Finnish innovator Solar Foods is one of the winners of the Deep Space Food Challenge with their SoleinⓇ-producing technology. The challenge, organized by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, looks for new solutions to feed astronauts on long space missions.
Solar Foods’ proposed Solein production unit for space would be housed in a cabinet measuring 72x162x56cm, and it is designed for a crew of six. Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Chief Technology Officer of Solar Foods, estimates that fully designing and building a unit like this for space applications would take 3-4 years.
Solar Foods’ protein product can be used as an ingredient in existing foods such as beverages, cereals or pasta. It can also be used in the growing meat-substitute and dairy-substitute industries. It might also be used as part of astronauts’ diet on long missions.
Solein requires a tiny fraction of the space that farms or greenhouses use. It doesn’t use fertilizers and, according to Solar Foods, its emission statistics are ten times better than those of plants and 100 times better those of meat.
Solar Foods has already received about 35 million euros in funding. The company plans to launch its product in grocery stores in certain markets in 2022. The EU, whose food regulatory process is longer than that of some countries, should see solein products on store shelves in 2023.
Feel free to read the news HERE. More information on the concept HERE and HERE.
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