Enterra Insights

Keeping Up with Changing Tastes

IBM has been trying to demonstrate how its Watson computer can be useful in a number of fields. Earlier this year, it delved into the realm of cuisine. Watson ingested notes taken by IBM researchers during a collaboration with James Briscione, a chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, along with "20,000 recipes, data on the chemistry of food ingredients, and measured ratings of flavors people like in categories like 'olfactory pleasantness'," and created a breakfast pastry called a "Spanish crescent." ["And Now, From I.B.M., Chef Watson," by Steve Lohr, New York Times, 27 February 2013] Lohr reports:

"Watson's assignment has been to come up with recipes that are both novel and taste good. In the case of the breakfast pastry, Watson was told to come up with something inspired by Spanish cuisine, but unusual and healthy. The computer-ordered ingredients include cocoa, saffron, black pepper, almonds and honey — but no butter, Watson's apparent nod to healthier eating. Then, Mr. Briscione, working with those ingredients, had to adjust portions and make the pastry. 'If I could have used butter, it would have been a lot easier,' said the chef, who used vegetable oil instead. Michael Karasick, director of I.B.M.'s Almaden lab, had one of the Spanish crescents for breakfast recently. 'Pretty good' was his scientific judgment."

The point of the story is that a lot of analysis goes into making great dish (generally by human brains). Watson used both food chemistry and human opinion to help it in its analysis. As I've pointed in out in past posts, all of our senses come into play when we eat. While it comes as no surprise that taste is king, our sense of taste can be fooled by how something looks or feels (see my post entitled Sensing Food: The Role of Color. John Stanton, Contributing Editor of Food Processing magazine, writes, "It's no shock that taste is important to consumers; however, the surprise is that in many cases, we find taste takes second place or worse to other factors" when producers create new products. ["Taste Remains Consumers' Top Preference for New Foods and Beverages," 6 September 2013] Stanton laments, "Many of the initial efforts in producing healthy foods failed because the packaging tasted slightly better than the product." He discusses a number of "healthier" products that were introduced only to fail because they failed the taste challenge. You can almost hear him asking, "What were they thinking?" One of the challenges, he notes, is that food is a lot like fashion. As super model Heidi Klum would say, "One your day your in; the next day you're out." Stanton writes:

"The changing tastes of consumers have vexed food marketers for years. Changes in ethnic composition, attitudes of different age groups, health issues and the need for convenience have led food marketers to invest heavily in consumer insights and research to determine what consumers want."

One example of a company trying to keep ahead of changing tastes is McCormick & Company. For over a dozen years, it has been publishing a Flavor Forecast (see my post entitled McCormick^® Flavor Forecast^® 2013. Stanton indicates that getting the taste right is also good for the bottom line. "Better taste means better profits," he writes. "Most of the really good tasting foods often have the highest margins." So let's examine some of what's happening in the world of food and senses.

Taste

Mark Garrison reports, "Sour foods and flavors are riding high at the moment, and our growing desire for them is changing the food industry." ["More Sour to You," Slate, 20 June 2013] He continues:

"If Katherine Alford says sour flavors are having a national moment, pay attention. A vice president at the Food Network, Alford runs its expansive test kitchen in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Recipes and ideas that make the cut here will find their way into kitchens across America through the network's TV, Web, and magazine content. Alford's job is to stay in front of America's ever-changing palate without alienating a mainstream audience. Right now, Alford is finding that audience increasingly hungry for sour foods."

Ellen Bryon agrees flavors with a bit tang and sourness are becoming more mainstream. "No one says, 'I feel like fermented food tonight'," she writes. "But pungent, tangy flavors — all results of fermentation — are increasingly sneaking into grocery-store aisles." ["Mmm, the Flavors of Fermentation," Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2013] She continues:

"Packaged-food makers, grocers and chefs say more Americans are developing a bigger taste for fermented foods. Flavor experts even envision a world where spicy kimchi replaces pedestrian sauerkraut on American hot dogs. Already, fermented flavors are popping up on snacks and condiments such as Lay's Sriracha potato chips, Heinz balsamic vinegar flavored ketchup and Trader Joe's Spicy Seaweed Ramen noodles. The Subway sandwich chain is testing a creamy Sriracha sauce. Demand is especially strong from baby boomers, who face a weakening ability to taste and are drawn to stronger flavors, and the 20-something millennials, who seek new and exotic tastes."

Garrison reports, "Both sour and spicy flavors have ridden to popularity on a wave of new international cuisines that reflect the nation's growing diversity." Stephanie Strom agrees that American tastes are expanding and that demographic diversity is playing a major role. "The growing influence on America's palate of the influx of immigrants from Latin America and Asia has been ... subtle," she writes, "even as grocery shelves increasingly display products containing ingredients like lemon grass and sriracha peppers." ["American Tastes Branch Out, and Food Makers Follow," New York Times, 8 July 2013] She continues:

"For years, multinational food companies have been experimenting with ingredients, often being unable to find appeal broad enough to start or sustain a new brand. But as the buying power of Latino and Asian consumers expands, fruit flavors, hotter spices, different textures and grains and even packaging innovations are becoming essential for big food manufacturers trying to appeal to diverse appetites, according to company executives. From 2010 to 2012, sales of ethnic foods rose 4.5 percent, to $8.7 billion. The Mintel Group, a market research firm, estimates that between 2012 and 2017 sales of ethnic foods in grocery stores will grow more than 20 percent. Mintel predicts Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods will increase the most in that time in terms of dollar sales."

Sight

Candice Choi reports, "Companies are tossing out the identical shapes and drab colors that scream of factory conveyor belts. There's no way to measure exactly how much food makers are investing to make their products look more natural or fresh. But adaptation is seen as necessary for fueling steady growth." ["Food Companies Work To Make It Look Natural," Manufacturing.net, 18 June 2013] Another way that companies use sight to appeal to consumers is through the use of color. Recently, however, use of artificial colors has drawn a lot of scrutiny. Eliza Barclay reports, "We've grown accustomed to choosing our food from a spectacular rainbow — care for an impossibly pink cupcake, a cerulean blue sports drink or yogurt in preppy lavender? But there's a growing backlash against the synthetic dyes that give us these eye-popping hues. And now scientists are turning to the little-known (and little-grown) purple sweet potato to develop plant-based dyes that can be labeled as nonthreatening vegetable juice." ["Purple Sweet Potato A Contender To Replace Artificial Food Dyes," National Public Radio, 9 September 2013]

Natural color plays an important health role according to some pundits. The Epoch Times reports, "Over 3,000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor wrote in his classic book on internal medicine, Huangdineijing, that if people wanted to obtain health and longevity, they should eat food with 'five colors, five tastes, and five fragrances'." ["Food With 'Five Colors' Benefit Health," 29 August 2013] The article continues:

"The benefits of a color-rich diet are also recognized by Western nutritionists. In the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, some of the recommendations include adding the following color-rich foods to one's diet: dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains, and low-fat milk products. The guidelines were released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ... According to [Marla Caplon, nutritionist and supervisor for the Division of Food and Nutrition Services for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland], yellow and orange fruits and vegetables, rich in beta carotene, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C contain powerful antioxidants that neutralize free radicals. Green vegetables are rich in phytochemicals and are good sources of iron, calcium, vitamins K, A, and C. Blue and purple fruits and vegetables contain anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants that help the prevention of heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. The red group contains lycopene, an antioxidant that can help protect against cancer. ... The white group contains allicin, which has been known to help lower blood sugar and have amazing anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. This group also contains powerful antioxidants, which help to protect against cancer and heart disease."

Touch

Catherine Alexander, Vice President of Corporate Communications with Comax Flavors, told Hank Schultz, "One particular challenge ... is to incorporate echoes of texture into the flavor matrix. ... Texture is a huge part of what imparts pleasure to food ... and can impact how flavor is perceived." ["If spciness is king, texture might be queen, and strawberry rules its own realm," Food Navigator, 29 August 2013] Alexander also indicated that she had "seen a study that says texture is becoming almost more important than flavor." I'm skeptical about that last point. I agree with Stanton that taste will always trump the other senses when it comes to food enjoyment.

Smell

Back in the days when every main street had a butcher and baker, smart bakers vented the aromas of baking bread out into the street to attract customers. Aroma continues to be an important part of eating experience. PepsiCo is one manufacturer that certainly believes that to be true. It recently filed a patent for "a method of encapsulating aromas within beverage packaging to entice US consumers with 'favorable aromas' before they drink ... juices or coffees." ["PepsiCo seeks US patent to encapsulate beverage aromas within packaging," by Ben Bouckley, Beverage Daily, 10 September 2013] Naijie Zhang and Peter Given, inventors of the technology, told Bouckley, "Research has shown that aromas can in some instances have substantial impact on consumer perception of the taste of a beverage or other food, trigger a favourable emotional response, elicit a favourite memory, and/or otherwise improve overall product performance."

Undoubtedly, research will continue within the food industry about how the senses work individually and together to make eating the most pleasurable experience it can be. I believe that cognitive computers, like Enterra's Cognitive Reasoning Platform™, will be solicited to help with this research.

