“The entire population will reach 10 billion by 2050. The amount of carbon that is already produced during the food production process is not small, and it is not easy to secure additional agricultural land. This is why our company is promoting the development of new food (alternative food) with fermentation technology using mold and bacteria,” said Catherine Andersson, president of Tetra Pak.
Tetra Pack is a multinational food packaging and processing company established in Lund, Sweden in 1951. It also produces beverage and food packaging, and more than 160 countries around the world have entered the market. In Korea, food companies such as Seoul Milk use Tetra Pack’s sterilized pack products. The product is made by using renewable energy on recyclable paper.
Recently, Tetra Pac is turning its attention to commercializing new foods. “If the total effort required to produce beef is 100, we consume only 4 proteins,” Andersson said. “However, if we produce proteins using microorganisms, more than 40 out of 100 efforts can be used as proteins.”
“Microorganisms are collected from nature, such as mushroom roots, and when microorganisms are turned into fungi, a ‘cell incubator’ is used in the same way as insulin is cultured, and the incubator needs to be placed indoors anywhere in the world, so there is no need for a lot of farmland and is less affected by climate change,” he stressed.
According to Andersson, sugar is now used as food to cultivate the microorganism. However, we plan to conduct an experiment using carbon dioxide as food soon. He argues that if the technology is commercialized, it will have a carbon reduction effect just by producing alternative foods through fermentation.
President Andersson said, “You can make food similar to chicken nuggets and tuna with mold cultured food,” adding, “As a result of self-testing, it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye and there is no difference in taste and taste.”
However, high prices and legal regulations pose obstacles. “Compared to existing meat products, production costs are higher because pharmaceutical companies use the same technology as insulin production,” Andersson said. “If a mass production system is established, production costs can be lowered.” He also explained that “regulations are being eased to allow the food to be sold on the market worldwide, with related regulations being lifted in the U.S. and Singapore.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
