[식품]빌게이츠:식품이 혁신에 적합하다

Bill Gates: Food Is Ripe for Innovation

http://mashable.com/2013/03/21/bill-gates-future-of-food/

Bill Gates is the co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also posts updated information and videos about the future of food on Gates Notes.

The global population is on track to reach 9 billion by 2050. What are all those people going to eat? With billions of people adding more animal protein to their diets — meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 — it seems clear that arable land for raising livestock won’t be able to keep up.

That’s one reason why I’m excited about innovations taking place now in food production, which especially interests me as someone who worries about the poor getting enough to eat.

There’s quite a lot of interesting physics, chemistry and biology involved in how food tastes, how cooking changes its taste, and why we like some tastes and not others.

My friend Nathan Myrhvold took a deep dive into the science and technology of cooking with his huge book, Modernist Cuisine. Nathan is great at explaining things like why we like meat so much, and why cream-based sauces are so good. Which leads to interesting questions, like could we create those tastes in ways that are less expensive, less fattening and less work?

I’ve gotten to learn about several new food companies that are creating plant-based alternatives to meat through some monetary investments I’ve made with Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Their products are at least as healthy as meat and are produced more sustainably.

But what makes them really interesting is their taste. Food scientists are now creating meat alternatives that truly taste like — and have the same “mouth feel” — as their nature-made counterparts (see two recipes below, for example).

Flavor and texture have been the biggest hurdles for most people in adopting meat alternatives. But companies like Beyond Meat, Hampton Creek Foods and Lyrical are doing some amazing things. Their actual recipes are secret, but the science is straightforward. By using pressure and precisely heating and cooling oils and plant proteins (like powdered soybeans and vegetable fiber), you can achieve the perfect flavor and texture of meat or eggs.

I tasted Beyond Meat’s chicken alternative, for example, and honestly couldn’t tell it from real chicken. Beyond Eggs, an egg alternative from Hampton Creek Foods, does away with the high cholesterol content of real eggs. Lyrical has drastically reduced fat in its non-dairy cheeses. Even things like salt are getting a makeover: Nu-Tek has found a way to make potassium chloride taste like salt (and nothing but salt) with only a fraction of the sodium.

All this innovation could be great news for people concerned about health problems related to overconsumption of fat, salt and cholesterol. It’s important too in light of the environmental impacts of large-scale meat and dairy production, with livestock estimated to produce nearly 51% of the world’s greenhouse gases.

But the new, future food is crucial for the developing world, where people often do not get enough protein. This is partly due to heavy reliance on animals as the primary source. However, that doesn't have to be the case. There’s plenty of protein and necessary amino acids in plants, including the world’s four major commodity crops — rice, maize, wheat and soy.

The problem is that instead of feeding these crops to people, we’re feeding most of them to livestock. And so we’re caught in an inefficient protein-delivery system. For every 10 kilograms of grain we feed cattle, we get 1 kilogram of beef in return. The calorie kick-back is just too low to feed a growing world population.

So we need to find new ways to deliver protein and calories to everyone.

Our approach to food hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years. It’s ripe for reinvention. We need to look for new ways to raise nutrition in the poor world while shifting some of our choices in the wealthy world.

Fortunately, there are thousands of plant proteins in the world, and many of them have yet to be explored for use in the production of meat alternatives. Current investigations of the world’s vast array of plant proteins could fundamentally reshape our food supply for the better.

I’m hopeful that we can begin to meet the demand for a protein-rich diet in a new way. We’re just at the beginning of enormous innovation in this space.

요약

빌게이츠는 Gates Notes에 음식의 미래에 대한 비디오를 올렸다. 세계 인구는 2050년까지 90억만 명이 될 것이고, 육류 소비량은 2배가 될 것이다. 이것이 그가 식품 생산의 혁신에 대해 흥분하는 이유다. 음식 맛이 어떤지, 어떻게 요리하는 것이 맛을 변화시키는 지, 왜 우리가 어떤 맛은 좋아하고 싫어하는 지에 대한 흥미로운 물리, 화학, 생물이 많다. 

  육류의 대안식품을 만드는 식품 기업들이 있다. 이러한 제품들은 육류만큼 건강하고 지속가능적으로 생산 가능하다. 그러나 문제는 맛과 식감이다. 식품 과학자들은 육류와 비슷한 육류 대안 식품을 만들고 있다. Beyond Meat, Hampton Creek Foods와 Lyrical 같은 기업들은 압력을 이용하여 가루 콩, 채소 섬유질과 같은 단백질 식품과 기름을 가열하고, 냉각하면서 육류나 계란의 맛과 식감을 얻고 있다. Beyond Meat의 치킨 대안 식품은 진짜 치킨 맛은 나지는 않는다. Hampton Creek Foods의 계란 대안 식품인 Beyond Eggs는 높은 콜레스테롤을 없앴고, Lyrical은 치즈 대안 식품의 지방을 줄였다. Nu-Tek는 약간의 나트륨으로 소금의 맛을 내는 방법을 찾았다.

 이러한 혁신은 지방, 소금, 콜레스테롤 등의 과섭취에 대한 우려를 하는 사람들에게 좋은 소식이 될 수 있다. 그러나 새로운 식품의 미래는 충분히 단백질을 섭취하지 못하는 개발도상국에 매우 중요하다. 주요 영양원으로 동물에 너무 많은 비중을 두기 때문이다. 그러나 문제는 작물을 수확해서 먹는 대신에 가축들에게 먹이로 주고 있다는 것이다. 우리는 비효율적인 단백질 시스템을 발견했다. 우리가 가축에게 10Kg의 곡물을 주면, 우리는 1Kg의 육류를 얻는다는 것이다. 

 식품에 대한 우리의 접근은 지난 100년간 변화가 없었다. 우리는 부유한 세계에서 가난한 세계로 영양 섭취를 늘이는 새로운 방법을 찾을 필요가 있다. 운좋게도, 단백질 공장들의 연구는 우리의 더 나은 식품 공급을 변화시킬 수 있을 것이다.