Sensing Food: The Role of Color

Back in the fall of 2000, three researchers, Lawrence L. Garber, Jr., Eva M. Hyatt, and Richard G. Starr, Jr., conducted a study on "The Effects of Food Color on Perceived Flavor." [Journal of Marketing, Fall 2000] Their conclusion was, "Food color's principal use is for flavor identification, not for strategic marketing communication purposes." They went on to write:

"There has been surprisingly little color research in marketing, and the impact of food color has been completely neglected outside of the food sciences; unfortunate, because marketers understand so little of the powerful yet complex effects of color at the point of purchase. Though food scientists have empirically examined aspects of the effects of food color, research on the topic remains sparse, is not theory-based, and, as a body, is limited."

Frankly, that statement surprised me. Food coloring has been around for a long, long time. Peggy Trowbridge Filippone reports:

"Ancient Romans used saffron and other spices to put a rich yellow color into various foods. Other natural foods such as carrots, pomegranates, grapes, mulberries, spinach, beets, parsley, and flowers were also used as food coloring agents. Our ancestors also used minerals and ores, such as azure (copper carbonate), gold leaf, and silver leaf, some of which were downright poisonous if used improperly. Elise Fleming researched cookbooks dating as far back as 1390 A.D., and has compiled an interesting list of food additives used hundreds of years ago with charming quotes in Olde English from sources in her informative treatise on the food coloring of yesteryear." ["Food Coloring History," About.com]

Certainly there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that food color affects taste. For a quick, but interesting report on the subject, click on this link to watch a short ABC story on the subject. During a study conducted a few years ago, "researchers found that color was more of an influence on how taste was perceived than quality or price information." ["More Than Meets The Tongue: Color Of A Drink Can Fool The Taste Buds Into Thinking It Is Sweeter," Science Daily, 16 February 2007] The article claims that JoAndrea Hoegg, from University of British Columbia, and Joseph W. Alba, from the University of Florida, "are the first to look at how individual attributes — such as color, price, or brand — can affect which products we prefer." The article continues:

"The researchers manipulated orange juice by changing color (with food coloring), sweetness (with sugar), or by labeling the cups with brand and quality information. They found that though brand name influenced people's preferences for one cup of juice over another, labeling one cup a premium brand and the other an inexpensive store brand had no effect on perceptions of taste. In contrast, the tint of the orange juice had a huge effect on the taster's perceptions of taste. As the authors put it: 'Color dominated taste.'"

An article on the Konica Minolta website states, "While many of us like to believe that we are not easily deceived, our sense of taste is often fooled by our sense of sight. This is because humans have certain expectations of how food should look. When a food's color is off or is different than what we expect, our brain tells us that it tastes different too. Long supported by scientific studies, we use visual cues from color to identify and judge the quality and taste of what we eat." The article goes to report on the results of an experiment conducted some 40 years ago:

"Published in Fast Food Nation, a more extreme study dating back to the early 1970s offers some insight into how color affects our appetite and perception of food. Subjects in the experiment were served what appeared to be a normal looking plate of steak and french fries. The room, however, was installed with specialty lighting that changed how the color of the food looked. Under this lighting effect, the participants thought the steak and fries tasted fine. Once the effects were turned off and lighting was returned to normal, it was revealed that the steak was dyed a blue color and the french fries were dyed a green color. Upon seeing this, many of the subjects lost their appetite and some became ill."

Another group of researchers, Charles Spence, Carmel Levitan, Maya U. Shankar, and Massimiliano Zampini, believe that there are "two qualitatively distinct research questions" involved in how color affects the taste of food. ["Does food color influence taste and flavor perception in humans?," Selected Works of Carmel Levitan, 2010] They explain:

"The first concerns the role that food coloring plays in the perception of the intensity of a particular flavor (e.g., strawberry, banana, etc.) or taste attribute (e.g., sweetness, saltiness, etc.). The second concerns the role that food coloring plays in the perception of flavor identity."

Some new age chefs are making a good living playing around with people senses by making food look like one thing and taste like another. However, as the ABC story highlighted, the most significant effect that color has on food is the perception it makes on taste attributes. An article from Techdirt reports, "There's one argument, which says that if you're eating food that needs to be colored, you're not eating food." Proponents of that argument point to so-called junk food to support their case. An experiment using uncolored Cheetos, which are naturally gray in color, found that consumers who ate them claimed that "their brains did not register much cheese flavor."

It's not just the color of food that changes our perception of taste or preferability; the color of dinnerware and packaging can also have an effect. Jessica Hullinger reports, "New research from the Journal of Sensory Studies says different colored cups can affect the perceived flavor of beverages. 'The color of the container where food and drink are served can enhance some attributes like taste and aroma,' said study co-author Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, a researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom." ["How Your Cup's Color Changes the Taste of Your Drink," mental_floss, 7 January 2013] And the editorial staff at FoodBusinessNews, report, "It turns out the source of Hillshire Brands’ packaged lunchmeat problems was the product’s clear lid. By switching from the clear lid to a more pronounced red cap, the company has managed to start to turn the business around." ["Hillshire learns red means go," 12 August 2013] Sean Connolly, Hillshire's chief executive officer, told a group of financial analysts, "While consumers consistently articulated a preference for the clear lid in numerous quantitative tests, their actual purchase behavior noticeably changed when we made the switch. As we dug into the disconnect between what consumers were saying and what they were doing, it became clear there was a positive benefit to the red lid that the consumer could not articulate.”

Because we are sometimes unable to articulate why we behave differently than we think we do, I believe that Big Data analytics has a significant role to play in the world of sensory services. There is an interplay between all of our senses that affects how we perceive the world around us and how we enjoy the products we use. To learn more about how the senses affect taste, read my post entitled Enjoying Food: Taste, and Our Other Senses.

Packaging and Sustainability

Manufacturers and retailers know that packaging serves a number of functions. Good packaging protects the products they contain, attracts the eye of potential buyers, and optimizes retail shelf space. More and more, however, you read about the importance of so-called "green" packaging. The challenge for designers and engineers is to develop packaging that provides all of packaging's traditional functions while being environmentally friendly. Each type of packaging material (e.g., metal, glass, plastic, and paper) comes with its own set of unique challenges. Most consumers don't really give much thought to packaging. Fortunately, professionals involved with packaging do. That's because billions of dollars are spent packaging consumer goods each year. Nevertheless, Dennis Salazar, President & Co-founder of Salazar Packaging, believes there is plenty of room for innovation in the packaging sector. After attending a couple of recent packaging conventions, he concluded that, "not a whole lot" was taking place "in terms of innovation." On the other hand, he asserts that there is a lot of activity "in terms of approach." ["What’s New in Green Packaging?," Environmental Leader, 16 May 2013] I'll discuss those approaches later.

Rory Christian, a Consultant with Cambashi, points out that the "perfect package," if there is such a thing, isn't the work of a lone genius sitting at a design table. He asserts that it requires "input from an array of geographically-dispersed stakeholders, including: multi-disciplinary design teams, packaging manufacturers, logistics operators, retailers and, of course, the consumers themselves." ["The Promise of Great Packaging at Retail," Consumer Goods Technology, 7 May 2013] Each of those stakeholders views packaging from a different perspective and, therefore, each stakeholder provides valuable insight about its development. Christian believes, however, that too often valuable inputs from stakeholders are received sequentially and the result is less than optimum packaging. He explains:

"Companies have tended to operate a sequential process for packaging design, with each team impressing their input onto the product one stage after another. The issues that arise when, for example, space needed for labeling is cannibalized by the brand logo during a preceding process, often lead to conflict, unexpected re-work, extra cost and wasted opportunity."

When sustainability factors are added in, the complexity of the packaging challenge increases. Paul Tasner, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of PulpWorks, Inc., believes that sustainable packaging refers to "packaging that does more good than harm. It is packaging that will not be a burden on our planet or for future generations, as opposed to the packaging that continues to be such a burden on the environment." ["Sustainable Packaging," Dustin Mattison's Blog, 14 August 2012] Tasner adds that one of the challenges associated with sustainable packages is cost. He explains:

"In many cases the sustainable packaging choice is not the economical choice. There may be a cost difference. It is obviously pennies, but pennies are important to many companies. They don't consider sustainable packaging to be an important factor in their supply chains. In fact, many companies see the cost barriers as an issue."

Salazar notes that there have been some attempts to adopt innovative materials ( such as, "seaweed, mushrooms or concepts that make new packaging out of waste such as marine plastic:); but, he laments, these products have not proven to be "game changers" that are "capable of being produced, economically for large volume, commercial use." Ron Romanik, Contributing Editor at Packaging World, believes that even during economically challenging times that manufacturers should pursue innovative packaging solutions. ["How packaging innovators tear down walls while planning ahead," 26 April 2013] He provides ten "tips to help jump-start—or rejuvenate—your leadership in managing a new package innovation."

1. "Break down walls. You don’t need X-ray spectacles to see that information shouldn't be hidden behind departmental barriers or organizational 'walls.' ...
2. "Work hard to work together. ... Engineers and technical R&D professionals may suspect that marketing doesn't understand what is or isn't possible, while marketing pros may feel that tech teams are stuck in the proverbial mud.
3. "Define the common goal. ... Packaging innovation design doesn't happen in a vacuum.
4. "Empower engineers. ... Don't be afraid to empower engineers and make available to them packaging-specific data to drive to the right solution. ... Consumer behaviors, wants, and needs influence the solution. But engineers need the data to justify the solutions they offer.
5. "Plan for the good and the bad. ... Companies must remain flexible—from the business processes to packaging line designs and layouts.
6. "Anticipate the future, systematically. ... Continually research new package ideas to meet present and future needs. ...
7. "Be a true believer. Leading packaging professionals believe that innovative packaging is good for the company as well as society at large. ...
8. "Retain educated leaders. The best packaging R&D groups include leaders who are experienced and educated specifically in packaging. ...
9. "Roll up your sleeves. Even managers should have the experience and capability to execute in order to lead a packaging project from concept to market, to work with engineering, manufacturing, and external material and machinery suppliers.
10. "Measure to improve. Measure brand performance with consumers. ..."

