30 September 2005

French elan and space food

Solar-powered suds, folding circuits, French elan and space food, healthier junk food, vending ban, food shopping habits of men and women, folic acid and the death of red tape

Here's a story that's dear to our hearts in many ways. The Hofmeuhl Brewery in Eichstatt, Bavaria, is building the world's first solar-powered brewery. Process equipment maker Krones AG, is backing the idea. Hofmeuhl's owner, Benno Emslander, hopes "that in 10 years at the latest we shall be operating our brewery with absolutely clean energy." 

He's also hoping others will pick up the idea. "In Eichstatt, we have about 75% of the insolation they get in Valencia, so it's definitely possible." 

This is not the first time Emslander and Krones have pooled their ideas. Hofmeuhl was the first brewery to use the firm's resource-stingy Merlin and Pegasus brewing systems, says Krones' deputy chairman Hans-Jeurgen Thaus. 

With most new breweries going up in developing countries where the electricity supply is less than reliable, this seems like an idea whose time has come. 

Still in Germany, chemical giant BASF's venture capital fund, Future Business, and partners Bell Labs and Printed Systems GmbH have developed an electric circuit based on organic semiconductors. 

They hope that within three years this will lead to offset- and gravure-printed foldable electronic systems that become the newspapers, magazines, RFID labels, TV and computer screens, and sensors. "We estimate that markets for printed electronics technology may reach a potential of more than 20bn euros in the next seven to 10 years," said Dr Peter Eckerle, project manager at BASF Future Business. Which looks like a gross underestimation to us. 

You have to admire French élan. Just because you are in the middle of a Greenland icefield is no reason to go without decent food. 

Gourmet house Alain Ducasse Formation (ADF), working with the European Space Agency to develop healthy and tasty dishes for human space missions, sent Olivier Pezeron and Arnaud Fauvet on a 20-day, 600km ski trek across Greenland. Space food was among the 100kg of kit stacked on the sledges they pulled behind them. 

Pezeron said "It gave the impression of a real home-cooked meal and it was really nice to have better food than the traditional meals we usually bring with us on an expedition. In particular I enjoyed the semolina dessert and the duck with capers." 

"The crystallised carrots were also fantastic and the sword fish was very good," added Fauvet. 

The team had a menu based on 5400 calories a day. The space meals were an extra treat, but one that paid off when a 110 km/h headwind meant they made only 9km after 10 hours of hard slog. "That night we decided to make a special dinner, a real 'space-meal' to cheer us up. It was truly good and gave us a needed moment of laughter and relaxation," Pezeron said. 

Not to be outdone, and bearing in mind their cultural heritage, British food scientists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne say junk food could be made healthier by adding alginate, a highly-fibrous extract of brown seaweed called Lessonia and Laminaria to cakes, burgers and other high fat, low-nutrient foods. 

Alginate is already widely used in the food and beverage industry, but the team, which has already made tasty loaves with it, reckons bread is probably the best vehicle to reach the general population because most people eat it. Adding the seaweed extract could quadruple the amount of fibre in white bread, they say. 

That discovery may go some way to helping the British government backtrack on its plans to ban junk food from school vending machines, that is, if the food industry and schools who depend on the income they get from the machines don't do it first. 

The government was stung into action by revelations earlier than it spends just 39 pence a head on school meals. More recently, schools that have tried the Jamie Oliver formula of fresh school meals have reported a luke-warm take-up of the good stuff. So this is the government's response: if you won't do what's good for you voluntarily, we won't give you the choice. But for a government whose election mantra has been choice, the Newcastle option looks like manna from heaven. 

Another sign that things are not right with the world is the report from Geest, which supplies British supermarkets with freshly prepared chilled foods. It has found that men are outspending women on food. 

While the overall spend on food rose slightly from GBP335 per person during May 2005 to GBP342 (a rise of GBP7), men are now spending GBP345 (up GBP17 on last quarter) whereas women are spending GBP341, a pound less than last quarter. Here's the breakdown. 

Geest marketing boss Adrian Pickett said "We know that family dynamics are changing and that the days of mum doing all the shopping and cooking all the time are long gone, but it was a real eye-opener to discover that men are now actually spending more on food than women." 

But then men have always been more self-indulgent, less canny shoppers, haven't they? 

One thing that's sure to be in the shopping trolleys pushed by women of child-bearing age is more folic acid, that is, if the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has its way. It has just recommended that all such women consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily through supplements, fortified foods, and a folate-rich diet to prevent serious birth defects and ensure optimal nutrition. 

This follows a Gallup survey that found nearly 70% of such women in the US are not getting enough folic acid daily. Says the CDC "This figure has not changed much over the past decade. These results emphasise the urgent need for new and innovative efforts to increase folic acid consumption." 

Possibly more good news for the nutritional supplements industry is the report that the UK Food Standards Agency is to work with the government to cut red tape. What's more, it's asking for your help. It wants businesses to submit proposals to government for the simplification of particular regulations that they think are too heavy, and to suggest more efficient ways of complying with existing regulations. It also wants to know what it costs you to comply with the regulations. 

The FSA says government will have 90 working days to respond to proposals. You can tell pitch your moans and ideas to the Cabinet Office by clicking Better Regulation Executive. 

That's it for this week.

The British Nutrition Foundation is holding a conference on Agro-food technologies: Opportunities and barriers to improving health.

Date: Friday 9th December 2005

Purpose: to highlight the potential of existing and new technologies in improving the nutritional composition of animal and plant foods to benefit health, particularly in relation to the metabolic syndrome. 

The workshop will also discuss the economic implications of modifying the nutritional composition of these foods, in relation to the findings of the economics workpackage of the EU-funded Lipgene project.

It is aimed at small-to-medium sized enterprises, policy makers, opinion formers and the media.

For a registration form please click here.