Spotted: Food colourings have had a bad press in recent years. For example, following reports that artificial dyes in foods cause neurobehavioural issues in children, a petition was delivered to the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking removal of the food colourant Red 3 from the country’s list of approved additives. And another issue is the fact that many artificial food colourants are petroleum-based, making their production environmentally unsustainable.
Step forward the power of fungi. Biotechnology company Michroma is engineering fungi and utilising precision fermentation to create a new library of natural colourants and other ingredients crucial to the food and drug industries. The company’s first product is Red +, a temperature-resistant bright red shade that is pH stable across the entirety of the food ingredient spectrum. Made by bioengineering fungi that are then produced in batches via precision fermentation, the colourant is cost-effective to produce, unlike most other natural food colours that require significant agricultural resources to grow.
The company focused its launch on the warm colours of the spectrum because they are used in 90 per cent of food market products. Michroma’s ingredients are vegan, non-GMO, halal, and kosher, making them ideal for a diversity of uses. The combination of general stability and temperature resistance makes the colours ideal for use in baked goods, confectionary, dairy products, extruded foods, and more.
The company recently raised $6.4 million (around €5 million) of seed funding that will be used for making other colours, scaling up general manufacturing, and beginning development of additional products to be used as direct replacements for petroleum-based items such as perfumes and flavours.
Springwise has spotted fungi being used in other ways and the versatility of mycelium is reflected in the broad range of products that use it, including luxury hats and bioleathers.
When it comes to food, the world faces a two-pronged challenge. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, by 2050 we will need to produce 60 per cent more food to feed a world population of 9.3 billion. At the same time, food systems cause 25 to 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and this figure rises to around one-third when we include all agricultural products.
We therefore not only need to produce more food – we also need to build a more sustainable food supply chain. As a result, by 2043, we are likely to produce food in a very different way. To shed some light on the topic, we asked some of the world’s leading futurists a simple question: what will we eat in 2043?
“The biggest impact on what we eat will be the personalisation of our diets,” explains food futurist Tony Hunter. “As we continue to explore our genetics and microbiome, we’ll come to understand just how individual we are in our nutritional responses to food,” he adds.
Hunter also argues that, “By 2043, we’ll have a range of new protein and other food products unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.” However, Christophe Pelletier, founder of The Food Futurist, is more skeptical in his assessment. According to him, “The future of food comes down to three boring but important aspects: price, the ability of food businesses to control costs, and the level of management skills of the business leadership.” In his assessment, “alternative protein producers come quite short on all three counts.”
So, will we be tucking into a whole host of exotic new proteins for our Wednesday lunch in 2043? Only time will tell. In the meantime, discover three innovations that represent the cutting edge of food innovation today.
‘ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS’ COULD BE THE FUTURE OF FOOD
Through photosynthesis, plants convert water, carbon dioxide, and energy from sunlight into sugars that they use to grow biomass. This process has been the basis of the food chain for millions of years, yet it is surprisingly inefficient. In fact, only about one per cent of the energy found in sunlight actually ends up in the plant. Now, scientists at the University of California Riverside have found a way to improve on mother nature by bypassing biological photosynthesis entirely. Read more
WORLD’S LARGEST VERTICAL MYCELIUM FARM SCALES UP PRODUCTION OF ALTERNATIVE BACON
It only takes MyForest Foods 12 days to grow an entire crop of mycelium, with the harvesting taking only a single day. Such rapid growth is made possible by the simulated forest inside Swersey Silos, the company’s newly expanded growing facilities in New York. The vertical farm contains seven growing rooms with just under two acres of total farm space. Read more
UPCYCLING BARLEY BYPRODUCTS INTO HIGH-PROTEIN FLOUR
Seoul-based food upcycling startup RE:Harvest has created a new flour alternative made from upcycled barley from the production of beer and sikhye – a traditional sweet Korean beverage. The company says that its powder is not only more sustainable than traditional flour, but that it also has a higher protein content. The company is currently working on scaling up its production so that it can meet the demand from both domestic and international customers – as well as expanding their byproduct sourcing. Read more
Want to discover more about what the world will look like in 2043? Download our free Future 2043 report which draws on the insights of 20 of the world’s leading futurists.For more innovations, head to the Springwise Innovation Library.