Deciding what metrics to use is important. As noted earlier, if cost is the most important metric for a company, then some innovative sustainable solutions may never be considered. Additionally, a focus on cost may result in corporate myopia that prohibits a company from looking at the broader picture. That brings us back to the point that Salazar made earlier about new approaches to green packaging. He writes:

"What I find most encouraging is the change of attitude that is more back to basics; packaging design that is green by default. Don't misunderstand, I am not at all critical of this approach, in fact I am convinced it is the only way we can drive positive, long term change. It will be successful because it is based in economics, not guilt and because in most cases the savings they produce are immediate with minimal upfront investment. Even though this economically driven change may not have the green banner on it, the results happen to be basic in regards to sustainability. Many of the products I now see being promoted can easily and accurately be categorized in the three basics R's of sustainability."

The three R's to which Salazar refers are: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. None of these R's requires the use of new innovative materials — and that's Salazar's point. Concerning reducing packaging material, he writes:

"The new focus is on thinner, stronger materials able to do the same job with less material. This is consistent not only in paper products but especially in plastics after another turbulent year of resin prices, negatively impacting all forms of transparent, flexible packaging, and non-film products like plastic strapping, and carton sealing tapes. We are most definitely using less, not necessarily for the sake of the planet but for the sake of the bottom line."

Anyone who drinks a lot of bottled water has noticed how caps have gotten smaller and bottles have become thinner over the past few years. Thinner material is good for some purposes (like holding water), but thinner material also offers less protection for more vulnerable products. Concerning the reuse of packaging material, Salazar writes:

"I see a lot more products that permit or encourage their reuse. Paper products such as boxes with specialty coatings designed to extend life and the increased popularity of returnable, reusable packaging such as totes, mailers, and other containers designed for multiple reuse. Companies love the economics of packaging that is not designed to be used and tossed, and they are taking full advantage of closed loop or internal return/reuse capabilities."

Somewhere between the topics of Reuse and recycle is the topic of repurposing. Repurposing involves finding a new use for an old product without having to modify it significantly. Unfortunately, for most manufacturers, repurposing really isn't an option. Finally, on the topic of recycling, Salazar writes:

"If there is a long term positive impact to what appears to be for many companies a short term interest in sustainability, it is in this most important area. More products than ever before are being made with a large percentage of recycled content and even more are able to be easily recycled and are labeled as such. I would also say that most of the manufacturers I know use recycled materials because it saves them money and allows them to minimize the impact of multiple price increases on new or virgin materials."

In past posts concerning sustainability, I have stressed that the only sustainability initiatives that will have legs are those for which a business case can be made. Salazar agrees. He concludes:

"The other really positive, long lasting change I see is an increased interest in sustainable design incorporating the three techniques above. The end result of an application audit is almost always an immediate savings because so often companies are basically using the wrong product, or in some cases the product design they are using is simply outdated. Imagine being able to use less packaging, that is 50% recycled content and is 100% recyclable after many repeated uses? Those types of goals are being met every day and that is good for the bottom line and for the environment. The best eco friendly packaging solutions are those that are appealing to the company or consumer using them and also make economic sense."

The topic of sustainable packaging is only going to gain more attention in the years ahead. It will be interesting to see what kinds of innovative solutions companies come up with to meet the myriad functions that packaging involves.

The Real, Fake Food You've Been Waiting For

You might have missed the announcement, but "after three months, $330,000 and a high-profile media blitz, the world's first hamburger grown in a lab made its worldwide debut" on Monday. ["Long Awaited Lab-Grown Burger Is Unveiled In London," by Eliza Barclay, Bay Area Bites, 5 August 2013] After reading Barclay's headline, you might be asking yourself: Who exactly has been waiting for this hamburger? Animal rights activists, scientists, environmentalists, and emerging market consumers may be among those who qualify for that group.

This isn't the first time that lab-grown meat has been attempted. Earlier attempts have not been met with much enthusiasm because the resulting product has not had much flavor. The $330,000 burger may be different. NBC journalists Alastair Jamieson and Alan Boyle report, "Taste testers ... finally bit into a burger created from stem cells in a culture dish rather than meat from a farm or a store. The burger was cooked in front of reporters and taste-tested by Chicago-based author and food writer Josh Schonwald and Austrian food researcher Hanni Rutzler." ["'Intense flavor': The $330,000 burger that was built in a lab hits the spot," NBC News, 5 August 2013] The claim that the lab-grown burger "hit the spot" might be a bit of hyperbole. Jamieson and Boyle note, "Although [Schonwald and Rutzler] struggled to decide whether they liked the taste, both were pleasantly surprised at the texture and juicyness given the absence of natural fats." Schonwald's high praise was, "It wasn't unpleasant." And Rutzler added, "There is quite some intense flavor." Jamieson and Boyle report, however that Rutzler added that the burger "needed seasoning." To be fair, the seasoning was left off deliberately so that the tasters could judge the quality of the "cultured meat" on its own. The burger was cooked by Chef Richard McGeown, of London’s Couch’s Great House Restaurant, who "browned it in sunflower oil and butter." As any food lover knows, even the best cut of steak requires some seasoning.

The cultured beef that was being tasted was created by University of Maastricht physiologist Mark Post. Jamieson and Boyle report that Post conducted his research using a "€250,000 ($330,000) donation from Google co-founder and entrepreneur Sergey Brin." They continue:

"Post has been working since 2008 to produce a palatable food product from lab-grown muscle cells. He and other scientists involved in similar projects aren't doing it just for the novelty. They see test-tube meat as a means to head off what could become a global food crisis."

As I've noted in previous posts, the world's population is expected to surpass 9 billion people by the middle of this century. Finding a way to feed this increased number of people is going to be a challenge -- especially since emerging global middle class consumers quickly acquire a taste for meat. The following video provides a good overview of why cultured meat may prove to be part of the solution to the global food crisis.

The next challenge that needs to be overcome is creating cultured beef at scale. Today that's not possible. Barclay reports, "It took three months to culture the 20,000 individual muscle fibers that make up one single patty." She continues:

"To create his alternative, Post first removed tissue from a cow with a syringe. Then he separated out the stem cells that specifically make new muscle when the cow is injured. He put those stem cells in a growth medium with antibiotics (to prevent contamination from bacteria). Over time, the cells divide, and with the help of some scaffolding provided by the researchers, 'the cells will self-organize into muscle fibers,' Post explains in the promo video. This was no small feat. As synthetic biologist Christina Agapakis pointed out in a blog post for Discover in 2012, 'Cell culture is one of the most expensive and resource-intensive techniques in modern biology. Keeping the cells warm, healthy, well-fed, and free of contamination takes incredible labor and energy, even when scaled to the 10,000-liter vats that biotech companies use.' Hence this burger's hefty pricetag. And while the technique for growing cow cells avoids animal slaughter, it still requires animal inputs that raise ethical concerns. As Agapakis notes, the burger cells are grown in a medium 'supplemented with fetal bovine serum—literally the blood of unborn cows.' Post says he is working on a non-animal based growth medium."

As a result of the challenges that lay ahead, Barclay concludes, "It will be a longtime yet before the average consumer gets to sample an in vitro burger. First, Post says he has to bring down the pricetag — currently about $154 a pound – as well as the time it takes to grow one burger." Post's best estimate for when consumers will be able to pick up cultured meat in their supermarket aisles is in 10 to 20 years. In the video above, Sergey Brin notes that the future of cultured meat sounds like science fiction; but, he goes on to note that wild ideas are required if a technology is going to be transformative. Matt Novak points out that one of the first visionaries to see the potential of cultured meat was Frederick Edwin Smith Birkenhead, the Earl of Birkenhead. ["Synthetic Hamburgers Are the Future--And Have Been for Decades," Paleofuture, 5 August 2013] In his book entitled, The world in 2030 A.D., the Earl "predicted that artificial meat grown in a lab was the wave of the future." Both his prediction and his timeline may prove to be true. Novak goes on to report "that Jacob Rosin and Max Eastman laid out their case for synthetic production of everything" in their 1953 book The Road to Abundance.

Although it was a hamburger that was cooked up during the London press conference, the website Next Nature wondered how else cultured meat could be used. "Although cultured meat is typically presented as a technology to solve problems like animal suffering, food scarcity and climate issues," the site states, "the technology could also be framed positively: Eating in-vitro could bring us entirely new food experiences and eating habits that may enrich our lives." ["Seven Future Visions on In-Vitro Meat," 5 August 2013] The site's seven potential uses include:

1. Magic Meatballs that "are designed to playfully familiarize children with lab-grown meat. Young people are more prone to overconsumption of proteins and fats, and are more sensitive to the hormones and antibiotics used in conventional meat production. Luckily, lab-grown Magic Meatballs can be tailored precisely to a child's individual needs."


2. Knitted Meat that uses "thin threads of protein. Supermarkets sell balls of meat fiber seasoned with various spices and vegetable flavors. New kitchen appliances enable consumers to weave meat according to preset preferences. Texture, taste and tenderness can be controlled to create a personal, multisensory eating experience. Groups of diners can even knit their own sections of a protein scarf, enabling multiple people to share a unique moment."


