You are what you eat. Today, this famous saying comes bearing a question: What will we be eating tomorrow?
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At the moment, there are three major technologies. One is precision fermentation, which uses microbes to create specific molecules, proteins, fats or enzymes.
A second, mycelia, uses the texture of certain mushrooms in order to create a kind of soft sheet both (almost) vegetal and tasteless, to which you can add any flavor or nutritional complement. And cultured meat is a third. The mix of these last two technologies seems, in the short term, the best illuminated path in the era of new food.
Now, close your eyes and imagine the future. “Varietal replacement will be faster, so we will have much more food diversity. Seasonal production will no longer be an issue.” That means we will have access to any product at any time of the year, more functional foods with added value for health will emerge and ultimately, a normal diet will help prevent cancer, obesity or hypertension.
“Probiotics and foods aimed at improving the intestinal microbiota will also develop,” [Rosa Porcel, researcher at the Molecular and Cellular Biological Institute of Plants (IBMCP)] says. Being gluten-intolerant will not be as complicated or as expensive as it is today. “Plant-based food or food of microbial origin will be more present in our diet and meat will lose prominence, although it will remain in the high-quality segment,” she says.
The protein will be of a better quality or will come from cultured meat.