Spotted: The takeaway food delivery market is expected to continue its steady growth following the explosion of interest during the pandemic. The growth in recycling facilities, however, is not keeping pace, which is bad news for the environment. Countries across the globe are producing millions of metric tonnes of single-use plastic waste each every year.
Even the cardboard and paper containers that are becoming more common are not truly sustainable. Most contain a plastic coating to prevent leaks, something that Singapore-based startup Alterpacks wanted to change. After analysing the most common types of agricultural and food waste around the world, the company chose spent grain for its new line of compostable food containers.
Malt and barley grain waste created by the beer brewing process provide the majority of Alterpacks’ raw material. And rather than relying on a coating, the creators of Alterpacks chose to make the whole container leakproof, microwaveable, washable, and home-compostable.
Currently, the packaging is available as stackable containers with a cover, a bento box, and a set of cutlery. Having recently raised $1 million (around €922,000) in pre-seed funding, the company plans to begin commercial production and distribution of the packaging throughout Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Reusable food and drink container options have proliferated in recent years, providing consumers with feel-good ways to enjoy the ease of takeaway and on-the-go coffees without the environmental footprint. Two recent examples Springwise has spotted are reusable takeaway containers for restaurants, and a vegetable oil-based reusable coffee cup.
Spotted: According to a report by the WWF, more than 15 per cent of usable food is lost before it ever leaves the farm, with the majority of this waste occurring in middle and high income regions. Some of this waste occurs when food is left on the field due to order cancellations, imperfections in food appearance, or a surplus. This represents a tremendous waste of resources. Mexican startup Perfekto is hoping to improve the situation with its delivery boxes.
Launched in 2021, Perfekto works with more than 70 producers to ‘rescue’ food that cannot be sold to suppliers. Subscribers choose from different types and sizes of box, or can request a ‘surprise’ box. These boxes can also be personalised with different types of produce and are then delivered using proprietary software that automates routing and logistics. All of the fruit and vegetables arrive with minimal packaging, and what packaging there is, is returnable to Perfekto for recycling and/or reuse.
Since its origins, the business has grown to more than 3,000 active monthly subscribers. However, the company envisions even bigger things in the future, with hopes of expanding into food other than fruits and vegetables, including those foods that are less likely to sell because of dented packaging. Perfekto recently announced that it has raised $1.1 million (approximately €1.07 million) in pre-seed funding to expand its food rescue programme across Mexico City, improve operations and technology, and expand its catalogue of products.
Perfekto is one of a number of companies that are working to save food from ending up in landfills. Springwise has also spotted a platform that helps hospitality companies manage their inventories to reduce waste, and AI that checks the ripeness of produce.
Spotted: Every year, around 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, including approximately 40 per cent of all food at retail or consumer level in industrialised countries. This constitutes a huge amount of wasted resources and acts as a substantial contribution to global warming. To help reduce this mountain of food waste, startup No Spoilers has developed an innovative inventory control solution aimed at hospitality businesses.
The company’s multi-platform application provides tools that allow businesses to conduct fast and precise inventory control. The system centres around a Bluetooth-enabled scale that can be used with a mobile phone. Inventory control data is automatically uploaded to the cloud so it can be analysed on a computer or mobile device and using the data, managers can then easily schedule tasks for employees and control the company’s workflow on the platform.
The system is also packed with helpful features such as the ability to quickly identify products using a built-in barcode reader or measure partial inventory using No Spoilers’ Smart Scale – giving managers an accurate idea of exactly how much food and drink they have left. The software also offers inventory management features including inventory control, inventory optimisation, purchasing, pricing management, mobile access, and analytics and reporting.