3. The Kitchen Meat Incubator that "does for home cooking what the electronic synthesizer did for the home musician. It provides its users with a set of pre-programmed samples that can be remixed and combined to their liking. Besides the preparation of traditional styles like steak, sausage or meatballs, consumers can bring their own imagination to the meat preparation process. The handy sliders on the device control size, shape and texture."


4. Meat Fruit that "aims to seduce and inspire diners with an entirely new eating experience that balances eating meat and fruit. In vitro technology is used to grow meat structures that precisely mimic those of various existing fruits such as berries, oranges, and mangoes. The result is used to create La Pâte, a sweet-savory amuse-bouche ideal for Michelin-starred restaurants."


5. Meat paint that allows children "to prepare their own meat dish in a very creative, fun and safe way: by painting! The meat paint lets children put some extra effort into their meal, which makes the dinner more valuable and meaningful again. By painting their own meal children get more affinity with their food and are therefore more willing to eat it."


6. Meat Powder that "is a straightforward form of in vitro meat that provides the proteins you need – no more, no less. Meat Powder can be used in soups, pies and salads, but is best used in a creamy meat fondue."


7. A Rustic In Vitro incubator that is "designed to simulate rabbit, boar or cattle. The more time it has to ripen, the more structure and character the replicating meat cells will develop."

Humans have been eating all kinds of foods depending on where they live and what is available. Once cultured meat is available in large quantities, it won't seem as strange or offputting as it may seem today. In fact, the meat will probably be flavored to taste and people will wonder how their ancestors were ever willing risk buying a cut a meat they weren't sure would taste great!

Tableware and Taste

Our sense of taste is an interesting topic. In other posts on the subject, I've noted that other senses (especially smell and sight) play a role in how we judge the taste of foods. "To make your yogurt seem more decadent," writes, Emily Sohn, "eat it from a plastic spoon." At least that is what a new study suggests, "which found that the color, weight and shape of utensils influences our experience of the food we eat with them." ["Utensil Color, Shape, Size Affect Food Flavor," Discovery, 25 June 2013] Perhaps being born with a silver spoon in one's mouth isn't so desirable after all. Sohn continues:

"The findings add to plenty of other evidence that the taste of food varies depending on the accessories we use to eat it. When people drink from a glass that has a color perceived as 'cool,' for example, they find the beverage more thirst-quenching. And food eaten out of a heavier bowl seems like a larger portion. To see what kind of influence utensils might have on food experiences, researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom conducted a series of experiments. They added hidden weights to some plastic spoons, for example, and asked people to rate the sweetness, density and expensiveness of yogurt. They also played around with the color and shape of cutlery. People perceived yogurt as denser and more expensive when eaten with lighter spoons, the researchers report today in the journal Flavour, probably because those spoons matched their expectations. But yogurt tasted with that spoon was also rated as less sweet than when eaten with heavier or larger spoons.When using a blue spoon, people thought pink yogurt tasted saltier than white yogurt, possibly because salty snack foods in the U.K. often come in blue packages with white lettering — leading to unrealized salty expectations from the white yogurt. And people thought yogurt tasted sweeter when they ate it with a white spoon than with a black one."

Writing about the results of the same study, an article by Agence France-Presse, stresses the point that beyond how tableware can affect the taste of food, it could have serious health consequences as well. ["Tableware color influences food flavor - study," Rappler, 26 June 2013] It explains:

"British hospitals use red trays in a program to combat malnutrition, but may have chosen the worst possible color, according to a study linking the tinge of tableware to food enjoyment. ... 'Red could ... be used to serve food to people who need to reduce their food intake, but should certainly not be used for those who are underweight,' the team wrote in the journal Flavour. British hospitals use red trays to make it easier for nurses to identify people who need help eating. 'Red appears to be the worst possible tray color ... for those individuals who are being encouraged to eat more,' the researchers warned."

If true, the study could prompt a whole new line of dieting dishware for tableware manufacturers. Sohn reports that study another experiment with cheese. She writes:

"In a final experiment with different types of cheese, the researchers found that people rated cheese as saltier when they sampled it with a knife instead of a fork, spoon or toothpick. This may have been because eating with a knife is an unusual behavior, the researchers speculated, or because it reminded people of using a knife to try samples in a cheese shop, where cheeses tend to be more aged and therefore saltier."

It's clear that we have a lot left to learn about our sense of taste and flavor preferences. The Oxford researchers obviously came up with more questions than they did answers. Not knowing how the study was conducted, it would be interesting to see if the results remained true if the experiments were conducted using participants with sensory handicaps (e.g, blind or deaf volunteers). Sohn asserts, "The findings add yet more evidence that subtle details about way we eat influence how we experience the textures and flavors of our food. The results may also lead to new strategies for more or less healthful eating." I'm not sure why anyone would want to develop a strategy for less healthful eating, but you never know. In a press release that accompanied publication of the study, co-author of the report, Vanessa Harrar, stated:

"How we experience food is a multisensory experience involving taste, feel of the food in our mouths, aroma, and the feasting of our eyes. Even before we put food into our mouths our brains have made a judgment about it, which affects our overall experience. Subtly changing eating implements and tableware can affect how pleasurable, or filling, food appears. So, when serving a dish, one should keep in mind that the color of the food appears different depending on the background on which it is presented (plate or cutlery) and, therefore, tastes different."

I'll discuss more about how senses affect our taste in future posts.

Trekkies Rejoice! Food Replicators are Coming Soon

In the original Star Trek series, meals served to crew members in space came from food synthesizers that, in subsequent Star Trek series, morphed into replicators. The well-stocked space pantry consisted primarily of feedstock that could be combined into all sorts of different foods and taste combinations to suit the various humanoid species that resided in the starship. Laurie Segall writes, "A 3D food printer sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it's not out of this world." In fact, when she wrote her article back in 2011, one was already "up and running at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan" and had been in service since 2009. ["This 3D printer makes edible food," CNN Money, 24 January 2011] She also predicted, "In five years, it could be in your home." The 3D printer used by the Institute in Manhattan was developed at Cornell University by a group of scientists and students. "The device attaches to a computer," Segall wrote, "which works as the 'brain' behind the technology."

One of the comments in Segall's article that fascinated me most came from David Arnold, director of culinary technology at the French Culinary Institute. "One of the main things I hope this machine will let us do is create new textures that we couldn't get otherwise," he told Segall. "This is the first time I've really seen this happen." Normally, the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of food is taste. But, as I noted in a previous post entitled Enjoying Food: Taste, and Our Other Senses, all of our senses play a role in how we perceive the taste of food. If a true replicator is going to be made, then the computer that controls it must contain the right sensory information. Texture is one of those characteristics.

If you think that this subject remains in the realm of science fiction, you'd be wrong. It was recently announced that "NASA and a Texas company are exploring the possibility of using a '3D printer' on deep space missions in a way where the 'D' would stand for dining." ["3D Printing: Food in Space," Space Travel, 27 May 2013] The first step being undertaken is a feasibility study. The article continues:

"Systems and Materials Research Consultancy will conduct a study for the development of a 3D printed food system for long duration space missions. Phase I SBIR proposals are very early stage concepts that may or may not mature into actual systems. This food printing technology may result in a phase II study, which still will be several years from being tested on an actual space flight."

Although there remains a debate about whether manned space exploration is necessary, at this point in time, NASA doesn't want to preclude any option. If the decision is made to launch a manned mission to Mars, for example, then feeding the astronauts on that long voyage becomes a real challenge. The article explains:

"NASA's Advanced Food Technology program is interested in developing methods that will provide food to meet safety, acceptability, variety, and nutritional stability requirements for long exploration missions, while using the least amount of spacecraft resources and crew time. The current food system wouldn't meet the nutritional needs and five-year shelf life required for a mission to Mars or other long duration missions. Because refrigeration and freezing require significant spacecraft resources, current NASA provisions consist solely of individually prepackaged shelf stable foods, processed with technologies that degrade the micronutrients in the foods. Additionally, the current space food is selected before astronauts ever leave the ground and crew members don't have the ability to personalize recipes or really prepare foods themselves. Over long duration missions, a variety of acceptable food is critical to ensure crew members continue to eat adequate amounts of food, and consequently, get the nutrients they need to maintain their health and performance."

As you can imagine, there are a number of challenges that must be met. What kind of materials will be used as feedstock for the 3D printer? How will they be stored? What combinations of feedstock can be used to create new recipes? How do you incorporate things like taste, aroma, and texture? The article concludes:

"NASA recognizes in-space and additive manufacturing offers the potential for new mission opportunities, whether 'printing' food, tools or entire spacecraft. Additive manufacturing offers opportunities to get the best fit, form and delivery systems of materials for deep space travel. This's why NASA is a leading partner in the president's National Network for Manufacturing Innovation and the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative. 3D printing is just one of the many transformation technologies that NASA is investing in to create the new knowledge and capabilities needed to enable future space missions while benefiting life here on Earth."

Getting back to "life here on earth," Jeffrey Lipton, a PhD candidate at Cornell, and Hod Lipson, a professor at Cornell's Creative Machines Lab, provide an update to Segall's story about their 3D food printer project. ["Adventures in Printing Food," IEEE Spectrum, 31 May 2013] They note that the project actually began back in 2005 as the [email protected] project. The following video, which accompanied Segall's story, shows the machine in action at the French Culinary Institute and contains a brief interview with Lipton.

