Making It:
better, faster, easier.
One
of the earliest modern conveniences in food technology that helped to
shape food was the invention of a packaging material that could
really take a beating. The
lowly tin can is still prominent on our supermarket shelves today,
though it was patented back in 1810. It was in 1847 when Allen Taylor
figured out that you could use a machine to create the packaging
faster. This machine would flange the end of the disks that were cut
so that it wouldn't have to be done by hand. Once this first step was
completed, progress was swift. A pendulum press and combination die
came out that cut out most of the can, flanged it to
fit to the can neatly, and punched a filler hole
in one end. By 1883 the can was being cut,
rolled, seamed, soldered and pressure cooked at a
rate of 2700 cans per hour as opposed to 5 or 6 cans per hour by one
persons hand in the beginning. The
industrial revolution had sent food technology on it's way toward
automation. (Busch, 1981)
As our global
population grows the need for faster production rises. Although we
have had basic advances such as the conveyor belt system, and modern
advances such as ovens that can bake 100,000 hamburgers at a time,
automated production levels are still very variable. This means that
there is lots of potential for those who want to make it faster,
easier, and better. (Wells, 2010)
The beer
industry saw its first automation efforts in 1765 with pumps and
automatic stirring mechanisms. This not only made it easier to
produce the beer, but further restricted the introduction of bacteria
which could easily turn a beer “sour.” Today it's not just the
big commercial breweries that are beginning to use automation, but
smaller craft breweries such as Ninkasi in Eugene, Oregon. TAG (The
Automation Group) is a provider of automation equipment that can
bring floor data such as temperature controls, mash times, adjunct
processing and volume metering to a central hub of the brewery to
ensure that Ninkasi wastes no time with a batch so they can move on
to the next batch. This also has the pleasant effect of creating more
consistent batches of beer. (TAG, 2013)
Automation of
beer has even reached down to the home brewer. A recent Kickstarter
campaign has introduced the PicoBrew, an automated beer brewing
appliance for the home. Put in the grain, the hops, the malt, the
adjuncts such as flavoring, the water, then choose a recipe and turn
it on. The PicoBrewer will infuse, mash, boil, transfer, and ferment
for you with a limited amount of interaction by the brewer.
(PicoBrew, 2013)
The world food
supply is sometimes sketchy at best and rife with all sorts of social
difficulties such as rising toxicity levels and how we should treat
the animals we eat. Experts in robotics handling of meat state that
reducing human involvement reduces the cost of manual labor, improves
health and safety by reducing contamination and solves many problems
in ethical and aesthetic concerns. So what if we could simply print
our food and avoid many of these difficulties? (Sorenson, 1993)
Modern Meadow,
building on a concept that has been around for a decade is creating a
process in which they can “build” meat one cell at a time. This
is part of a process known as 3-d printing. Stem cells, which are
able to replicate themselves are cultured carefully, then laid
carefully in the pattern the printer creates. The cells undergo
fusion and printed cells can become a steak, a hamburger, a breast of
chicken, a fillet of fish. (Mironov, 2007)
There are
still many difficulties with food printing, such as flavor, texture,
coloration. The nice brown crust on a steak or burger is called the
Maillard Browning effect. This has been modeled through moisture
retention in microwave technology so as to accurately reproduce it in
an automated environment. (Microwaves being another automation
breakthrough) (Lu, 1995)
These problems
should not represent obstacles, but rather we should see the
challenges as possibilities for automation in food technology. By
combining information accessibility, scientific research, and
creativity in biology, chemistry, and engineering, we can continue to
provide solutions to the world's needs where food is concerned.
Bibliography
Busch J. (1981) An Introduction to the
Tin Can. Historical Archeology. Volume 15:No 1: 95-104
Khodabandehloo, K. (1993) Robotics in
Meat, Fish and Poultry Processing.
Lu, G. (1995). Effect of water content
and amino acids on Maillard Browning kinetics in propylene glycol
based modeling systems during microwave heating. Ho, C.T. Flavor
Technology: Physical Chemistry, Modification, and Process.
Washington, D.C. American Chemical Society. Pgs 40-47.
Mironov, V., Prestwich, G., Forgacs, G.
(2007). Bioprinting Living Structures. Journal of Materials
Chemistry. Volume 17: 2054-2060.
Moskvitch, K. (1/21/2013). Modern
Meadow aims to print raw meat using bioprinter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20972018
(Accessed 10/12/2013)
PicoBrew LLC. (9/30/2013). PicoBrew
Zymatic: Automatic Beer Brewing Appliance.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1708005089/picobrew-zymatic-the-automatic-beer-brewing-applia(Accessed
10/10/2013)
Sorenson, S.E. (1993). Automation in
the production of pork meat. Khodabandeloo, K. Robotics In Meat,
Fish, and Poultry Processing. New York, NY. Blackie Academic &
Professional. Pgs 145 – 147.
TAG (2013)
http://www.tag-inc.us/home/tag/smartlist_62/ninkasi_brewery_oregon.html
(Accessed 10-23-2013)
Wells, R. (2010) Bristow Boasts The
Biggest Ovens In The
World.http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13762638
(Accessed 10-23-2013)
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