Is this really the future of food?

A few weeks ago we were discussing beer - or rather the lack of it expected as a result of climate change. This week, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has unveiled a new superfood. Even less appealing than no beer, this rather unappetising dish is the Swedish equivalent of tempeh and was brewed up as part of a Ph.D. research project.

As the student responsible, Charlotte Eklund-Jonsson, explains, the main objectives behind her work were to develop a whole grain product that did not lose its available iron content. Normally with barley, you can have whole grain or high iron availability. Fermenting it with the micro-fungus Rhizopus oligosporus* (something my colleagues at CABI know a lot about), she has managed to preserve all the benefits of a high fibre-whole grain, high folate food, while doubling the availability of the iron it contains. Eklund Jonsson points out that while it was designed as a highly nutritious foodstuff for vegetarians, the fact that it is produced from barley or oats - locally produced in Sweden; might also make it an attractive choice for consumers of the 'green' persuasion.

But seriously - however much responsibility we are willing to accept for using up all the oil, do we really deserve this?

We might have no choice. This week, World Environment Day coincided with the start of the UN's food crisis summit - a call to action on the rising cost of food, its consequences and how to minimise its impact in the face of the rapid rise in demand for biofuel feedstocks. If you're quick, the UN are webcasting the event live. If you've missed it, you can still get a grip of the issues: Handpicked… blogger Christina discussed the price of a week's shopping at the end of April and the World Food Programme has tackled the issue head-on in a series of concise and informative short films. I recommend Who Pays for the Cost of Hunger?¹, a four minute film that explains the major issues and puts our European concerns into stark perspective. Maybe tempeh sandwiches aren't such a bad idea - some 70 million people are living off less.

Sandwiched between World Environment Day and the UN's high level discussion, Eklund-Jonsson will defend her Ph.D. on Thursday. While I wish her the best of luck - she has, after all been instrumental in developing of a foodstuff that is highly nutritious, is made from locally grown ingredients (until climate change means the Swedes can start fermenting home-grown grapes in large, tasty, quantities instead); I sincerely hope that this isn't a taste of the future.

¹Download wfp177361.wmv

*Investigating the use of Rhizopus fungi to produce tempeh, (a very simple search, for those of you familiar with CAB Abstracts: I started with '(Rhizopus):od AND (tempe OR tempeh)'), unearthed a whole host of different things are used around the world to make tempeh. Nigerian scientists have found vegetable peelings make a reasonable substrate for the fungus²; while elsewhere in Africa, the yambean seems quite popular³. Polish food technologists have been working with grass pea (Lathyrus sativus)⁴. Ekberg-Jonsson⁵ collaborated with her neighbours at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, who have also been experimenting with barley tempeh^6,7, so who knows, it might become a staple of the Swedish diet in years to come.

²Aderibigbe, E. Y. and  Kolade, K. B. (2003) Propagation of tempeh Rhizopus oligosporus. I: Use of organic food wastes. Nigerian Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 14(1), pp. 78-84
³ Azeke, M. A. , Fretzdorff, B. , Buening-Pfaue, H. and Betsche, T. (2007). Comparative effect of boiling and solid substrate fermentation using the tempeh fungus (Rhizopus oligosporus) on the flatulence potential of African yambean (Sphenostylisstenocarpa L.) seeds. Food Chemistry Vol. 103(4), pp. 1420-1425
⁴Starzynska-Janiszewska, A. , Stodolak, B. and Jamróz, M. (2008). Antioxidant properties of extracts from fermented and cooked seeds of Polish cultivars of Lathyrus sativus. Food Chemistry Vol. 109(2), pp. 285-292.
⁵ Feng XinMei , Passoth, V. , Eklund-Jonsson, C. , Alminger, M. L. and Schnürer, J. (2007). Rhizopus oligosporus and yeast co-cultivation during barley tempeh fermentation - nutritional impact and real-time PCR quantification of fungal growth dynamics. Food Microbiology Vol. 24(4) pp. 393-402.
⁶Feng, X. M. , Olsson, J. , Swanberg, M. , Schnürer, J. and Rönnow, D. (2007). Image analysis for monitoring the barley tempeh fermentation process. Journal of Applied Microbiology Vol. 103(4), pp. 1113-1121
⁷Feng XinMei , Larsen, T. O. and Schnürer, J. (2007). Production of volatile compounds by Rhizopus oligosporus during soybean and barley tempeh fermentation. International Journal of Food Microbiology Vol. 113(2) pp. 133-141

Comments

[discount costume jewelry]

This is scary. This food looks so try, yes I'm hoping this is not the future of food either. It seems that instead of our lives getting more enriched with time, we're looking to the future with so much dread.