to grow animal feed, the emissions associated with the animals themselves (such as cow burps and farts), the emissions associated with transporting and slaughtering animals, and finally the greater waste for animal products due to spoilage. A change in global dietary habits from meat to plants would be enough to offset the expected increase in the world population. However, it is unrealistic to expect everyone to stop eating meat and this is only one strategy to address our global food challenges. Many other approaches can also be employed, including improving farm productivity, reducing waste, and adopting conservation agriculture and organic farming practices. Different farmers and producers will need to select a different combination of these approaches depending on their particular circumstances.

My family and I went vegetarian a few years ago after my daughter watched a documentary on the meat industry as part of one of her middle school classes. I had done the same thing many years earlier when I took a course in meat science at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) and was exposed to graphic photographs and gory stories highlighting the treatment of animals by the meat industry. However, I had lapsed after a few months mainly because of the lack of affordable, tasty, and convenient alternatives to meat at the time, and my lackluster cooking skills. After my daughter became a vegetarian, it was more straightforward for the whole family to follow suit, so we did not have to prepare two versions of every meal. Since then, our rationale for turning vegetarian has become more based on ethical, health, and environmental issues. Eating mainly plant-based foods is better for the health of both us and the environment and reduces the number of animals exposed to the terrible conditions in many factory farms. There are now delicious vegetarian and vegan foods on the market that make it easier for people to switch to a plant-based diet. There are also some exciting advances in the creation of alternative protein sources, such as clean meat grown in a factory without killing any animals and insect meat cultivated on bug farms. The innovative science underpinning recent efforts to create meat alternatives that taste delicious is covered in a later chapter, using the humble burger as an example. There, I will highlight the opportunities and challenges of replacing conventional meat with clean meat, bug meat, and plant-based alternatives.

Reducing Food Waste

Much of the food we currently produce goes to waste because it is lost during production and distribution, not sold, or not eaten by the consumer. Incredibly, about a third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted, amounting to around 1.3 billion metric tonnes per year [2]. This is over 5 times more than the entire food production of Sub-Saharan Africa. In the future, it is critical that we reduce this level of waste, and that we convert any waste that is generated back into food or into valuable non-food materials, such as biodegradable packaging. We can address this problem by improving the efficiency of the distribution chain, and by educating consumers to be more mindful in buying, storing, and using foods. As you will learn in later chapters, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology may also play an essential role in reducing food waste. Gene editing is being used to increase the resistance of crops to spoilage. Microscopic sensors are being incorporated into foods and their packaging to monitor their status throughout their lifetimes. If the food is experiencing adverse storage conditions or is nearing the end of its shelf-life, then a sensor alerts the farmer, distributor, or consumer. This alert could be a simple change in color of the food or packaging, or an electronic signal sent to a mobile phone. These new sensor technologies enable farmers to monitor their crops more closely and identify the best time to treat or harvest them. They can also be used throughout the distribution chain to ensure foods are maintained at optimum storage conditions. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used to store and analyze all of the data collected from these sensors, which is then being used to optimize the supply chain. Advances in nanotechnology are enabling the development of more effective fertilizers and pesticides that increase crop resilience and reduce crop losses. These new technologies have enormous potential but must be employed wisely to avoid causing any harm.

The nature and scale of the food waste problem were highlighted in a recent study in the UK, which keeps some of the most detailed records on this subject [2]. The most significant source of food waste was found to be fresh fruits and vegetables, with around a third of them being lost. The wasted food contained high levels of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers, and proteins, which were therefore not available to promote our health. Moreover, the high levels of food thrown away contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water utilization. This highlights one of the undesirable consequences of replacing processed foods with fresh ones – improvements in health must be weighed against potential reductions in sustainability. Reducing food waste requires behavioral changes, such as planning our shopping lists better, keeping our eyes on what’s in our fridges, and not preparing too much food at each meal. However, technological advances will also play an essential role in reducing the amount of food we throw away, such as new antimicrobials, better processing methods, or smarter packaging. Many food scientists are actively involved in developing natural antimicrobials and preservatives, as well as new kinds of packaging materials, to extend the shelf life of foods. Some of these packaging materials are themselves made out of food waste, such as the proteins or polysaccharides found in waste streams. You will learn about a number of these innovative approaches later in this book.