Businesses can alter No Spoilers’ system to set the optimum periodic automatic replenishment (PAR) levels and automatically generate inventory orders, control suppliers with incoming inventory control, gather and analyse business data for informed decision-making, and identify and report losses due to wastage.
Reducing food waste not only helps save resources, but it also helps hospitality companies save money. Some other innovations helping reduce food waste include AI that can check the freshness of fruit and a startup that uses computer vision to help commercial kitchens manage food waste.
At the heart of all our hopes for future development is a simple equation. According to the United Nations, the world will need 70 per cent more food by 2050 to feed a population of nearly 10 million. To do this, we will need to improve agricultural yields while simultaneously tackling climate change, a thorny issue as food production accounts for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The food industry faces both immediate and slow-burning challenges. In the short term, the war in Ukraine has exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains, while highlighting the link between energy and food prices. But over the long term, food production also needs to use less land and become less water-intensive and wasteful. And our reliance on synthetic fertiliser, produced through the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, is further driving fossil fuel consumption while causing damaging nutrient pollution. Finding new, smarter ways to fertilise crops is therefore vital.
In many ways, the question of food is key to the achievement of all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. And while the challenges are great, innovators around the world are showing that progress is possible.
SDG 2: Zero hunger
The most obvious SDG relevant to the food industry is SDG 2, which calls for zero hunger. Across the globe, there are 3.1 billion people who can’t afford a healthy, nutritious diet, and one of the key targets within SDG 2 is to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. To solve this problem, we need to identify those who are undernourished. And here innovators can help. For example, Action Against Hunger has developed the SAM app, which uses images to identify those suffering from acute or chronic malnutrition.
The next step is to treat people. Fortifying food with micro-nutrients is a common solution, and innovators are working to make food fortification more efficient. For example, social enterprise Sanku has developed smart technology that helps small-scale maize millers fortify their flour without passing costs on to consumers. And it’s not only in developing countries where there is a need to tackle malnutrition. Even in the most developed countries, malnutrition is a common condition in hospitals. Startup HealthLeap has developed an AI-powered clinical assistant to tackle this issue.
SDG 1: No poverty
Hunger and poverty are closely linked. Most obviously, those with little money, have little money to spend on food. But the link also exists on the supply side. Small farmers form a large bulk of the people most affected by poverty. According to a World Bank study, 65 per cent of poor working adults make a living through agriculture, and the organisation believes that farming innovation is one of the surest ways to alleviate poverty.
Innovators are rising to the challenge. In Nigeria, ThriveAgric is using software and hands-on assistance to help small farmers earn top dollar for their produce. And in Brazil, TerraMagna is using fintech to help smallholders access affordable credit to invest in their farms. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, Wavemaker is making it easier for agricultural producers to turn biomass into higher-value products – all while helping to fight climate change.
SDG 15: Life on land
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. As we work to feed a growing population, it is vital that we ensure that we are not doing so at the expense of natural ecosystems.
In broad terms, innovators are taking two approaches to this issue. One approach is to reduce the amount of land used for agriculture. For example, New York-based UpFarm plans to add the world’s largest vertical farm to its network in 2023. The new facility will conserve more than 120 acres of land on an annual basis. Meanwhile, others are working to make farmland more compatible with nature. For example, researchers in Germany have found that fields planted in strips of different crops support insects and birds better than conventional farming methods. Meanwhile, in Canada, Bee Vectoring Technologies is reducing the need for harmful chemicals by using bees to deliver organic fungicide as they pollinate.
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
Agriculture has a big impact on the availability of clean water in two ways. First, traditional agriculture is water intensive with agricultural irrigation accounting for 70 per cent of water use worldwide. And second, fertilisers, pesticides, and salts from agriculture end up in watercourses leading to water pollution.
