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JUMPSTART
FOOD TRENDS AROUND THE WORLD
Healthy mass-market chips made of insects could
solve a world food crisis
The meat industry contributes almost one-fifth of all
greenhouse gases, takes up vast quantities of land,
resources and energy, and relies on techniques that
contribute to animal cruelty. Not only this, but demand
for meat is set to increase with global population rises and
higher incomes in developing countries, which could create
problems for world food security. The recent unveiling of the
world’s first lab-grown beefburger is testament to the efforts
scientists are taking to ween consumers off of farmed animal
produce, and now Six Foods has created a brand of chips
made from crickets that could make insect meat palatable
for the western world.
The brainchild of three Harvard graduates — Laura
D’Asaro, Rose Wang and Meryl Natow — the startup’s first
product is Chirps, a gluten-free, natural, low fat chip. Instead
of the usual potato or corn, Chirps are created from a mix of
ground beans, rice and cricket powder that’s baked rather
than fried. The result is a bag of chips that contains 7g of
protein — more than an egg. This comes from the fact
that 200 calories of cricket meat provides 31g of protein,
compared to 22g in beef. Additionally, it requires 1/2000th
of the amount of water to farm, and 100 times less
greenhouse gas is emitted.
Insects are for the most part absent from western diets,
but around 2 billion of the rest of the world population
enjoy them as a delicacy. By packaging them as chips in
three flavors — Sea Salt, Hickory BBQ and Aged Cheddar —
Six Foods could help replace their meat consumption with a
more efficient and environmentally-friendly method to get
their protein.
Re-printed with permission from springwise.com
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Sensor can tell if food is safe to eat
Lithuania-based startup Peres is looking to
crowdfund a new system that checks if food
is still healthy to eat using a portable sensor
and smartphone.
Consumers can often be especially fussy when it comes to
the food they eat. A Lithuania-based startup called Peres is
looking to crowdfund a new system that checks if food is still
healthy to eat using a portable sensor and smartphone.
The Peres device acts as an electronic nose, using sensors
that can detect temperature, humidity, amonia levels and the
presence of volatile organic compounds released when food
begins to decompose. Users simply place the handheld device
next to the food they want to check and press a button. It
then sends the results to a smartphone, using color-coded
graphics to show how fresh the food is. The device offers a
more accurate reading than simply relying on the nose or
eyes, and can be used in the home or in commercial kitchens
to check if food is still fine to use, reducing food waste.
JUMPSTART
Restaurant lets diners get the perfect lighting for
their foodstagrams
South Africa’s El Burro restaurant has installed
a device that enables customers to take professional-style Instagrams of their meals.
Social platforms such as Instagram have brought out
the budding photographer in amateurs, and now
South Africa’s El Burro restaurant has installed a
device that enables customers to take professionalstyle Instagrams of their meals.
Developed by wifi network MWEB, a small,
portable lighting studio has been placed inside the
restaurant as part of its #dinnercam campaign.
Aimed at demonstrating the possibilities of
ubiquitous wifi, the machine lets diners place
their meal inside and then select various lighting
options using the buttons on the front. Once they’ve
picked the perfect ambient lighting, they can take
a photo with their smartphone and upload it onto
Instagram. Those who tag their image with the
#dinnercam hashtag also get a free physical print of
their photo.
Although a slightly tongue-in-cheek nod to
the fact that foodstagrams often take over the
experience of enjoying the food itself, the popularity
of the phenomenon could see such a device
succeed as an extra offered by restaurants.
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Device lets anyone cook from their smartphone
Mellow is a device that takes orders via smartphones,
cooking customized meals while owners go about their
daily routine.
The internet of things is slowly turning homes into smart
devices themselves, and now Mellow is a device that takes
orders via smartphones, cooking customized meals while owners
go about their daily routine.
Created by Portugal-based FNV Labs, the sous-vide machine
connects to users’ smartphones, enabling them to control the
device from anywhere. Users first put the food they want cooking
in a plastic bag, and then place it into the
water-filled container. The food can be
loaded at any time — the water bath
keeps food refrigerated until it’s time to
begin cooking.
Mellow weighs the food to determine
cooking time, and using the companion
app, owners simply let the device know
what they’re cooking, what time they
want it to be ready for, and how they’d like
it to be cooked. The device can prepare
almost any type of food — cooked meat,
poached eggs, or boiled vegetables. As
users continue to cook with Mellow, it
learns their taste, enabling them to tweak its
cooking settings and receive recommendations for dinner.
An edible water blob could replace plastic bottles
Coffee cup sharing in NY aims to cut paper waste
Initiated by the Sustainable Cup Challenge, Good To Go works by
storing a number of reusable, durable coffee cups that feature
the shape and lids that come with the usual to-go receptacles
at coffee vendors around the city. Customers take the cup with
them to their office, but are able to drop it off again at any other
venue that is part of the scheme. The cups are then sanitized and
redistributed around the ci