Lipton and Lipson report that one of the first individuals to use their 3D food printer outside of a research lab was a high school student named Noy Schaal. She built one of the machines, adapted it to print chocolate delights, and won first prize at a local science fair after she "printed chocolate letters, textured bars, and other shapes directly from a computer-aided-design (CAD) model and then handed them to the judges." Among the early foods that were experimented with (in addition to chocolate and the ingredients discussed in the video) are hummus, peanut butter, Brie and apricot comfiture, and Cheez Whiz. Lipton and Lipson continue:

"While a paste-based diet may have sufficed for the early astronauts, it's too limited for most people. For digital cooking to really catch on, we concluded, the printers needed to accommodate a larger range of recipes, ingredients, and cooking temperatures. Getting the printers to operate at the right temperatures for different types of food is not easy. Food, unlike plastic, can change dramatically over a relatively short period of time: A batch of frosting made in the morning may work fine at one temperature, but the same batch later in the day may not. Now consider the huge array of possible ingredients and the different settings that each would need, and you can see why creating a truly useful home food printer seemed at first impossible."

And, if you think that an earthbound printer seemed impossible, you can see why a space-based one was unthinkable. Lipton and Lipson report, however, that a Cornell University graduate student named Daniel Cohen had an idea. They continue:

"What was needed, he thought, was the equivalent of an RGB standard for food. RGB stands for red, green, and blue, the basic color elements used in televisions to reproduce a rainbow of colors; a similar set of basic colors—cyan, magenta, and yellow—are used in inkjet printers. Cohen's idea was to create a similarly standard set of elements for the food printer that would make it simpler to produce a variety of foods—and also allow you to share your designs, so that you could 'send' a piece of cake to your uncle's printer."

The problem, of course, was finding the food equivalent of RGB. Remarkably, Lipton and Lipson report they "didn't have to look far." They explain:

"A huge industry already exists to devise food flavors and colors that can make just about anything look and taste like something else. Supplements like vitamins, minerals, and fibers are also widely available. The only problem, then, was getting the right texture. For that we turned to hydrocolloids—materials like carrageenan, xanthan gum, and gum arabic—that today appear on many food labels. They're the thickeners in McDonald’s milkshakes, for instance. We brought in other gelling agents like those used in Jell-O desserts. We were already familiar with some of these substances, having used them to help print living cells. This time, we mixed the gels and gumming agents with other ingredients and then put them through our printer to create edible constructs like cubes of milk, raspberry domes, and mushroom-shaped bananas."

Lipton and Lipson admit that some of their concoctions were "a little too weird" to be accepted by the masses. But the concept was proven. The exciting thing about this technology is that it opens up new possibilities for feeding the world. Lipton and Lipson explain:

"Researchers at TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), are extracting basic carbohydrates, proteins, and nutrients from algae, insects, and the like and then using them to print something resembling steak and chicken. Eventually, this may allow them to print a filet mignon from a protein that requires far less water, energy, and labor than does a cow. TNO isn't the only place exploring this realm. Susana Soares at London South Bank University has used a flour made from crushed bugs to print edible objects that look like butterfly wings and honeycombs. While this approach could someday solve the Malthusian concerns of food production, it's a hard idea to swallow. The trend these days is to back away from highly processed foods."

While the idea may be hard to swallow today, attitudes change with circumstances. There have been a number of stories in the news as of late about the food qualities of insects. Making them palatable for most people is the challenge. Food printing may prove to be part of the answer. Currently, however, Lipton and Lipson are partnering with world-class chefs to take existing foods and mold them into interesting shapes using their printer. They report, "Using the printer to creatively customize food shapes, we discovered, is a lot more appealing than crafting milk cubes out of hydrocolloids." They have also been able to create cookies that have a written message inside. They conclude:

"Digital cooking is still a nascent field, but we're amazed at how much progress has already been made: From those humble peanut butter, hummus, and chocolate objects, it has already morphed into a movement that could someday transform how we prepare and consume food. While some people believe the future of printed food will begin at the chemical level, others think it will become a common tool to augment the molds, knives, and ovens we already have. Regardless, both camps agree that the information age's transformations have started making kitchen magic."

Part of what will make the kitchen magic will be research into how all the senses come into play in the enjoyment of food. As this data is fed into computers and analyzed, we won't be too far away from creating the food synthesizer that Gene Roddenberry conceived when he sat down to write his first Star Trek script.

Enjoying Food: Taste, and Our Other Senses

Any true connoisseur of food understands that all of our senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing) play a role in how we experience and enjoy food. I agree with the website WeGotTaste.com, which states:

"The human body is amazing! Our body gives us a variety of different methods to interact with the world we live in. We receive information from the world via our senses. Each sense is distinct and different. ... Two people can be in the same situation but based on what they sense, they will each experience something different. Everyone relies upon their senses differently and some of the senses may be more accurate than others. ... The sense of taste teaches us flavors of food. We learn what things taste like so we can recognize what is good and bad for our body to ingest. With the variety of foods there are to eat and enjoy, it is not surprising that eating is one of our favorite things to do. Our senses all interact with each other and pass on information to our brain. Once received, our mind interprets everything and logs it away into memory. This process is what creates the individual experiences we enjoy."

Most people are aware of the close connection between the sense of smell and the sense of taste; but, they may not be aware of other sensory relationships associated with how we enjoy food. Let's begin with discussion with the basic sense of taste.

Taste

Taste is a complex subject, but let me provide you with the Cliff's Notes version of how our sense of taste works:

"The stimuli for taste are chemical substances dissolved in water or other fluids. Taste can be described as four basic sensations, sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, which can be combined in various ways to make all other taste sensations. Taste receptors (called taste buds) for these sensations are located primarily on various areas of the tongue: front, sweet; sides, sour; sides and front, salty; and back, bitter (see the attached figure). There are about 10,000 taste buds, which are situated primarily in or around the bumps (papillae) on the tongue. Each papilla contains several taste buds, from which information is sent by afferent nerves to the thalamus and, ultimately, to areas in the cortex." ["The Chemical Senses: Taste and Smell," CliffsNotes.com, 26 April 2013]

Some people now add a fifth sensation, umami, a Japanese word that can be translated "pleasant savory taste." The medical description of taste may not make food and flavors sound very exciting, but you have to admit that it is amazing that four or five basic sensations can produce the phenomenal number of tastes we experience when eating. As noted above, there is special relationship between the senses of taste and smell. So it's natural that we next discuss the sense of smell.

Smell and Taste

Before they started flavoring children's medicines, there were some pretty nasty tasting concoctions prescribed by doctors. Inevitably, mothers would tell their children to hold their noses while swallowing the stuff. For many children, the act of holding their nose while consuming something unpleasant was their first exposure to the relationship between taste and smell. The Cliff's Notes page says this about smell.

"The stimuli for smell are volatile chemical substances suspended in the air. These molecules stimulate the olfactory receptors, which are in the upper portions of the nasal passages. Neurons from these receptors bundle together to form the olfactory nerve, which travels to the olfactory bulb at the base of the brain. The theory of smell is not well understood (for example, how an odor of apple pie can evoke pleasant childhood memories)."

Interestingly, new research claims that the nasal passage isn't the only area in the body that contains odorant receptors. ["Odorant Receptors Found In Non-Olfactory Cells," Medical News Today, 8 April 2013] The article reports:

"In a discovery suggesting that odors may have a far more important role in life than previously believed, scientists have found that heart, blood, lung and other cells in the body have the same receptors for sensing odors that exist in the nose. It opens the door to questions about whether the heart, for instance, 'smells' that fresh-brewed cup of coffee or cinnamon bun, according to the research leader, ... Peter Schieberle, Ph.D., an international authority on food chemistry and technology."

I'll return to Dr. Schieberle's work later in this post. The next sense I'd like to discuss is sight.

Sight and Taste

Most of us are aware that food presentation is important. Debra Zellner, a professor of psychology at Montclair State University, believes that how a food looks can affect its taste. ["Professor Talk: What Attracts Us To Certain Foods?" by Mike D'Onofrio, Montclair Patch, 17 February 2013] Dr. Zellner states:

"Colored beverages are perceived to smell stronger. But when people drink it, it tastes weaker. It is what is called a contrast effect, where people are expecting something that is stronger than what they get. ... How a food is prepared on a plate can [also] have an effect on a food’s taste. We did an experiment where we used the same chicken salad but prepared one neatly on a plate, and the other unbalanced and messy. People tasted both plates said the chicken salad on the neatly prepared plate tasted better, so presentation also matters."

Terry E. Acree, Ph.D, agrees with Professor Zellner, he claims, "The eyes sometimes have it, beating out the tongue, nose and brain in the emotional and biochemical balloting that determines the taste and allure of food." ["Biochemical Balloting: 'Seeing' The Flavor Of Food," Science 2.0, 20 April 2013] "Years ago," he states, "taste was a table with two legs—taste and odor. Now we are beginning to understand that flavor depends on parts of the brain that involve taste, odor, touch and vision. The sum total of these signals, plus our emotions and past experiences, result in perception of flavors, and determine whether we like or dislike specific foods." The one sense that Acree didn't mention was hearing.