Innovators are tackling the first problem through solutions such as solar-powered water pumps that enable farmers to increase their crop yields while using less water, and quick-growing cultured meat that uses only a tiny fraction of the water used in animal husbandry. And to tackle water pollution caused by fertilisers, microTERRA is creating food additives out of an aquatic plant that doesn’t require fertiliser at all: duckweed. Meanwhile, another company, Wyvern, is using satellite technology to help farmers use fewer chemicals, and a solar-powered weed-seeking robot is reducing the amount of chemicals needed to manage weeds.
SDG 12: Responsible production and consumption
Food waste is a huge issue, with one-third of food produced for human consumption lost or wasted globally. It is therefore little wonder that target 12.3 within SDG 12 calls for food waste to be halved by 2030. In the Netherlands, Orbisk is tackling the issue with a system that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to help commercial kitchens manage food waste. And another AI system from Neolithics checks food for signs of rot, helping to reduce the amount of food that is lost before it even reaches the shelves.
Another way of approaching this problem is to find uses for food that does end up as waste. UK startup LyteGro, for example, uses waste bananas as a growth enhancer that turbo-charges fermentation in food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical processes. Meanwhile, a team of Japanese researchers has discovered a way to use vegetable scraps, such as cabbage leaves and orange peels to create cement.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
Looking for inspiration on sustainability? Why not download our free SDG report.
An edible building envelope and curved mycelium bricks feature in the curatorial exhibition at this year’s Tallinn Architecture Biennale in Estonia, which explores the future of architecture through the lens of food.
Named Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism, the exhibition physically and metaphorically investigates the relationship between architecture and food at varying scales.
The curational exhibition has opened at Tallinn Architecture Biennale
It was opened to the public on 7 September at the Museum of Estonian Architecture in Tallinn, marking the beginning of Tallinn Architecture Biennale‘s (TAB) sixth edition.
Curated by architects and academics Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou, it responds to this year’s theme, which also goes by the title Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism.
It explores the architecture through the lens of food
The curational exhibition is divided into four sections over two floors, with installations by designers, architects and scientists.
They examine everything from how natural processes such as consumption, growth and decay can be transferred to the built environment, to how we design our global food production networks and infrastructure.
“We’re approaching the notion of food both literally and metaphorically,” Kallipoliti told Dezeen during a tour of the exhibition.
Among the featured products are an edible facade prototype
While some of the installations are conceptual, the curators highlighted that others are available for use now to help the architecture industry and built environment become more sustainable.
“Through these interrogations in different projects, [we] explore how architecture can extract less resources and become a kind of major factor of decarbonisation,” Kallipoliti added.
“We think of everything as real and possible for implementation very quickly. It’s not the technology that is unavailable, it is really about changing the way that we think and operate.”
The Edible Puffed Rice Clusters are designed to attract biodiversity to urban areas
One of the four sections, which also forms the centrepiece of the exhibition, is named the Metabolic Home.
Here, curators Kallipoliti and Markopoulou have brought together seven different exhibits that each represents a domestic space, staged as part of a “living ecosystem”.
One exhibit reimagines the traditional dining table
Highlights include the “living room”, where an edible and biodegradable building envelope designed by architecture research group Terreform One is displayed.
Named the Edible Puffed Rice Clusters, the pixelated-looking panels are formed from puffed rice. They are intended as a low-cost building material that can be used as a building facade that small mammals, insects and birds can consume.
It features cutlery designed to slot on a user’s fingers
Backed with insulating foam backing and easily replaced, the aim is for these panels to attract different organisms and help boost biodiversity in urban areas.
Opposite the panels is an installation that represents a dining room. It reimagines the traditional banquet table as a platform for diners to engage with the food production process.
A table was designed to encourage diners to engage in the food production process
Named Everything’s On the Table, it features unusual cutlery that slots onto users’ fingers and amorphous and immersive cookware developed by Hayley Eber and Mae-Ling Lokko.
The prototype table itself incorporates planters while hanging overhead are test tubes and vessels intended for users to harvest and cultivate their own food and waste.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is the Metabolic Home
Other standout exhibits in the show include those in the From Bricks to Soil section, which displays a number of building material prototypes that are compostable, some even edible.