Keeping Foods Safe

In modern developed countries, most people take it for granted that their food is safe. However, even in the United States, which has a highly advanced food system, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that about 1 in 6 people get food poisoning every year, which is around 48 million people. Of these, the illness is so severe that about 128 thousand people end up in hospital and about three thousand die [3]. These seem like alarmingly high numbers, but when one considers that a typical person consumes over 1000 meals per year, the chance of actually getting food poisoning from any single meal is only around 1-in-6000 (around 0.02%). The relative risk of fatal food poisoning can also be appreciated by comparing it to other causes of death. The annual risk of dying from food poisoning is around 1 in a 100 thousand, which is three times less than from getting killed in a shooting and 12 times less than being killed in a traffic accident. The percentage of deaths due to food poisoning in developed countries has decreased steadily over the past century due to various factors, including more sanitary food production and transport facilities, better food handling by consumers and restaurant workers, and enhanced microbial detection and prevention methods. Even so, there can always be improvements, and there are continuing challenges that need to be faced.

Globalization means that food chains stretch over vast geographical areas. The foods we buy in our local supermarkets originate from all corners of the earth. A single product may contain beef from Argentina, oil from Malaysia, spices from India, and corn from the USA. These products may be contaminated in their country of origin or during transport across the globe, and so it is vital to have appropriate measures to ensure they remain safe. Humans are in a constant battle with bacteria – as we find new ways to control them, they develop new mechanisms to resist these controls. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem in medicine and veterinary science, but also in the food industry. As they multiply, microbes make slight copying errors in their DNA, so that a small fraction of them may be resistant to an antimicrobial agent. As a result, these select microbes propagate and carry the resistant genes into the next generation, making them harder to kill. In addition, microorganisms exchange genetic material with other species, thereby swapping genes that enable them to resist the antimicrobials we use to control them. There is, therefore, always a need to develop new methods to prevent, detect, and control the microbes in our foods.

Ensuring a Healthy Population

The type and amount of food we eat have a significant impact on our health. Poor diets are estimated to cause more deaths and disability than smoking, alcohol, and physical inactivity combined and may account for over 40% of the total disease burden [4]. Changes in dietary habits over the past few decades have led to dramatic increases in many chronic diseases. In the US, the obesity level increased from around 15% of the population in 1963, the year I was born, to over 40% in 2017 (Fig. 1.5). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that it costs an additional $1400 to treat someone who is obese. Consequently, the increasing number of obese people in our societies will place a huge economic burden on our health care systems. Moreover, there will be a substantial economic impact due to the number of days lost due to illness. Add on top of this the additional costs due to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and depression, and the social and economic burden will be staggering. One of the big questions facing society is, therefore, why has this steep increase in obesity occurred? Is it because our disposable incomes have increased, making foods more affordable? Is it due to an increase in the fat, sugar, or salt levels in our diets? Is it because our foods have become more easily digestible? Or, is it due to some other factor?

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Fig. 1.5

There have been appreciable changes in the disposable income, energy intake, obesity prevalence, and nutrient intake since 1960. Data taken from USDA databases (www.​ers.​usda.​gov)

The food industry is highly diverse, consisting of small, medium and large companies, selling products ranging from healthy (fruits and vegetables) to less healthy (candies, snacks, and soft drinks). The ultimate aim of food companies is to make a profit; otherwise, they will not survive in a competitive market. To do this, they must make products that we want to buy, which involves making them tasty, affordable, and convenient. We are genetically hardwired to like fats, sugars, and salts, and so many food companies create products with high levels of these bad ingredients. Moreover, these ingredients are often present in highly processed foods that are digested rapidly in our bodies, leading to a spike in our blood sugar or fat levels. Many nutritionists believe that overconsumption of these types of foods is one of the major causes for the alarming increase in diet-related chronic diseases in many developed countries.