Hearing and Taste

The WeGotTaste.com page states, "Sounds affect the interpretation our mind gets, but not as much as smells and sight." We're all familiar with certain sounds associated with food, like sizzling bacon, popping corn, or percolating coffee. Nevertheless, the folks at WeGotTaste.com conclude, "Sounds do not really affect the way food tastes. Taste and sound are brought together in the mind, but do not have a whole lot of meaning together." A mother and blogger who goes by the nom de plume "mealtimehostage" isn't so sure. She writes:

"Back in January, my friend came down with a doozy of a cold, the kind that finds its way into every sinus nook and cranny. Excessive mucous accumulating in the back of her nose prevented retronasal airflow into her nasal cavity. I found it intriguing how congestion had altered her senses, and changed her preferences and perceptions of food. ... The congestion also affected my friend’s hearing, creating intermittent periods of muffled sounds, followed by periodic crackling and popping. Not uncommon with a cold, but I’m sure you're asking. What on earth do ears have to do with our sense of taste? My knowledge of ear anatomy is limited at best, but I do know the ear canals and sinus cavities are all somehow connected. Interestingly, the ear is where we find one particular nerve that has a profound effect on taste nerves and the pain fibers on the tongue."

Although mealtimehostage makes it perfectly clear that she has no scientific or medical background, she found studies that linked childhood middle ear infections and "selective eaters." The nerve she talks about is the chorda tympani. She found the following description of that nerve:

"The chorda tympani is responsible for the taste perception on the front of the tongue. If that nerve becomes damaged, tastes at the back of the tongue actually get enhanced to preserve overall 'taste constancy.' But other cues that go into our sensory experience of flavor, including texture, smells and chemical sensitivity, are also enhanced." ~ Derek Snyder, Yale University neuroscience graduate student

She discusses a couple of other studies she found of interest including one that reported "when a small sample of adult selective eaters were asked if they had middle ear issues, 27 out of 34 respondents reported they had suffered from some form of middle ear issue in early childhood." Mealtimehostage may just be on to something.

Touch and Taste

Whether you've consciously thought about the relationship between touch and taste, you have subconsciously made the connection. Mushy cereal, soggy potato chips, and other not-so-appetizing foods may still be nutritionally valuable; but, because of how they feel, they become unpalatable for most of us. There is probably an evolutionary explanation for why the feel of some foods repels us. A mushy apple, for example, may indicate that it has gone rotten and could be dangerous to eat. John S. Allen, a neuroanthropologist, wrote a book entitled "The Omnivorous Mind," in which he "explores our biological equipment for taste and the ways in which each culture builds a unique cuisine upon a shared cognitive blueprint." ["An Accounting For Taste,"by Leo Coleman, Wall Street Journal, 20 May 2012] In a review of the book, Coleman writes:

"[Allen] observes ... that crispness seems to be a desirable quality of foods, whether in the crunchy crickets treated as a delicacy by some cultures or in Kentucky Fried Chicken. Such universals suggest that a deeply ingrained culinary capacity is an essential part of every human's 'biocultural' equipment, comparable to the cognitive capacities for language and empathy that indisputably marked important frontiers in human evolution."

In other words, touch may have a more profound effect on our sense of taste than we may have imagined. Earlier, I wrote that I would return to the work being done by Dr. Schieberle. I wanted to end this post discussing his work because it involves how the senses affect taste. The Medical News Today article reports, "Schieberle's group and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich work in a field termed 'sensomics,' which focuses on understanding exactly how the mouth and the nose sense key aroma, taste and texture compounds in foods, especially comfort foods like chocolate and roasted coffee." The article continues:

"For example, baked beans and beans in foods like chili provide a 'full,' rich mouth-feel. Adding the component of beans responsible for this texture to another food could give it the same sensation in the mouth, he explained. Natural components also can interact with substances in foods to create new sensations. The researchers use sensomics to better understand why foods taste, feel and smell appetizing or unappetizing. They use laboratory instruments to pick apart the chemical components. They then put those components together in different combinations and give these versions to human taste-testers who evaluate the foods. In this way, they discovered that although coffee contains 1,000 potential odor components, only 25 actually interact with an odor receptor in the nose and are smelled. 'Receptors help us sense flavors and aromas in the mouth and nose,' said Schieberle. 'These receptors are called G-protein-coupled receptors, and they were the topic of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012. They translate these sensations into a perception in the brain telling us about the qualities of a food.' Odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system also were the topic of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Of the total of around 1,000 receptors in the human body, about 800 of these are G-protein-coupled receptors, he said. Half of these G-protein-coupled receptors sense and translate aromas. But only 27 taste receptors exist. And although much research in the food industry has gone into identifying food components, little effort has focused on the tying those components to flavor perceptions until now, he said."

Undoubtedly, a lot more research is going to be conducted about relationships between our senses and how they can affect our perception of flavors.

Food Security Requires Implementing Complementary Strategies

Mankind has been trying to control the weather since the dawn of time. Historically, this intervention has taken the form of sacrifices, offerings, dances, and prayers to the gods who supposedly control such matters. There have also been more scientifically-based attempts to make rain, such as cloud seeding. Needless to say, these attempts have generally fallen short of the desired goal. Yet, as Keith A. Wheeler, chairman and CEO at ZedX Inc., reports, "All farmers, no matter their size, depend on the weather to the grow crops that feed the world, while providing a livelihood for their families and communities. This makes them among the most vulnerable to the changing climate. By 2050, if farmers are not assisted to meet these changes, agriculture yields will decrease with impacts projected to be the most severe in Africa and South Asia, with productivity decreasing by 15% and 18% respectively. Therefore, strategies to adapt to the significant shifts in weather patterns are greatly needed." ["Building resilient food systems in a world of climate uncertainty," The Guardian, 21 December 2012]

In other words, if we can't change the weather then the weather needs to change us. The irony of this situation is that "agriculture today accounts for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions, with another 17% attributed to land use change linked to deforestation." That means that farmers are in some measure contributing to the climate variability with which they must contend. So one of the first strategies recommended to help shore-up food security involves empowering "farmers with the knowledge, practices and technologies needed to adapt and reduce agriculture's contribution to global warming." Fortunately, Wheeler reports, "Amidst these colossal challenges there is hope." He explains:

"Technological innovations are at the forefront of meeting the world's growing food demands, while reducing carbon emissions. High tech methods such as Precision Agriculture, for example, calculate the exact amount of fertilizer required by the soil on your farm, preventing over application and the release of unnecessary greenhouse gases, while simultaneously improving yields. Other practices, such as integrated pest management and pest information systems, improved training for farmers at all levels and new finance and risk management tools for smallholder farmers will all go a long way to building more resilient food systems. The thread that ties all of these innovations together is greater access for farmers to research, information and extension."

The need for better food security is becoming increasingly evident. "Pressure on the world’s resources is intensifying," writes Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever. "Increased competition for these resources has been compounded by the effects of severe weather conditions." ["Now is the time for action," Financial Times, 21 November 2013] He explains:

"Since 2000, food prices have more than doubled because of soaring demand, with desertification, floods and drought adding significant volatility to the trend of food price inflation. To make matters worse, it is countries with already high rates of malnutrition that tend to be worst hit. People in Chad, Ethiopia and Angola spend up to 60 per cent of their weekly budget on food – much of it imported. The most vulnerable are hit the hardest by price rises."

Polman admits there are no silver bullet solutions to the food security challenge. But he offers three strategies that he believes should be taken immediately. "First, we should eliminate the use of unsustainable biofuels." By "unsustainable" he means biofuels derived from food crops (such as corn) or feedstock that is grown on ground that could be used to produce food crops. "Second, we need increased investment in those parts of Africa and Latin America where the last remaining serious agricultural expansion potential lies, or wherever current yields are threatened." On this point, he agrees with Wheeler. Finally, he asserts that "developing country governments need to create long-term partnerships with the private sector, donors and civil society, to stimulate investment in commercial agriculture. The Copenhagen Consensus concluded that an investment in fighting malnutrition would benefit people more than any other type of investment – with a return of $30 for every $1 invested. And the World Bank found that an investment in nutrition can translate to a 2-3 per cent increase in a nation's GDP each year, breaking the cycle of poverty that traps families and nations."

Another recommended strategy for creating better food security is reducing food waste. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers asserts "the world wastes from one-third to one-half of the four billion metric tons of food it produces each year." ["The World Wastes As Much As Half Its Food, New Study Finds," by Jeff Spross, Climate Progress, 14 January 2013] If the waste itself is not bad enough, Spross reminds us, "Because any item of food also represents an entire chain of production, wasted food also translates into wasted fresh water, wasted energy, wasted cropland, and further contributions to global warming with no discernible counter-balancing benefit." And one shouldn't forget the amount of wasted money represented by wasted food. With the global population continuing to swell, wasted food puts greater pressure on rising food prices. Although the causes of wasted food are different in the developing and developed worlds, the problem is global. The report explains:

"In less-developed countries, such as those of sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, wastage tends to occur primarily at the farmer-producer end of the supply chain. Inefficient harvesting, inadequate local transportation and poor infrastructure mean that produce is frequently handled inappropriately and stored under unsuitable farm site conditions. As the development level of a country increases, so the food loss problem generally moves further up the supply chain with deficiencies in regional and national infrastructure having the largest impact. […] In mature, fully developed countries such as the UK, more-efficient farming practices and better transport, storage and processing facilities ensure that a larger proportion of the food produced reaches markets and consumers. However, characteristics associated with modern consumer culture mean produce is often wasted through retail and customer behavior."