This includes curved bricks that design studio Myceen has crafted from mushroom mycelium – a biodegradable fungal material. Beside them, a glass chamber lined with condensation conceals a growing mushroom that will one day be turned into one of these blocks, demonstrating the production process.
Rootskin is a building material made from vegetable roots
Beside these bricks are a series of ornate panels of Rootskin, a product developed by researchers at IAAC using robotics and vegetable roots that is hoped to one day be used as a building material.
In this section, visitors to the exhibition can also see fish swarming around a Yfaloid – an artificial reef prototype that Topotheque Design Research Studio has immersed in a fish tank for the purpose of the exhibition.
The Yfaloid structures are cast from concrete using digital fabrication and vary in size and complexity. The idea is that they mimic natural coral environments and can be used in areas with damaged reef ecosystems to encourage sea life to thrive again.
According to Markopoulou, the exhibition is hoped to encourage action from the general public and policymakers as well as creatives.
Mycelium bricks by Myceen are on display
“We believe that we are now at a critical moment and that there is not much time for anybody to just think about it and discuss it, we really need to act,” Markopoulou told Dezeen during the opening.
“We hope that some of this work raises awareness to everybody. We don’t want to speak only to the design community, we want to involve decision makers, we want to involve citizens being individuals, the industry, and we hope that this would actually open up possibilities of how certain things could be done differently in our urban environments and in our built environment.”
Topotheque Design Research Studio is exhibiting its artificial reef prototype Yfaloid
Outside of the Museum of Estonian Architecture, a pavilion has also been installed as part of this year’s TAB that was developed in line with this year’s theme.
Named Fungible Non-Fungible Pavilion, the pavilion was built by studio Iheartblob from physical versions of NFT objects that were minted by the community. It is intended to promote the ideas of decentralisation and slowness in architecture.
Tallinn Architecture Biennale takes place from 7 September to 20 November 2022 at various locations across Tallinn, Estonia. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
A team of students and researchers at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has designed a prototype Solar Greenhouse for energy generation and food production with a “zero kilometre” philosophy.
The timber structure, constructed in Barcelona’s Serra de Collserola Natural Park, is intended to demonstrate how our most basic needs could be met in a more ecological way, in response to the EU’s aims to be net-zero by 2050.
Solar Greenhouse is an energy and food production prototype that was designed by students and researchers at IAAC
Led by Vicente Guallard and Daniel Ibañez, directors of the Masters programme in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities, the students worked with a variety of experts in cultivation, energy and water.
While the prototype sits in a natural landscape, it is intended it to be scalable and adaptable to a variety of settings, such as on the rooftops of inner-city buildings.
It was constructed using timber
“The aim was to design and build a system that could be replicated in both rural and urban areas,” said the designers.
“[It] represents the next step towards a more ecological agricultural transformation and progress in tackling food and energy poverty,” they continued.
The structure comprises two levels and features solar panels on its roof
The greenhouse is a simple, timber-framed structure with two levels, topped by glass panels and solar panels and wrapped in glass louvres that provide light and ventilation.
Germination takes place on the greenhouse’s lower level, while the upper level contains cultivation spaces, with a glass, diamond-shaped roof maximising its exposure to sunlight.
A network of pipes carrying nutrients and lighting for growth cycles is integrated into the structure. Hydroponics allow for plants to be grown without agricultural soil and LED strip lighting aids growth cycles.
The “zero kilometre” concept is normally used to describe food that is produced and eaten locally, and thus has travelled zero kilometres.
Here, the philosophy was applied not only to the greenhouse’s food production but also its construction, with materials being locally and sustainable sourced.
The prototype will be used to grow plants without soil
The pine for the timber was processed in the IAAC’s nearby Vallduara Labs, and the substrate materials in the planting beds consists of recycled sawdust — a waste product of the Green Fab Lab also on the university campus.
“The water, substrate and building materials are obtained from the surroundings, allowing the food grown to jump directly from production to consumption, without the need of a supply chain,” explained the designers.
