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Let's talk about technology.

We all know that college-educated kids are exposed to huge amounts of technology. Well, in the food science realm, we have some big things happening. BYU-Idaho food science students have been learning about some amazing new food technologies. Here is an essay written by Kaleigh Quick about one of the most amazing new bits of food tech.

Everybody eats. To maintain doing this thing we call “life”, we humans need food; not just any kind of food however. People that eat unsafe, unhealthy, and pathogenic foods can get sick and cut their life expectancies short. Food-borne diseases can also pose serious health threats, from which people sometimes even die. So, while food is necessary for life, the wrong food can be life-threatening.

In the mid 1800’s, a man named Louis Pasteur developed new technology that prevented food related deaths. He was the pasteurization pioneer. His technology was so successful at preventing food-related disease that even now, a couple hundred years later, the pasteurization process is mandatory for many dairy processors around the world today (Science History Institute, 2018).

Since Pasteur’s time, there have been many technologic advances that have increased food safety. Popular technology used today includes ovens, dehydrators, and canning retorts—all of which, like pasteurization, use heat to kill illness-causing microbes. With the invention and implementation of these technologies, our food supply has become safer. Today, the threat of food-borne disease has been greatly reduced, which is a good thing for all of us food-eating folks!

While these food sanitation methods have reduced food-borne illness and food related deaths, they aren’t perfect. Heat processing food has some unwanted side effects. When food is heated, it’s chemical composition changes. In fact, heat can alter foods so drastically they become nearly unrecognizable. For example, a canned tomato tastes nothing like a juicy, fresh-off-the-vine tomato.

Not only are textures and flavors altered by heat, but nutritional content is also affected. Water-soluble vitamins are quickly destroyed when exposed to high temperatures. In just 30 minutes of heating, baking, or canning, foods can lose more than 60% of their vitamin C.  We need our food to be germ free, but not vitamin free (Igwemmar, 2013).

Heat not only changes our food’s texture and nutritional value, but it’s inefficient at sterilization. Many spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms can still survive heat treatments. It’s so common in fact, most of us have experienced the symptoms: the stomach flu! Thankfully, there is new technology being investigated and improved that can rectify many of these food foibles.

Some food scientists and technologists are developing processes that use applied ionized radiation to food (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 2018). Not only have scientists found that this irradiation process eliminates almost 100% of microbes (unlike the basic heating methods), they have also found that irradiation leaves the food completely unchanged. The texture, flavor, color, freshness, and nutritional value of irradiated food stays exactly the same, and no microbes or radiation remain. The irradiation processes is a true technologic miracle!

While medical professionals, dentists and cancer-treating oncologists have been learning about the beneficial uses of radiation and making awesome advancements in modern medical technology, so have food scientists (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 2018).

Technologists have found ways to use this innovative irradiation technology on foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, shellfish, poultry, sprouts (like alfalfa sprouts), and shell eggs. When irradiation is properly used on these foods, they become much safer for everyone to eat—even when eaten raw. Imagine how amazing it would be to eat a whole bowl of raw cookie dough and not have to think twice about getting salmonella poisoning!

Sadly however, irradiation technology sounds frightening to some people. Even though irradiation does not make food radioactive, people hear anything with “radiation” in it, and they get frightened. The stigma of radiation is hard to undo and sadly is keeping this miraculous technology of food preservation and sterilization from realizing its potential. I believe through active education and experience over the next twenty years, this amazing and growing technology will find its way onto our tables. We might never have to worry about getting sick from our food ever again.

While technologies like pasteurization made drastic improvements in food safety, irradiation is the next technology that will change the world! In 20 years, humankind will enjoy lower mortality rates, better nutrition, less food waste, and food that tastes better, thanks to incredible new technologies like irradiation. I’m confident it will happen because in the end, everybody eats!

Citations:

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Consumers - Food Irradiation: What You Need

to Know.” US Food and Drug Administration Home Page, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, 4 Jan. 2018, www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm261680.htm.

Igwemmar, N.C., et al. “Http://Ljournal.ru/Wp-Content/Uploads/2017/03/a-2017-

023.Pdf.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH , vol. 2, no. 11, Nov. 2013, pp. 1–4., doi:10.18411/a-2017-023.

“Louis Pasteur.” Science History Institute, 17 Jan. 2018, www.sciencehistory.org/historical-

profile/louis-pasteur.