Space Age Food

Remember how in the Jetsons and other cartoons food in "the space age" came in pills? Labelled things like "Roast Beef"?

Like most, I've wondered when the flying cars and jetpacks and spacely sprockets would become reality. After all, we already have robot vacuum cleaners and portable devices that can do everything Dick Tracy's watch or Maxwell Smart's shoephone could do. And now, as I read the ingredients list on food packets, I realise we finally have the food pills.

Take the cereal I had this morning with all it's goodness of wholegrain etc., and "a sweet burst of blueberry flavoured pieces". Now me, rushed supermarket shopper, saw "blueberry" and thought, 'good, that's healthy'.

But those "pieces" aren't pieces of blueberry, they're blueberry *flavoured*. To be precise, they are: Blueberry Puree (23%), Apple Paste, Pear Paste, Invert Sugar, Sugar, Humectant (422), Wheat Fibre, Vegetable Fat, Gelling Agent (440), Natural Flavour, Acidity Regulator (296).

There, you see: why bother to use pieces of actual blueberry when, in the space age, you can manufacture a blueberry flavoured "pill"?

Now, which pill to have for lunch: the turkey sandwich or the hamburger...

Posted via email from Steve's posterous