World meat industry news

According to NTI experts, the size of the market for innovative technologies in the food industry should reach $3.5 billion by 2035. The future of the industry is optimistic. Dmitry Peskov promised that by 2028 every Russian will be able to install a 3D food printer in their kitchen, which will cost no more than a vacuum cleaner.

Let's see what high technologies, from freeze-drying to 3D printing, are already used in the food industry and advanced households.

3D printing

The first machines for 3D food printing appeared in 2012. Today you can print fruits, although they look more like red caviar; nuts that cannot be chewed, but can be drunk; salmon fillet made from vegetable protein and algae. So far this looks like a bold experiment. 3D printing is most widely used in the confectionery industry - from creating decorative elements to printing entire desserts.

Sublimation

A method of drying products that preserves their properties, molecular structure, and chemical composition, those same vitamins and minerals. For a long time, the technology was used to provide a complete diet for polar explorers, submariners, and astronauts.

Interest in a healthy lifestyle and cheaper sublimation machines have generated demand for the technology among ordinary consumers. Using the device at home solves a lot of problems, from preserving breast milk for a long time to preserving country crops. Among restaurateurs, the technology is valued for its ability to preserve the taste and smell of food.

Alexey Burtimov, developer of sublimation technologies and CEO of the company B-Tasty, talks about this using the example of wild mushrooms: “The characteristic mushroom smell is formed by terpenes - essential oils. They give the aroma notes of nutmeg, vanilla, hay, sawdust, flour, nutmeg and walnuts. When sublimated, the oils do not evaporate or decompose, which allows you to get the aroma of the dish the same as from mushrooms freshly picked in the forest.” This feature allows you to include products in the menu not only during the harvest season, but also all year round.

The technology has another name - lyophilization. This term has taken root in the scientific community, for example, in medical journals, sublimation of breast milk is called lyophilization of breast milk. But the essence of the process does not change. It's the same technology. It’s just that scientists liked the term lyophilization, housewives and cooks liked the term sublimation.

Induction heating

Perhaps the most familiar technology to Russians is the method of heating food using an alternating magnetic field. The method was originally used for melting metals. However, its high efficiency has also found application in the food industry.

Induction heating is the only method that is used for both packaging and its contents. It is used to seal containers containing, say, milk pasteurized by induction heating. The energy efficiency of induction cookers has ensured their widespread use not only in industry, but also in the restaurant and catering industries, and in everyday life.

Ultraviolet radiation

UV radiation is used to extend the shelf life of products. In the range from 200 nm to 300 nm, it damages the DNA and RNA of microorganisms. This feature is actively used in the food industry. Outside the factory walls, the technology is used in air disinfection devices used in catering establishments and grocery stores.

During the Covid period, there was a surge of interest in UV radiation for home use, however, unlike sublimation or induction heating, the technology did not reach the general public. Although this is a simple and convenient way to bring the kitchen into a sterile state.

Vacuuming

Vacuum sealing is not just a way to preserve food freshness. It is known that freeze-dried foods can be stored in vacuum packaging for up to 25 years.

Cooking food in a plastic bag from which the air has been evacuated is a technique recognized by chefs for making cooking easier. Moreover, since the beginning of the century, almost every Michelin star restaurant has had a sous vide cooking device in its kitchen. Why is it so popular? Creating a vacuum reduces pressure. This means that the boiling point also decreases. Products are cooked at a temperature of 50 – 60 °C. They do not lose their shape and maintain the original level of moisture, that is, thanks to the vacuum bag, a piece of meat will not lose half of its weight.

The availability of high-tech devices makes it possible to transform a middle-class kitchen into something between a branch of a Michelin-starred restaurant and a workshop for the production of shelf-stable products. Experts call this imperceptible but irreversible revolution in the kitchen the creation of “agri-food industry 4.0.”