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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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JULY 8, 2003
Why the Food Biz Is Hungry for Tech [Page 2 of 2] FOODS WITH FUNCTION. Texas Guacamole maker AvoMex is a pioneer in high-pressure processing. Ten years ago, in an effort to ramp up production, its management began experimenting with technologies that would extend the shelf life of its products because avocados contain low levels of acid and certain enzymes that cause the fruit to discolor when it's exposed to oxygen. High-pressure processing proved just the trick. It has has allowed AvoMex to increase the shelf life of its guacamole, once just 7 to 10 days, to 30 to 40 days. This technique is also being considered for the new raft of popular fresh juices and fruit smoothies, which demand both thorough treatment and fresh flavor. The demand for healthier, nutritious food is the main driver of another trend in food technology: "functional foods" whose ingredients help tackle health problems. Imagine your favorite chocolate dessert enhanced with vitamins, or tea that promotes weight loss, or even edible vaccines. "The American consumer has embraced dietary supplements. But which would you rather do? Take a pill or eat fresh strawberries?" asks Purdue's Santerre. Though bioengineered crops and goods are still intensely controversial, food companies are making a big bet on the latter. According to a recent survey by trade magazine Prepared Foods, 59% of food-marketing executives say they're now developing functional foods. Of those not yet in the market, 10% say their companies will be within a few years. EAT YOUR KETCHUP. Many functional foods are already on the market. Most use additives such as cereal enhanced with soy protein, which is said to reduce heart disease, or beverages fortified with antioxidant-rich green tea, which claims to minimize heart disease and perhaps even cancer. Other products capitalize on healthy ingredients that are innate in their products. Hunt's, a division of Conagra Foods (CAG ), plays up the lycopene -- the powerful antioxidant abundant in red tomatoes that may help prevent prostate cancer -- in its ketchup. Welch's is advertising the natural antioxidants that occur in its grape juice. Over the next two years, according to Prepared Foods, 49% of food companies expect to add antioxidants to packaged foods. Food marketers also predict a growing emphasis on soy protein, calcium, dietary fiber, and omega fatty acids, which may reduce heart disease. In the labs, researchers are hard at work trying to establish links between these new superingredients and the prevention of disease. After encouraging initial results, Iowa State University researchers embarked last year on a three-year study to determine whether the intake of certain phyto-estrogens found in soy products might be a substitute for controversial hormone-replacement treatments for post-menopausal women. "GLITZY SOLUTIONS." At the University of Tennessee, professor Mike Zemel is trying to establish a link between calcium intake and weight loss. And researchers across the country are on a quest for ingredients that can help combat chronic diseases of aging such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Lutein, a beta carotenoid found in leafy green vegetables and marigold flowers, is already popping up in products that cater to an older demographic, such as prepared nutrition shake Ensure and Sunsweet prune juice. Of course, technology will never be the cure-all for America's sanitation or health problems. Just as tech alone can't make airports safe from box-cutter-wielding terrorists, no technology, no matter how sophisticated, will prevent every outbreak of dangerous bacteria or turn the tide on obesity. In fact, one drawback of advanced food technology is that it tends to reinforce the tendency of people "to migrate toward glitzy solutions, stuff with the Star Wars appeal," says Doug Archer, a professor of food science at the University of Florida and a former deputy food director at the FDA. He argues that no matter how sophisticated the technology of food becomes, it'll still always be important to apply common sense to preventing bacterial outbreaks, to quickly recall dangerous foods when they're discovered -- and to lead a healthy lifestyle. JUST THE START. Still, Archer agrees that technology is destined to play an increasingly important role in developing and protecting better tasting, healthier food. "We're at the very beginning of the explosion in food technology," adds Purdue's Santerre. "Over the next 20 years, technology is going to lead to the same transformation in food that the transistor did in electonics -- from ugly radio devices to millions of transistors on a tiny integrated circuit." And to a world where the difference between what Mother Nature provides and what humans eat may be greater than ever.
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