The food industry is highly criticized for producing and promoting processed foods that are damaging to our health [2, 4]. In particular, they have been condemned by nutritionists for aggressively marketing unhealthy products to children. Some food companies have responded by changing their marketing strategies and developing foods designed to be healthier, others have just ignored or discredited their critics, and some have created products that sound healthy but are actually not, such as low-fat cookies containing high levels of sugar or high-protein cereals with extra calories.

Social scientists have pointed out that food companies have used many of the same tactics adopted by the cigarette industry to safeguard their products [4]. These tactics include focusing on personal responsibility, emphasizing the role of physical inactivity, criticizing unfavorable studies, selectively using scientific data, supporting industry-friendly scientists and organizations, and lobbying governments [5]. Many food manufacturers are in a difficult position – they have built their companies by selling a particular product and need to make a profit to remain economically viable. If your core product has a strong potential to cause health problems, such as sugary drinks, snacks, or candies, then you will try to defend your business. There is little incentive for food companies to convince people to eat less of their products.

It is clear, however, that the current food environment is detrimental to our health. There is a pressing need for governments, consumers, and industry to change this landscape to make it more conducive to our wellbeing. This goal could be achieved by encouraging people to consume more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole foods, while eating less processed foods containing high levels of fat, sugar, and salt. Nevertheless, eating more fresh foods is not practical for everyone. They are often relatively expensive, go off quickly, and require more time and energy to prepare. What we really need are processed foods that are affordable and convenient but also healthy and tasty.

One of the fastest growing trends in the food industry is the creation of products with reduced levels of bad ingredients (such as fat, sugar, and salt) and increased levels of good ones (such as dietary fibers, ω-3 fatty acids, probiotics, vitamins, and nutraceuticals). However, these new functional foods must be carefully formulated based on sound science, and then rigorously tested to ensure they have the health benefits claimed for them and are not just another marketing strategy. These foods also have to look and taste good, as well as being convenient and affordable. Many food companies are also reformulating their products to have cleaner labels, reducing the total number of ingredients they contain and replacing synthetic ingredients with natural alternatives. Many of these changes are in response to the harsh criticism directed at the modern food industry by food activists. Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and Michael Moss’s Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, as well as many other books, documentaries, and movies, have alerted us to the problems of the modern food system. The successful design of a new generation of healthier processed foods requires a thorough understanding of the fundamental chemistry, biology, and physics of foods.

Nurturing Food Culture: Community, Pleasure, and Status

Food is not only essential for ensuring our health and wellbeing, it also plays a critical role in our emotional life, our sense of belonging, and our sense of self. Food brings us pleasure and comfort, as well as connecting us to our families, friends, and broader social groups. I still have fond memories of my brother and me staying with my grandparents in a small village in North Yorkshire in England during the summer vacations. We would rush to finish our dinners so we could start on the delicious cakes my granny had baked and carefully placed on a decorated cake stand in the center of the table. Chocolate wafers with vivid pink or green coconut fillings, Millionaire’s shortbread coated with a thick layer of homemade toffee and chocolate, and hot strawberry jam tarts. Like Proust’s madeleines, tasting these pastries now takes me back to a special time in my childhood years playing cricket on the village green or paddling in the local stream.

