Steak of the Future
An interactive feature in the Swiss Tages Anzeiger focused on alternatives to meat from across Switzerland. More sustainable options included were insects, cultured meat and algae, with research from ETH Zurich highlighted.
Crisis after crisis - changing climate, pandemic and war in Ukraine- are clearly showing the cracks in the current world food system. Transformation of the food system as well as consumption patterns are needed to supply a nutritious diet for us while protecting the environment. More than 630 scientists recently signed an opened letter entitled “external page We need a food system transformation – in the face of the Ukraine war, now more than ever.” The letter included the point: Accelerate the shift towards healthier diets with less animal products in Europe (and other high-income countries). Many members of the World Food System Center at ETH Zurich added their names to the letter, including Chair Robert Finger plus Nina Buchmann, Emmanuel Frossard and Johanna Jacobi.
An interactive feature in the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzieger comments on this urgent need to reduce meat consumption and highlights more sustainable alternatives from across Switzerland. In the feature, alternative sources included insects, cultured meat and algae.
The coverage of algae focuses on research at ETH Zurich, from the Sustainable Food Processing Group. Here, a team of researchers is cultivating microalgae to eat. The idea is that the raw materials for steak will one day thrive on the walls of skyscrapers or underground in biotanks.
Specifically highlighted is research from the new Urban Microalgae-Based Protein Production project, led by the Singapore-ETH Centre, together with the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation. The project started this year and will develop more sustainable methods to produce protein based on microalgae. Project lead, Iris Haberkorn, explains that goal is to produce the food locally, harvest it and prepare it individually. Using a small 3D printer the size of a coffee machine, the appropriate ingredients, such as valuable substances from microalgae, could be added and customized according to health needs. Haberkorn states, "A smartphone or sports watch would then tell you, for example, 'More vitamin B, zinc or protein today,' and display the calorie consumption."
Several start-ups focusing on insects are also featured, showing the innovation potential of the growing market of meat-alternatives.
Read the entire article: external page https://interaktiv.tagesanzeiger.ch/2022/was-essen-wir-morgen/
What will we eat tomorrow?
This Flagship Project Novel Proteins for Food and Feed aims to develop food innovations to provide new sources of sustainable and nutritious protein for a growing world population.