Future food for thought

What is natural?

In 2016, I wrote an article reflecting future thoughts on natural, fruit and organic pet food. One section of the article reflected on the difficult definition of natural. The American Food and Drug Administration consulted with the public and industry in 2016 to produce a suitable definition of natural for food labelling purposes. The definition has remained the same.

However, the demand for food will continue to grow as it is expected the world population of humans will increase to just under 10 billion by 2050. This expected population increase will give rise to a higher demand for protein (especially meat and fish) as people grow richer. By 2027, beef consumption in Asia will increase by 44%. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has claimed that 70% more food will be needed in 2050 compared to 2009.

Nurturing the future

The question is how do we sustainably feed ourselves and our pets? Change our diet? Change the diet of our livestock? Seek novel and alternative food from what we are used to?

An example of changing the diet of livestock is salmon feed. In 1990, about 90% of the feed for farmed salmon in Norway consisted of fish meal, by 2013 fish meal usage had dropped to 30%. Plant material has replaced fish meal. Another example is to ferment waste materials to produce methane gas. The methane gas is used to feed bacteria which can be turned into protein pellets for livestock and fish.

Hydroponic opportunities

In the future, rather than have food produced from ‘land,’ it should be expected food will also be produced in the laboratory or from soil less fields. Money is being invested by private individuals e.g. Bill Gates and large companies e.g. Tyson in technology to create protein from growing animal cells. Growing plants using hydroponics has moved to large scale production. Old buildings, such as redundant aircraft hangers are finding use as soil less fields and in the UK underground tunnels are suitable for vegetable growth using hydroponics. Will we see new buildings with underground cellars for production of food?

Will the products grown by hydroponic cultivation be labelled as natural? The vegetables will have come from the same seed family as soil grown products but will be grown under highly regulated environmental conditions i.e. artificial light, controlled atmospheres and temperature. I am sure some will say these products are not natural and if used as ingredients in other products labelling maybe a problem.

Product labelling

To date, no meat products grown from cultures have reached the market place. However, legislators know they will need to address how these products are to be labelled. A common approach when proving the safety of new products is to show they are the same as those already on the market. This method is already used by companies who produce enzymes for food processing. The enzymes are usually extracted from micro-organisms which are already in use in the food system and hence safe.

Regulations for meat products are based upon food from a slaughtered animal. Cultivation of cells to produce meat do not follow this requirement; not meat, not a food additive but a food. In some countries, the legislative chain for any product which ends in the food chain is clear, for other countries it may not be so clear as to who is responsible.

A definition of complex nature

It could be expect in the future the definition of natural to become more complicated. On the other hand, it could become simpler as products for the future will give rise to debate.