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Food Technology

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Food Technology

Food technology can be amazing. Check out a sandwich that stays fresh for three years - for real!  Or special cows milk that makes more cheese. How about some convenient coffee? Or a straw that flavours milk as you drink it? Then you can store it in a space-saving squattle bottle.

Did you know that bright (naturally) coloured food is good for you? And if you want to make sure it's good to eat, check out its ripeness sticker or have a taste of it on an edible menu.

When you think of fighting Bird Flu….a tomato probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind. However researchers at the Monash University are working on developing a vaccine to the Bird Flu using tomatoes.

Scott is the guy working on the squattle- check out the up's and down's that faced Scott with developing and now trying to market the squattle in this update.

 

Background Notes

A brief synopsis of each of the food technology items in our shows and links to our references.

 

Squattle - The squashable bottle

A bottle is a fairly simple invention. But can it be improved. Scott Brown from the Gold Coast reckoned it could and now he has invented the squattle. It is a new type of squashable bottle that can be compressed like an accordion. When you close the lid, the bottle doesn’t seal completely. Air continues to escape, so that you can compress the bottle down. Once the pressure of the liquid reaches the underside of the lid, it seals completely. This means you can make an airtight seal on any volume of liquid. When thrown away the squattle takes up a lot less space than a normal bottle. It’s a simple invention with lots of benefits. Maybe the old-fashioned bottle will soon be a thing of the past.

Reference

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Sipahh - flavoured straws

Flavoured milk has always been a very popular drink – much more popular than drinking plain milk. But now all over Australia and even across the world are now buying more plain milk. What’s going on? The change is due to new kind of straw designed in Australia by Peter Baron. The straw is called a Sipahh and it flavours milk as you drink it. You probably already know about this invention because they have quickly become extremely popular in supermarkets and school canteens. The straws have flavoured beads inside them that are held in place by plastic filters at either end. The company that makes Sipahh are working on other useful products like nutritional straws and medicine straws. Peter Baron’s simple idea is proving to be a very successful one. It goes to show that if you come up with a good idea it could have lots of different uses.

Reference

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Edible Menu


Have you ever been to a restaurant and thought that the food sounds good, but wondered whether it tasted as good as it sounds? Well, an innovative chef in Chicago has created an edible menu - so you can try the different dishes before you order a whole plate.

This chef uses liquidised food and vegetable dye as the tasty ink and prints this onto rice paper. All these ‘ingredients’ for the menu go through an ordinary ink jet printer. This is a great way of using technology that already exists.  Just by viewing existing technology with a new twist, new and creative things are made!

Reference

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GM Food: Extra Protein Cheese

Twice the amount of cheese from the original milk supply!

Scientists in New Zealand have genetically modified cows to produce more cheese form the same amount of milk. Cheese is made from milk which has been reduced down until the remaining proteins (called Kappa and Beta Caesin) are left as a waxy substance. What scientists are doing are increasing the amount of these proteins in the cow embryo and when these cows produce milk they contain these extra proteins. When this milk is reduced to cheese the increased proteins lead to increased amount of cheese.

References

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Quikstix

Ever had to queue for a hot drink, only to find a big lumpy soggy mess waiting for you. The Quikstix is the answer for any tearoom disaster. For further information check out the website below.

Reference

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Indestructible Sandwich

This is a sandwich designed by the US Army Soldier Centre in Massachusetts that stays fresh for 3 years. It is a means of providing food on the move to supplement standard battlefield rations. The sandwich can stay fresh at a constant 26°C for up to 3 years or 6 months at 28°C. Researchers used chunky fillings such as pepperoni and barbecued chicken to which they added humectants.

Humectants are hydrating agents that preserve water content in materials. The humectants not only prevent water from the fillings soaking into the bread, but also limit the amount of moisture available for bacterial growth. Humectants are commonly found in hand-creams and lotions and also used as a food additive. For example, glycerin is used to hold moisture in icings and tobaccos.