Since the causes of food waste are different, the strategies for reducing such waste must adapt to the situation. The report points out that controlling waste is beyond the capability of any single stakeholder (i.e., farmer, distributor, retailer, or consumer). Fortunately, it reports, "In most cases the sustainable solutions needed to reduce waste are well known. The challenge is transferring this know-how to where it is needed, and creating the political and social environment which encourages both transfer and adoption of these ideas to take place." Brad Plumer reviews a few of the solutions that could be implemented. ["How the world manages to waste half its food," Washington Post, 12 January 2013] He writes:

"For poorer countries, simply building better food-storage buildings could cut down massively on waste in places like Pakistan or Ghana (which lost 50 percent of its stored maize in 2008). Better harvesting technology and techniques could also help, although the report suggests that some nations like India will need more sweeping societal and political changes to cut down on waste. Meanwhile, wealthier regions like the United States and Europe will need to think harder about not throwing out so much perfectly good food. ... One small step, which Britain has been exploring of late, is to rethink their use of food labels, which often encourage supermarkets to toss out food long before it actually goes bad."

Another irony that we confront when discussing food security involves dietary habits. As food security improves so does the economic condition of impoverished people. As their wealth increases, their eating habits change and that can have a profound effect on food production. For one thing, studies have shown that as people scratch their way out of poverty their taste for meat grows. Raising livestock, however, is not the most efficient way to provide the protein that we need to be healthy. It takes a lot of land, feed, and water to raise livestock. Livestock, particularly cattle, also produce a lot of methane gas. You can't blame (or prevent) those who have struggled to survive from wanting a more varied and enriched diet; but, we need to realize that our dietary choices have an impact. In the end, changing human behavior may be the most difficult challenge we face in striving for better food security.

For an excellent discussion on the challenges that lie ahead and some of the strategies that can be used to meet them, watch the video of a panel discussion held at The Aspen Institute last year. The first speaker, Jon Foley, Director, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, stated that if we don't get agriculture right nothing else really matters. Foley offers five recommendations for improving global food security. The first recommendation he offered is to stop deforestation and halt agricultural expansion. This would help reduce agriculture's carbon emission footprint. Second, he recommended closing "yield gaps" on underperforming lands. There are huge opportunities in Eastern Europe where farms are producing only 20 percent of what could be produced. Third, he recommended improving cropping efficiency. That is, ensure that resources like water and fertilizers are being used to maximum efficiency. Israel, for example, uses water 100 times more efficiently than Pakistan. Fourth, he says we need to shift dietary preferences. Finally, as discussed above, we need to reduce waste. Polman concludes, "Securing the future of agricultural development needs individual commitment and action on the ground. All of us, individuals, companies, policy makers and consumers, have a responsibility to act together, and the time to act is now."

The Future is About Flavor

With 30 percent of consumers' food, grocery, and personal care budgets being spent on fresh food, seasonings that enhance the flavor of fresh foods obviously remain important. ["Fresh Maintains Footing Amid Economic Uncertainty," Progressive Grocer, 18 March 2013] The Progressive Grocer article included the attached graphic that shows what portion of consumers' fresh food budgets are spent on different food types.

Bruce Axtman, President of Nielsen Perishables Group, told the staff at Progressive Grocer, "Fresh is becoming more complex with greater variety in products and package sizes, more private label/brand options and increased value-added products, such as diced vegetables or pre-marinated meats. Understand your shoppers' generational and health needs to tailor offerings and implement programs that best meet their changing demands." Axtman makes an important point about knowing the differences between generational tastes and shopping habits. To learn a bit more about that subject, read my post entitled Changing Tastes in Food are Challenging Food Providers.

If having to worry about taste differences between age groups was not a difficult enough challenge, a 2011 study determined that taste preferences also change with the seasons. The study "found seasonality plays a part in consumers' flavor preferences, with almost two in five consumers (38%) saying their flavor preferences shift according to the time of year. In addition, certain flavors are more appealing to consumers during particular seasons. For instance, pumpkin and cinnamon flavors are often associated with the fall, while tropical fruits tend to be of particular interest in the summer." ["Consumers’ Flavor Preferences Tied to Seasons," by Darren Tristano, Prepared Foods Network, 24 January 2012]

Rachel Zemser reports that the fresh food sector is not the only sector concerned with changing tastes. "Over the past 20 years," she writes, "food companies have experienced increasing pressure to be more flavor-competitive, especially now that Food TV-savvy Americans are demanding authentic ethnic cuisine. Food processors recognize the need to bring on culinary expertise to meet the demands of this more culinary educated consumer." ["Corporate Research Chefs Combine Health and Science With a Dash of Culinary Genius," Food Processing, 8 March 2013] Zemser indicates that many food companies are combining art and science to ensure that their customers are able to purchase great tasting food products that contain authentic ethnic flavors. She explains:

"Companies began bringing in chefs to create gold standards and to help the food scientists understand how the final product should taste. While chefs brought great ideas, they didn't always understand the food scientists' requirements. But as the two types worked together, a new kind of food developer emerged: the Research Chef. While the roles of research chefs in the different arenas of food product development are relatively similar, processes (and stresses) will differ depending on the area of industry focused on. ... The focus of the research chef developing retail products is defined almost exclusively on consumer trend information provided by internal marketing departments. 'As a food scientist with culinary training, my role is to work closely with the marketing and R&D teams to ensure we are creating foods that consumers will not only crave but that are also good for them,' says Andrew Moltz, corporate executive chef for Quaker Oats Co., Chicago. 'This means closely following consumer eating trends going on in and outside of the home, and ensuring we're incorporating these concepts into great tasting, oat-inspired products that are easy to make.'"

Another group that is trying to help identify food trends is a company called Food Genius. The company created "a powerful piece of enterprise software that [can] pre-chew big data for the restaurant industry." ["Food Genius Scours Menus To Turn Food Trends Into Infographics," by Mark Wilson, Fast Company, 7 February 2013] Wilson continues:

"By indexing 14,000 different ingredients from multiple restaurant menu databases, Food Genius can tell you not just how prevalent beef is in American restaurants, but the average price for a filet in New York, or the popularity of venison paired with sage and apples in Kentucky. Is your dish unique? Is it competitively priced? That's what Food Genius wants to tell chain restaurants and packaged food manufacturers through instantaneous market analysis."

You've probably heard someone say, "It's an acquired taste." For some foods, that is an absolutely true statement. According to scientists, however, other tastes are developed in the womb. "The taste sense ... forms and matures at an early stage, with the first taste buds appearing at eight weeks of gestation. Aroma compounds in the amniotic fluid stimulate the foetal taste receptors as soon as the foetus starts swallowing (around 12^th week of gestation)." ["Tastes differ - how taste preferences develop," European Food Information Council, February 2011] The article continues:

"For newborns, the taste sense is the most important and most developed of all senses. Numerous experiments with newborns show a high culturally transcending acceptance for sweet taste. They even react to a highly diluted sugar solution with a comfortable and satisfied facial expression. In contrast, the sour taste of citric acid is rejected with pursed lips. No response is seen with diluted bitter our salty solutions, but bitter flavours are rejected in high concentration. A change in accepting bitter tastes is seen at the age of 14-180 days. The evolutionarily sensible preference for sweetness ('safety taste') can be explained by the fact that the sweet taste indicates a source of energy (carbohydrates) which is non-poisonous and thus safe to eat. A bitter taste in turn warns us of toxic foods. Similar evolutionary programming is assumed for the other tastes; an acidic taste may for example warn against spoiled food, whereas a salty taste may hint at minerals. The taste quality 'umami' (= savoury) indicates a good protein source as it naturally occurs in animal foods. ... The taste of breast milk may also impact on the later preferences of the newborn. American researchers, for example, showed that neonates whose mothers had consumed carrot juice during pregnancy and weaning, preferred a carrot-flavoured cereal during infancy when compared to a control group whose mothers had not consumed carrot juice."

Jamie Hale reports, "The preference for specific flavors [is] determined by: Innate factors, environmental influences, learning, [and] interactions among these." ["The Development of Food Preferences," Psych Central, 2011] He further explains:

"Taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, savory) preferences have a strong innate component. Sweet, savory, and salty substances are innately preferred, whereas bitter and many sour substances are innately rejected. However, these innate tendencies can be modified by pre- and postnatal experiences. Components of flavor, detected by the olfactory system (responsible for smell), are strongly influenced by early exposure and learning beginning in utero and continuing during early milk (breast milk or formula) feedings. These early experiences set the stage for later food choices and are important in establishing life-long food habits. The terms taste and flavor often are confused. Taste is determined by the gustatory system, located in the mouth. Flavor is determined by taste, smell and chemosensory irritation (detected by receptors in the skin throughout the head; and in particularly in regards to food receptors in the mouth and nose."

The fact that we like some flavors and dislike others, doesn't explain how we come to acquire a taste for foods that we might otherwise reject. Debra Zellner, a professor of psychology at Montclair State University, believes that "you get to like certain flavors because they are paired with other flavors that you already enjoy." ["Professor Talk: What Attracts Us To Certain Foods?" by Mike D'Onofrio, Montclair Patch, 17 February 2013] In other words, you condition yourself to like them. "You can [take] what is considered an unattractive flavor and ... pair it with something good," she states, "and you will eventually like it." She also asserts that presentation and color can affect how we react to food and drink.