“The ultimate goal is for the knowledge and the locally achieved systems to be applied at a global scale and, in this respect, the Solar Greenhouse is a valuable step forward,” they continued.
Materials used in the construction were sustainably sourced
Students from IAAC also designed and built a cabin for self-isolation using wood harvested from within one kilometre of the site.
In Belgium, Meta Architectuurbureau and Van Bergen Kolpa Architecten recently completed a greenhouse in Belgium atop an agricultural market to create an urban food production centre.
Spotted: The development of meat alternatives is moving forward at a rapid clip. From plant-based and cell-based meats to 3D-printed food, the market for animal-free meat alternatives is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Now, startup Arkeon Biotechnologies is adding a new method to this mix. The company uses a single-step fermentation process that turns ancient micro-organisms and captured carbon dioxide into the building blocks for food.
Arkeon has pioneered the use of Archaea, ancient organisms that evolved to survive in extreme settings, such as around underwater vents. The company uses a strain of Archaea that can makes all 20 essential amino acids and has developed a process to harness this ability in order to produce alternative protein products. The micro-organisms are fermented in bioreactors using CO2 captured from breweries. The process produces carbon negative ingredients that are then used to create meat-free foods.
Currently, many plant-based foods use proteins, such as pea protein, that are produced through purification and processing to remove unwanted flavour and add taste. Arkeon’s amino acid products, by contrast, require no purification or additives. The amino acids can then be combined to create tailored ingredients and products, such as meatless meats, or used to add nutrition to products such as infant formula.
Arkeon was founded by ‘company builder’ EVIG, which works with scientists to develop biotechnology startups in the food sector. EVIG brought together three scientists— Gregor Tegl, Simon Rittman, and Guenther Bochmann—to create Arkeon.
Other alternative protein innovations spotted by Springwise include artificial intelligence that helps to build animal-free proteins, and a foodtech startup that uses plant cells to create dairy proteins.
Following the recent news about an avocado alternative called Ecovado, here is a roundup of 10 innovations that aim to reduce the carbon impact of the food industry and our diets.
The global food system, including the actions that take food from farm to plate such as transportation and production, is estimated to contribute 30 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, with over half of those a result of livestock agriculture.
In the past few years, designers have come up with numerous ideas for reducing food-related emissions as part of the global effort to slow climate change.
These innovations include developing alternatives to meat and other energy and resource-intensive foods, as well as creating more sustainable food production processes.
Read on for 10 designs that seek to decarbonise the food industry:
Ecovado by Arina Shokouhi
Central Saint Martins graduate Arina Shokouhi invented an avocado alternative named Ecovado, designed to break people away from purchasing the resource-intensive imported food.
“Avocados are one of the most unsustainable crops to export because of their delicate, easy-to-bruise nature, and the plantation-style monoculture farms required to meet the global demand for avocados are driving the deforestation of some of the most diverse landscapes in the world,” said Shokouhi.
The alternative contains a green, creamy, avocado-like foodstuff that is made from a combination of ingredients local to its country. It is packaged in a replica avocado skin formed from wax.
Find out more about Ecovado ›
Air Meat by Air Protein
Californian startup Air Protein has created a meat alternative titled Air Meat, made from microbes that turn recycled carbon dioxide into protein. The product aims to replicate the flavour and texture of real meat products.
With beef generating 70 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions for every kilogram produced, Air Meat was developed in an attempt to tackle the negative climate impact of the agricultural industry.
Find out more about Air Meat ›
Solein by Solar Foods
Solein is a protein-rich food made from electricity, air and water laced with bacteria. It was created by food-tech startup Solar Foods in collaboration with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Lappeenranta University of Technology.
The food does not require land or large quantities of water to produce, both of which contribute significantly to the agricultural industry’s emissions, with the company claiming it has potential to “remove the climate impact of food systems on the planet”.
“Solein does not reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere directly, but the indirect effect is that we need about one-tenth of the land compared to photosynthesis,” Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka explained in an interview last year with Dezeen.