The sandwiches are then sealed, without pasteurisation, in laminated plastic pouches that also include sachets of antioxidant. A lack of oxygen helps prevent the growth of yeast, mould and bacteria.

Soldiers who have found eaten the sandwiches have found them 'acceptable'. Pocket pizzas, cream-filled bagels, breakfast burritos and peanut butter sandwiches are the next long-life items to be made.

Reference

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Healthy Coloured Food

Food looks tasty when it is brightly coloured. That’s why many processed foods and lollies contain artificial colourings. These colourings can have detrimental effects like causing allergies, or may even be carcinogenic (cancer-causing)!


Fruit and vegetables are naturally brightly coloured. These natural colourings can have many health benefits. For example, the red colour in tomatoes, called lycopene, helps to fight cancer. Researchers in California tested 13 different brands of tomato sauce and found that the darkest red kinds contained the most lycopene.


Researchers have also discovered that red colour in cherries has a pain-relief effect even better than aspirin. The red chemicals, called anthocyanins, are a type of antioxidant. These chemicals are found in many red, blue, or purple coloured fruit and vegetables.


While not the most popular vegetable, the Japanese purple sweet potato contains a natural purple pigment that makes it really, really healthy. Australian scientists think we should be consuming more of this stuff. Instead of trying to force feed us horrible sweet potatoes, they have come up with an idea that no one objects to – using them as food colouring. They are growing up the purple potato cells in the laboratory so they can add the healthy purple pigment to foods we do like to eat - like ice-cream, yoghurt and jellybeans.

Reference

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Ripeness Sticker


Have you ever gone to buy fruit to find all the fruit was bruised from too many people squeezing it to see if it was ripe or not? Well, an invention from New Zealand will put a stop to this. They have created a ripeness indicator sticker which changes colour as the fruit ripens. The fruit is put in recyclable plastic containers, and the ripeSense sticker goes in with it.  The sticker changes colour because it reacts with the chemicals released by the fruit as it ripens.  This innovation is a really handy way of figuring out whether fruit (especially soft fruit, like pears and kiwi fruit) is ready to eat or not, and all it took was some horticultural and chemistry knowledge and determination.

Reference

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Tomatoes Fighting Bird Flu

When you think of fighting Bird Flu….a tomato probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind. However researchers at the Monash University are working on developing a vaccine to the Bird Flu using tomatoes.
Dr Amanda Walmsley has successfully used plants to grow a vaccine to Newcastle Disease (a disease that affects poultry). She is now working with a team at Monash University to get tomatoes to produce a vaccine to protect Australian chooks from Bird Flu. A gene for the vaccine is put into the DNA of the tomato plants so the tomatoes are like factories producing the vaccine as they grow.
This will make giving birds a flu vaccine a lot easier. Instead of the chooks being injected, they can just eat the modified tomatoes to be protected from the disease. It’s also hoped that vaccines grown in plants like tomatoes could be used for people who are allergic to other stuff like eggs and yeast, which are normally used for making vaccines. The team hope to have the tomatoes ready by the end of 2006.

References

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Squashing the Stereotype

What’s going on?

The design of the bottle hasn’t changed much for decades, but a guy from Coolangatta named Scott Brown is about revolutionise how liquids are packaged with his invention; the Squattle. It’s a bottle with a unique design that means no air is stored inside the bottle, eliminating oxidation of liquids – this means your soft drink stored in the squattle will stay fizzy for longer.

Who’s doing it?

After years of perfecting the idea and overcoming many obstacles to make his idea a reality, Scott got his break from the Australian wine industry. Wine makers are interested in the Squattle because of its potential to preserver the wine. After commercialising the Squattle for the first time for Australian wine, Scott will tackle international industries like dairy and juice.                  

How do I get into it?

You might have a fantastic idea, but just remember it takes perseverance to get your idea out there. Scott has been working on his idea for years. If you want a head start, check out the Questacon Smart Moves Invention Convention.

Reference

The new Squattle home pageYou are now leaving the Questacon Smart Moves website

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