"When it comes to beverages, for example, people seem to enjoy drinks that are colored appropriately because it helps them to identify the beverage. But, strangely, when a beverage is colored, people say it has less flavor when it is compared to the exact same beverage without color. It is counterintuitive. Colored beverages are perceived to smell stronger. But when people drink it, it tastes weaker. It is what is called a contrast effect, where people are expecting something that is stronger than what they get. ... How a food is prepared on a plate can [also] have an effect on a food’s taste. We did an experiment where we used the same chicken salad but prepared one neatly on a plate, and the other unbalanced and messy. People tasted both plates said the chicken salad on the neatly prepared plate tasted better, so presentation also matters."

With so much to consider when it comes to flavor and taste, you can understand why science and art must partner together to help consumers enhance their eating experience.

Water, Water, Every Where -- What Can We do About It? -- Part 3

In the final segment of this three-part series, I want to discuss some of the technological breakthroughs that could help mitigate the predicted water crisis as well as some of strategies that have been recommended for dealing with the crisis. Before doing that, however, I thought a brief review of the problem would be in order. For Water Day 2013, the celebrated actor Matt Damon narrated a clever video on the subject. It takes less than three minutes to watch.

In Part 2 of a series of posts entitled "Let's Talk Water," I discussed a number of ideas that were being worked on including: obtaining drinking water from humidity in the air; managing drinking water systems by computer; finding and fixing leaks in existing water systems; cleaning sewage water with diamonds; more cost-effective ways of disposing of hazardous waste water; a bicycle-powered water pump; a low-cost safe water tester; and a student-designed Solarball that can be used to obtain safe drinking water. In Part 3 of that series, I discussed advances in desalination techniques. Desalination is particularly important because most of the world's water is found in its oceans and a growing proportion of the world's population lives along the coast.

"It's been centuries since Coleridge's Ancient Mariner lamented the undrinkable salty seas around him," writes Alex Planes. "Today, it's easier -- but not necessarily easy -- to get fresh water from the vast water reserves of the world's oceans. Over 15,000 desalinization plants now operate throughout the world, but they produce less than 1% of the water the world consumes every day. Population growth and water scarcity often go hand in hand, so anything that could enhance the usefulness of desalinization efforts would be well-received everywhere." ["This Tiny Innovation Is a Giant Leap Forward for Water Services," The Motley Fool, 25 March 2013] The tiny device referred to in Plane's headlines is a Lockheed Martin filter that "makes use of graphene, an atom-thin sheet of pure carbon that's arranged in a hexagonal pattern." The product is called Perforene. Planes continues:

"It's 1,000 times stronger than steel but 100 times as permeable as competing membranes. However, that strength comes on a single-atom sheet, which is still going to be delicate when applied to industrial uses. Lockheed claims to be a year or two away from prototype testing, and by the time Perforene is ready for action there may be 107 million cubic meters of desalinization capacity already at work around the world. That's a doubling of capacity from 2008, and an estimated $64 billion will be spent on this capacity growth. If Perforene can provide the same functionality at a fraction of the energy cost, it's quite feasible to expect the next decade of desalinization build-out to be far more intense. If Perforene proves effective, it might lead to the development of smaller, more distributed desalinization machinery for the developing world."

Professor Nidal Hilal, the director of the Centre for Water Advanced Technologies and Environmental Research (CWATER) at Swansea University, states, "Basically we are taking too much water from water resources, and tapping into the sea is the only option available to address such water shortages. Desalination of sea water increasingly proves to be the most practical – and in many cases the only – solution for many countries across the globe." ["Nano-water technology could be key to relieving water shortages, claims Swansea University expert," WalesOnline, 4 April 2013] Making sea water potable would go a long way towards mitigating potential coastal water shortages. Planes goes on to note that more effective filtration is not just important for desalination. Better filtration systems could also make wastewater treatment more effective and less costly.

Access to clean water, as mentioned in the first segment of this series and in the video above, is important if populations are going to remain healthy. To underscore this point, The Wall Street Journal awarded its top prize in the 2010 Asian Innovation Awards to "an inexpensive water purifier aimed at households that may not have electricity." ["Tata Water Purifier Wins the Top Prize for Novel Product," by Andrew Lavellee and Emily Veach, 25 October 2010] Another device designed for households without access to power is being developed in Morocco. "In the Sahara, nomads are among those suffering most from limited access to water, particularly during the hotter periods when rising salt levels in water drawn from wells make it undrinkable." ["Desert nomads marvel at water purifying device," MySinchew.com, 8 April 2013] The device, called the "waterpod," is being developed by "Alain Thibault, an ex-sailor who had to confront the issue of fresh water shortages at sea." The article continues:

"The device, which resembles a large letter box, currently costs around 500 euros ($650). But the inventors have already given courses at a college in Tiznit, on Morocco's Atlantic coast, to teach students how to produce them more cheaply. ' The waterpod is made of wood, cork, stainless steel and glass,' said Thierry Mauboussin, who is helping to promote the water project in Morocco. ... The waterpod ... can produce six litres of pure water daily from 12 litres of brackish water, according to its creators. They give it an estimated lifespan of 20 to 40 years, with just a daily clean needed to keep it in good condition."

If you want big breakthroughs in water usage, you have to look to the agricultural sector. Globally, 70 percent of all water consumption is involved with agriculture. The next largest sector is industry (20%). Domestic consumption accounts for only 10% of the total. One suggestion that has been made is to raise more food in so-called "vertical farms." A vertical farm is one contained in a highrise building. There are technological challenges associated with urban farms, but one of the up-sides of such farms is that they can use water much more efficiently and effectively than traditional farms. In fact, much of the required water can be treated wastewater that is often dumped into rivers or directly into the ocean. That creates a real win-win situation. Like it or not, some form of recycling must be adopted if the water shortage crisis is to be mitigated. The following video provides a good overview of the vertical farming concept. You can also learn more on the website The Vertical Farm.

Even if vertical farms do flourish, traditional farms, gardens, and ranches won't disappear. In fact, in developing parts of the world, traditional methods are likely to be used for foreseeable future. Fostering better water usage in these traditional settings is an area where research is continuing and some progress is being made. Techniques like "subsurface drip irrigation systems minimize the amount of water lost due to evaporation and runoff. ... Rainfall harvesting, efficient irrigation water transport, and use of reclaimed water can also lead to more efficient agricultural water use." ["4 Agricultural Practices and Technologies to Reduce Water Impacts," Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States, Water Science and Technology Board, 2008]

A number of strategies have been recommended for dealing with the coming water shortage. Some of those strategies were discussed by a panel of experts assembled by Bloomberg Businessweek Chairman Norman Pearlstine. ["How the Experts Would Fix the Water Supply," Bloomberg Businessweek, 21 March 2013] The experts included: Ahmet Bozer, President, Coca-Cola International (KO); Jae So, Manager, World Bank Water and Sanitation Program; Carlos Riva, CEO, Poseidon Water; Thomas Powers, Commissioner of Water Management, Chicago; and Jeff Sterba, President and CEO, American Water (AWK).

Jeff Sterba believes that the most important strategy to pursue is "increasing efficiency of [water] use." Carlos Riva believes that more has to be done in the area of desalination. Ahmet Bozer discussed one the technologies mentioned above -- harvesting rainwater. "India is a perfect example," he stated. "When you have the monsoon season, so much water comes and gets wasted. So how do we fulfill our commitment of returning the amount of water we use back to nature? A rainwater harvesting system. Now these systems don’t cost too much. And we’ve actually placed somewhere around 500 of them. And that water is stewarded back underground, and you’re replenishing the sources. So maybe there are emerging-market solutions that can also be applied to developing markets." Too many people still think in terms of large water distribution systems. I suspect that the developing world will leapfrog large grid systems (like it did when it leapfrogged landline telephone grids and adopted mobile phone systems) and rely on local water solutions. Such solutions will be cheaper to build, use, and maintain.

That doesn't mean, however, that large water systems will disappear. Thomas Powers talked about the leakage problem associated with aging water systems. The United Nations estimates that between 66-132 billion gallons of drinking water leaks from the supply systems in many mega cities each year. Powers reported that Chicago is replacing old pipes. "With our new program, over the next decade, we're going to replace nearly 1,000 miles of water main. And just in doing that," he state, "we conservatively estimate that we’ll be able to provide enough water for an additional 400,000 residents."

Jae So believes that putting more data in the hands of consumers could make a big difference. "We've been talking about how we're going to manage the supply and the service of water," she stated. "But there's a huge amount that we can do in managing customer demand. Just having information, like how much water you use, can be a big signal. Customers will actually look at that. And then there are information campaigns teaching people the value of water." Riva agrees that people need to start appreciating (and paying for) the value of water. "If you really want to have efficient use," he stated, "you need to align the pricing to the value of the usage." Sterba also agreed. "By and large, in the U.S. people don’t pay for water," he stated. "They pay for a delivery of it and cleaning of it, but the molecule is generally provided at no cost. Because the federal government isn’t going to be giving money out as it used to and states are in financial hardship, the communities are going to have to find other ways to raise capital. So I think prices will continue to move up."

The rising cost of water is likely to cause enormous angst around the world; but, "the obvious solution, at least to economists, is: if water has become a scarce good then it needs an appropriate price to properly allocate it." ["Can the World Afford Cheap Water?" by David Biello, Scientific American, 29 March 2013] Obviously, it will be the implementation of a combination of all these strategies that eventually helps mitigate the water crisis. Peoples' lives are going to change as a result. Some of the changes will be for the better and others will likely be unwelcomed. In the end, however, people understand that without water there is no life.