In some developing countries, iconic Western foods have become a status symbol, which has led to a proliferation of shops and restaurants selling hamburgers, fried chicken, soda, and pizza. This has been the result of intense marketing campaigns by the food industry, but also by people’s desire to be part of a globalized culture. As many of these countries have become more affluent and adopted Westernized diets, there has been a rise in non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Food culture and health status are intimately intertwined. The Gates foundation reported that many urban consumers in low- and middle-income countries spend more than half of their limited resources on cheap snacks, such as crackers, chips, candies, and cookies, which are high in calories but low in micronutrients. Over-reliance on these foods is leading to both obesity and nutrient deficiency simultaneously. Research is needed to enhance the nutritional quality of the foods available in these developing countries. These foods should be tailored to the tastes of the local population and designed to deliver the micronutrients required in a bioavailable form. Again, fundamental knowledge of the basic principles of food science and nutrition is necessary to develop these foods. Ideally, solutions will be developed that can be implemented at a local level using locally-sourced ingredients and production facilities.

The Importance of Being Scientific

Most of us living in developed countries consume foods at least two or three times a day, usually at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but we may also sneak in a few additional snacks between meals. We are so familiar with foods in our everyday lives that we often do not appreciate where they come from, how they are produced, and what incredibly complex materials they are. In particular, many people are unaware of the work done by food scientists, or even realize that there is a specific scientific discipline that focuses on the science of foods. When I tell people that I am a food scientist they usually assume I wear a chef’s hat at work and am mainly involved in some kind of cooking. One of the few food scientists that people might have heard of is Clark Griswald from the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation who is supposed to be a food chemist working on a crunch enhancer, which is actually something real food scientists do work on. In reality, however, food science is a much broader and more rigorous scientific discipline than crunch enhancement, and it employs a broad range of fundamental and applied sciences to improve the food supply and address the various food-related challenges facing society. Food scientists use chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, nutrition, psychology, and social sciences to create safer, healthier, tastier, cheaper, more innovative, and more sustainable foods. The results of the research carried out by food scientists are found in the supermarket aisles, restaurant menus, kitchen cupboards, cafes, bakeries, butchers, ice cream parlors, and health food stores that surround us. These foods are designed for a variety of purposes and may be more or less healthy, depending on the ingredients they contain and how they are incorporated into our diets. Given the critical role food plays in all of our lives, it is surprising that food science is not a more well-known scientific discipline.

The Food Scientists

Food scientists can be divided into five main categories: Food Producers, Food Designers, Food Constructors, Food Detectives, and Food Gastrologists. Having said this, one of the things I love most about food science, is that it is a highly multidisciplinary subject requiring individuals to cross academic boundaries and form teams with the complementary skills needed to solve complex but important problems. For a scientist, the sheer complexity of foods and their interactions with our bodies is one of the most exciting aspects of working in this area. Here, I highlight some of the things that food scientists spend their time doing.

The Food Producers

As a species, we have been incredibly ingenious in the diverse ways we have found to feed ourselves. Unlike most other animals, which are dependent on the edible resources available in their environmental niche, we scour all regions of the world to secure a diverse range of things to eat. We fish the rivers, lakes, and oceans, we plant seeds to grow crops, we collect nuts, seeds, herbs and fruits from trees, bushes, and shrubs, we raise animals for their meat, eggs, and milk, we harness the power of microbes to preserve and enhance our foods, we use insects for their protein-rich bodies, eggs, or honey, we mine the land and evaporate the sea to extract salts and other minerals. Moreover, we use our knowledge of chemistry, physics, and biology to supplement these natural resources with entirely new food ingredients that never existed before, such as synthetic colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Our distant relatives only had to produce enough food to feed a relatively small number of people in their immediate social network. Now, we have to think about feeding the entire global population. The focus of many agricultural and food scientists is therefore to increase the productivity and efficiency of our food supply. Some of these scientists are working to optimize traditional farming and food processing methods. Some are developing new technologies, such as gene editing, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, to increase yields, reduce waste, and minimize pollution. Others are creating more efficient and environmentally friendly sources of proteins and micronutrients, such as clean meat, insect farming, microbial fermentation, and plant-based foods. The success of their work will be critical to maintaining the high quality of life many of us in developed countries take for granted and to which many people aspire to in developing ones. In the future, these new technologies may become as commonplace as freezing, canning, drying, and microwaving, which were all radical new technologies not so long ago. In this book, you will learn about many of the innovative technologies being developed by food scientists to improve our food supply, as well as the potential risks associated with their use.