Find out more about Solein ›
Spira by Rob Russell
Rob Russell, a 2019 product design graduate of the University of Leeds, designed this countertop Spira device that can harvest microalgae daily. The device can produce two tablespoons of fresh, nutrient-dense spirulina each day.
This small amount constitutes a recommended daily serving, which the designer suggests adding to sauces, smoothies or salads.
“Home-cultivated spirulina combats the four contributors of food-related greenhouse-gas emissions – production, transport, cooking and waste disposal,” said Russell.
Find out more about Spira ›
Lab-grown meat by Eat Just
In 2020, the Singapore Food Agency deemed Eat Just’s lab-grown, cultured chicken safe for human consumption. The US startup’s product is known as a clean meat, meaning it does not consist of dead animals but instead uses cells harvested from live animals that are grown and cultured into meat.
East Just explained that the cultured chicken has an “extremely low and significantly cleaner” microbiological content when compared to real chicken, which can contain bacteria from the gut, skin and feet of the poultry.
Find out more about Eat Just’s lab-grown meat ›
Dissolvable ramen packaging by Holly Grounds
Product design student Holly Grounds developed an edible, flavourless biofilm that is seasoned with herbs and flavourings to replace the multiple plastic sachets which typically accompany packets of instant noodles.
The dissolvable ramen packaging is made from a handful of ingredients including potato starch, glycerin and water. The biofilm seals the noodles and prevents the food from becoming stale but dissolves in less than a minute when put into contact with water.
Find out more about Grounds’ dissolvable ramen packaging ›
Strøm by Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempre
Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres of studio Doppelgänger designed a collection of carbon water filters that are developed without fossil fuels and from their own kitchen waste.
The four-item range includes a substitute for Brita filter cartridges, purifying sticks and a self-cleaning pitcher and carafe. Traditional water filters are comprised of activated carbon within plastic cartridges typically derived from non-renewable energy sources.
“While carbon filtration immobilises harmful contaminants, the plastic cartridge’s only function is to hold the activated carbon,” Lempres told Dezeen. “Meanwhile, sourcing, manufacturing and injection-moulding the polypropylene are the largest contributors to the filter’s impact.”
Find out more about Strøm ›
Zero by PriestmanGoode
Multi-disciplinary design practice PriestmanGoode developed a concept for an incentive-based food delivery system that could encourage consumers to use and return bioplastic containers to takeaway restaurants.
The concept was created to discourage the use of single-use plastic for fast food boxes and bags. If put into widespread production, the containers and bag would be constructed from sustainable materials such as cocoa bean shells, mycelium and pineapple husks.
The boxes would have a bento-style stacking system, removing the need for individual lids as boxes would be placed on top of the other.
Find out more about Zero ›
An Egg Without a Chicken by Annie Larkins
Around 36 million eggs are eaten per day in the UK alone, produced by highly intensive farming processes.
Central Saint Martins graduate Annie Larkins developed an unusually shaped alternative to chicken eggs made from pea protein, salt and algae-derived acid.
The designer altered the shape of the egg alternative, creating elongated and cubic forms, but looked to replicate the food’s white, yolk and shell, all of which were created from plant-based ingredients.
“Human desire to consume meat and animal products runs deep in cultures globally, and having an alternative that allows for an easy switch to plant-based products seems like a good thing to me,” said Larkins.
Find out more about An Egg Without a Chicken ›
3D-printed food products by Elzelinde van Doleweerd
Elzelinde van Doleweerd collaborated with a China-based technology company to develop food products 3D-printed from leftover food. The innovation was a result of Van Doleweerd’s final project during her industrial design degree at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The designer began exploring 3D-printed food after learning that one-third of food produced worldwide is wasted. She used mashed, ground and sieved fruit peels, bread and rice to create the mixture, which is then printed to create 2D geometric patterns and 3D shapes.
Find out more about Van Doleweerd’s 3D-printed food products ›
