They hardly sound like the dishes we might dream of, but it appears such dainties as laboratory-grown foie gras and 3D-printed chocolate are on the way.
And, according to a report, some could be in our shopping baskets as soon as 2035.
Foods grown from animal and plant cells in a lab include steak, chicken and duck foie gras – with two products already being risk-assessed by regulators.
Other random dishes could include palatable insects.
Four species are now for sale under temporary agreements while their safety is evaluated. They can be sold as whole insects or used as additives, such as powders added to well-known meals.
The report from the Food Standards Agency said allergen proteins in crustaceans can also be found in insects, which means people with a shellfish allergy could have a similar reaction to eating bug products.
The FSA also looked at ‘largely conceptual innovations’ such as 3D-printed foods, which would allow manufacturers to build foods such as chocolate or mashed potato out of layering edible ingredients from a printer – though these are not expected to reach a broad market in the next five to ten years.
The report said that the new technologies could help create personalised foods, for example, for people who have difficulty swallowing.
Dr Thomas Vincent, of the FSA, said: ‘The food system is always evolving, and as a regulator, we need to keep pace.’
This is just ‘Frankenstein’ food, along with plastic cheese and plastic sausages.
Cadbury’s chocolate used to be my favourite, but nowadays it tastes like a chunk of wax, and this is just the start of things to come. Eventually, there will be no farms, and nothing will be home-produced.
I thought we were trying to get away from ultra-processed foods – this doesn’t get any more artificial! Our food should be the real deal, or no deal.
All food should be naturally produced or bred, and all this processed slime should be removed from the food chain.
I wonder if there’s any possibility it could print a useful Prime Minister for the UK?
To be fair, I’d rather pierce hot needles in my eyeballs than eat foie gras, lab-grown or otherwise, and of course, this sort of food will be for the bottom feeders, not the ones at the top who will eat normal, healthy food.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 