The Food Designers

The food designers are the scientists and research chefs responsible for creating the diverse range of foods and drinks you find in your supermarkets and fast-food restaurants. The coffees, teas, milk, creams, breakfast cereals, oatmeal, pasta, canned foods, frozen foods, burgers, sausages, desserts, yogurts, sauces, dressings, snacks, packaged fruits and vegetables, and much more. Foods exhibit an incredible diversity of properties, ranging from liquids that flow very smoothly (milk) to tough solids (gobstoppers). The modern food designer has to create each of these foods so that it looks, feels and tastes desirable to consumers, as well as being safe, convenient, and affordable. Moreover, they may have to use their knowledge of food science and nutrition to reformulate traditional foods to make them healthier or more sustainable.

Foods as Built Materials

An essential aspect of the work of food designers is to understand the composition, structure, and properties of foods at a fundamental scientific level. Food chemists carry out research to identify the different components present within our foods and to determine how they interact with each other and with our bodies to generate their unique appearances, textures, and tastes. Food chemists also study how foods are altered by the various processes we use to prepare them in our factories and kitchens, such as mixing, blending, kneading, baking, boiling, frying, grilling, microwaving, chilling, freezing, and storage.

Advanced analytical, computational, and theoretical tools are being used to understand the processes occurring within our foods at the molecular, microscopic, and macroscopic levels. This knowledge is then being used to develop new ingredients and foods, to increase the efficiency of food production, to enhance the shelf-life and safety of our foods, to increase their diversity and quality, to make them taste better, and to make them healthier. Much of this work is similar to that carried out by the material scientists responsible for creating the other types of everyday object that surround us, such as our houses, cars, clothes, furniture, toothpaste, soaps, and shampoos. The same science used to create toothpastes that can be squeezed from a tube or shampoos that can be poured from a bottle are being employed to develop squeezable cream cheeses or pourable salad dressings. Moreover, the technological advances being used to make stronger polymers for use in our cars, planes, and homes are being used to make foods with unique textures, such as cereals, snack bars, and other baked goods. In this book, you will learn about food design, its relationship to conventional architecture, and how it is being utilized to build healthier and tastier foods.

Microbial Friends and Enemies

The world around us is teaming with trillions of microscopic organisms that are too small to see, but that play a huge role in our lives. Some of these microorganisms are coaxed into converting raw materials into delicious foods, such as bread, yogurt, cheese, pickles, beer, and wine. Modern food designers are trying to identify and classify these beneficial microbes, to understand how they work, to make them function more efficiently, and to create entirely new foods. Some of them are even using directed evolution or gene editing approaches to create new strains of microbes with enhanced or novel attributes.

As well as the good guys, there are also many bad guys amongst the multitudes of microorganisms that get into our foods. Some of these are spoilage organisms that like the same foods we do but leave an inedible mess after they have finished eating – think of moldy cheese or a rotten apple. Food microbiologists work to understand the nature of the various spoilage organisms present in foods and how they can be controlled to extend shelf life and reduce waste. As part of this work, they are developing innovative methods to isolate and characterize the tiny microbes present in our foods and to study how they respond to different environmental conditions (such as pH, heat, cold, light, oxygen, and nutrients) so as to determine the optimum conditions to foster their growth or to eradicate them.

Food microbiologists are not only interested in the microbes residing in our foods. They are also interested in the microorganisms living inside our bodies, as there is increasing evidence that these gut microbes impact our health and performance. In this book, you will learn about the innovative research that food microbiologists are carrying out to understand how we can cultivate the bacteria living inside our guts to make us healthier.

