Beetle and three veg, anyone?
Care for some bug bolognaise or spider soup? Give it a few years and your tastes might change, a foods expert says.
A public talk about the future of food will explore where our tastes are headed and what food we will have the ability to produce in the next 50 years.
Massey University food professor Matt Golding says globalisation is vastly expanding access to previously exotic foods, and Kiwi tastes will expand exponentially.
‘‘A lot of our familiar meals like spaghetti bolognaise will continue to be eaten, but we’re already seeing an explosion in choice.’’
Bugs have traditionally been widely eaten in many countries, and they’re appearing online in New Zealand, he said.
For many Kiwis there is still a cringe factor, ‘‘the texture’s so far removed from other foods within our normal eating’’. But for others novelty is an attraction.
If you’re not keen for the crunch, bugs could sneak into your food more subtly. Soy is a common protein-boosting ingredient consumers are often not aware of, and protein from bugs is likely to be adopted similarly by manufacturers, as it is incredibly cost and resource-efficient.
‘‘Once it becomes accepted it becomes mainstream very easily.’’
Consumers will be able to define what they want and have it made bespoke.
‘‘You could create your own shopping basket, altered for you.’’
Foods will also have wider utility - longer shelf lives, less production waste and functions other than taste and nutrition, including personalised medical treatments.
Social media will allow food manufacturers to mine public opinion quickly and food fads could come and go quicker.
Despite the looming developments Golding is still not a believer in the idea meals could be reduced to a pill, as is often seen in science fiction.
This is partly because of practical difficulties compacting our nutritional needs to that size, but also because he thinks we will continue to enjoy our food.
Golding is talking at The Globe theatre in Palmerston North from 6pm on Tuesday, July 18.