Page 37 - FoodFocusThailand No.174 September 2020

SPECIAL FOCUS

kinds of farms have some clear advantages over acids you need - this can be circumvented by eating a variety of them in your diet.
more traditional means of agriculture. Physical
ground space is minimized, all-year-round Cellular Agriculture Cellular agriculture is often touted as a means to end to
farming is possible and agrochemicals are 11the post-animal bio-economy. But what is it exactly? As the name suggests it a means
eliminated. of agricultural production but built on cell cultures rather than large-scale productions like
traditional farms. This process comes in two forms:- acellular products and cellular products.
Blockchain Could Revolutionise The former are products made from organic molecules like protein and fat but contain no
8The Agri-Food Supply Chain living cells. Cellular products, on the other hand, are primarily made from or contain living or
Whenever you hear the term blockchain you can once-living cells. The final products are essentially the same as regular foods harvested from
be forgiven for instantly thinking of Bitcoin or other animals but are made in a very different way indeed. This form of technology is nothing new
cryptocurrencies. Yet, another interesting - it was first perfected back in the 1970’s. Arthur Rigset al was able to insert the required
potential application of the technology could be genes into bacteria so they could start churning out insulin. Before this the pancreases of
to improve traceability in the agri-food supply pigs and cattle needed to be ground-up to harvest insulin in large quantities. This technology
chain. Being a distributed and collective public is already been applied to make products like Rennet and Vanilla.
ledger system, blockchain has the potential for
making every transaction in an agricultural supply
chain transparent, traceable, verifiable and have
no third party oversight. There have been a few
examples of series issues with traceability in
recent years that could have been easily resolved
a lot quicker if a blockchain ledger system had
been used: 1) A blockchain system could have
easily and quickly identified the source of
contamination during the 2017 multi-state
Salmonella outbreak that infected over 200
people in the US. Months of investigation finally
traced the source of contamination to imported
Maradol papayas from Mexico. 2) The 2013
horsemeat ‘scandal’ in the United Kingdom could
have been quickly resolved if a blockchain system
had been employed. This scandal involved meat
product labels failed to disclose the presence of
horse meat. According to Forbes, a trial blockchain
system could trace an exact farm supplier for a
particular food product in 2 seconds - a task that
would normally take over 6 days to complete.
Personalized Nutrition Could be
9the Future of Eating Plans
Personalized Nutrition is the concept of tailoring
your diet to the specific means in which your
genetic makeup predisposes you to react to
different foods and other consumable products.
The concept is not new but some companies are
already offering it to their clients. “Nutrigenomics”
as it’s called, is widely considered to be too far
in its infancy for public consumption. Once this
discipline becomes more sophisticated it is widely
accepted that food and nutrition supply will move
away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to a truly
unique and personally tailored eating plan.
Plant-Based Proteins Could Be
10the Future of Protein Supply
Although ‘conventional’ sources of protein like
animals, eggs, and fish are excellent sources
(obviously) so to are some plant-based foods.
These kinds of foods contain incredible amounts
of nutrient-dense properties that your body and
brain can use to help you feel your best. Also,
unlike animal-based protein, plant-based protein
is easier to ‘grow’ and less damaging to the
environment just like insect-based protein. Good
sources of plant-based protein include, but are
not limited to; chickpeas, lentils, barley, almonds,
quinoa, spinach, peanuts, kidney beans; to name
but a few. Although they have clear benefits over
animal-based proteins there are various
downsides to them too. Every single course of
plant-based protein does not contain all the amino

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