Greener Foods: But, Just Because Its Natural, Doesn’t Mean It’s Safe

One of the most significant trends in the modern food industry is the replacement of synthetic ingredients with natural ones, as consumers are demanding healthier and more sustainable foods. These kinds of product reformulations are often extremely complicated and require detailed knowledge of the chemistry, physics, and biology of the ingredients concerned. For instance, synthetic colors are often extremely stable and easy to use, whereas natural ones fade rapidly over time and are difficult to incorporate into foods.

People often assume that synthetic food ingredients are more harmful than natural ones, but this is not always the case. Typically, synthetic ingredients can be made in a precisely controlled fashion and have well-defined compositions and properties, allowing careful evaluation of their potential toxicity. On the other hand, natural ingredients often vary appreciably in their composition and properties depending on their origin, the time of year they were harvested, the climate they experienced throughout their lifetime, the soil quality, and how they were isolated and stored. These variations can make testing their safety extremely challenging – one is never sure about the potential toxicity of minor components that may vary from time to time. In some cases, a natural food component has been consumed for hundreds or thousands of years without causing any obvious health problems and can, therefore, be assumed to be safe. However, one must still be very careful.

Some natural components found in our foods can lead to acute (in the short-term) or chronic (over a long-term) illness. The pits of cherries, apples, and peaches contain natural substances, known as cyanogenic glycosides, that can be converted into cyanide in our bodies. In extreme cases, this can lead to respiratory problems and cardiac arrest. Caster beans, a source of the Caster oil used as a food ingredient, contain another natural substance (ricin), which is one of the most potent natural toxins known. However, ricin is removed or destroyed during food manufacturing, so it is not present in the final food. Cassava, a staple food in much of the tropics, contains natural substances, known as glucosinolates, that suppress iodine uptake. Chronic iodine deficiency causes goiter, a nasty disease that stunts growth and leads to cognitive impairment. Consequently, this natural toxin must be removed or deactivated by soaking or cooking the cassava before it is eaten. Many other natural foods that we assume to be healthy, like spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, peanuts, soybeans, and peaches also contain this substance, although the levels are usually too small to cause a problem, especially if they are cooked before being eaten [6]. Even so, studies have shown that people who eat large quantities of raw kale or cabbage can get goiter. There are numerous other examples of natural toxins in foods that can lead to sickness or death. Consequently, both synthetic and natural ingredients should be carefully tested for their potential toxicity and we should not think just because something is natural it is healthier for us.

Sensory Perception: The Science of Desire

Many segments of the modern food industry are trying to reformulate their products to make them healthier and more sustainable. These newly developed foods must, however, still taste good or else no one will buy them. Food chemists and sensory scientists are therefore studying the complex physicochemical, physiological, and psychological processes that govern our sensory perception of foods, such as how they look, feel, smell, taste, and sound. These gastrophysicists aim to answer questions such as: What makes a food crispy or crunchy? Why does the flavor of a food change when its fat content is reduced? What are the molecular features of sweetness? How does the look of a food affect its flavor? Establishing the fundamental science underpinning food perception is particularly important for the creation of nutritionally responsible foods (low fat, sugar, or salt) that are desirable to consumers. In this book, you will learn about some of the fascinating research that sensory scientists are carrying out to understand why foods look, feel, and taste the way they do and how they are using this knowledge to create healthier and tastier foods.

Food Context: Psychology, Consumer Science, and Marketing

The context in which food is consumed has an enormous impact on its perceived quality. This is often one of the most frustrating aspects of being a physical chemist working with foods. I can carry out detailed research to understand how the molecular organization of foods influences their appearance, texture, and flavor, but the actual perception of a food depends on the person eating it and their environment. People vary greatly in their perception and liking of foods due to differences in their genetics, gender, health status, mood, age, and social conditioning. Foods are expected to taste a certain way based on how they look, and if they don’t meet our expectations, we may dislike or reject them.

Professor Charles Spence, a pioneer in the new field of gastrophysics, has some great examples of the role of expectations in food perception. When foods are colored inappropriately, such as blue meat, green French fries, and red peas, many people complain that they taste bad or make them feel sick, even though the only difference is a small amount of added food dye [7]. This propensity may have arisen because it gave our ancestors a genetic advantage – if something does not taste as expected from its appearance, it has probably gone off or is not what you thought it was, so don’t risk eating it. Even the size, color, and shape of the serving vessel (plate, cup, or glass), as well as the colors and sounds in our environment, affect how we perceive foods [7, 8]. Frozen strawberry desserts taste sweeter and more flavorful when served on a white plate than a black plate. Foods served on round plates are sweeter than the same foods served on angular ones.

On top of this, the emotional framework that marketers construct around our foods is extremely important. Drinking a cold brown sugary beverage makes you feel part of a pulsating crowd of attractive slim hipsters, if the commercials are to be believed, making it taste better. Ads showing a group of fat old men sat on a park bench drinking a cola may be less effective at increasing sales. Creating an aura of expectation around a food has a profound influence on the flavor we perceive and how much we like the product, which is why the food industry uses this strategy in their marketing campaigns. As Professor Spence has shown in his fascinating book Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating, people rate meat products, such as beef jerky or ham, as tasting better if they are referred to as free range rather than factory farmed, even though they are eating exactly the same thing. The manipulation of food expectations is usually used by the food industry to sell more products but can also be used by governments to encourage healthier diets: Eating kale is hip! Certainly, this would be a good investment of taxpayers’ money considering the vast sums that will be required to deal with food-related illnesses in the future. In this book, you will learn about some of the intriguing work being done by gastrophysicists to understand the role of context in food perception.

The Food Constructors

Once we have the raw materials, we can either eat them (apples, oranges, pears, etc.) or convert them into new foods (orange juice, breakfast cereals, bread, salad dressings, etc.). This requires food engineers to design factories and processing machines to convert raw materials into final products, and for food technologists to understand and control how foods behave during different processing operations (mixing, heating, freezing, drying…). While at university in England, I spent my summer vacations working in a potato chip (crisp) factory. It was not the greatest job – night shift in a hot, smelly, oily and noisy factory – but it provided some spending money. It also gave me an insight into the critical nature of the food engineer’s work. Every day, truckloads of potatoes of varying quality would enter the factory, and truckloads of flavored potato chips (prawn cocktail, salt and vinegar, cheese and onion) would leave. Specialized machines had been developed to peel and slice the potatoes, fry them to just the right color and crispness, remove any discolored ones, package them into colorful bags, and then put the bags into boxes. Somebody had designed this whole process to run smoothly and efficiently, which was quite remarkable. Despite my appreciation of this impressive engineering feat, I could not eat potato chips for years afterward because of their association with the putrid potato smells and grease-filled atmosphere I experienced during my night shifts. Probably the most important thing I learned from this job was that I much preferred the cloistered life of the academic to the down-and-dirty pell-mell of the industrial scientist.

A significant trend in the modern food industry is the development of green food processing technologies [9]. These technologies aim to make the food supply more sustainable and less environmentally damaging. Many food companies are dedicating considerable resources to increasing energy efficiency, reducing water use, decreasing waste, and minimizing pollution in their processing factories and distribution chains. Some companies are developing new processes to extract oils from foods (such as olive, corn, fish, and sunflower oils) using natural enzymes and water, rather than environmentally unfriendly organic solvents. Others are converting waste materials generated during food manufacturing into value-added ingredients for use in food or non-food applications, thereby reducing waste and increasing sustainability. For instance, orange peels, a byproduct of orange juice production, are being converted into gelling agents, dietary fibers, and anti-cancer agents that can be used in foods or supplements. The skin, bones, and hooves of cows, a byproduct of the meat industry, are being converted into gelatin