Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, writes for Wired about how scientists are creating new ways to develop meat-free foods. Ito writes that it’s, “feasible to imagine a system that unleashes a culinary bonanza of nutritional, flavor and texture options for future chefs while also lowering the environmental impact of belching cows, concentrated animal-feeding operations, and expensive and energy-inefficient refrigerated supply chains.”
In an article published by Salon, Prof. Heather Paxson examines the American artisanal cheese industry. Paxson writes that, “food-making traditions in the United States are often animated by personal narratives of innovation rather than, as in Europe, adherence to customary tradition.”
MIT spinout Ginkgo Bioworks is highlighted on the 2018 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, reports CNBC’s Andrew Zaleski. Zaleski notes that Ginkgo Bioworks, “has developed an automated process for combining genetic parts that has made it the largest designer of printed DNA in the world. That breakthrough has positioned the start-up to change the face of a variety of industries.”
Devra First, food writer for The Boston Globe, visits Spyce, the robot kitchen restaurant created by four MIT alumni. “When it comes to matters of taste, we (still) need people,” says First. “The Spyce inventors enlisted famed chef Daniel Boulud, who is culinary director of and an investor in the company.”
NBC Boston’s Brian Shactman reports from Spyce, a new Boston restaurant established by four alumni that uses a robotic kitchen to deliver healthy food fast. As students at MIT, the group was “sick of paying so much money for decent food,” says Schactman. “Doing what MIT students do best, they decided to invent something to solve the problem.”
Andy Rosen writes for The Boston Globe about a new restaurant established by MIT alumni that uses a robotic kitchen to deliver affordable, healthy food that’s “ready in just a few minutes.” Rosen notes that “the company started with the help of a couple of grants from MIT in 2015, the year it built its first prototype.”
Spyce, a robotic kitchen created by four alumni, will open in Boston’s Downtown Crossing this May. The group “built their first prototype in [an MIT] fraternity basement in 2015; now they have patent-pending technology and backing from acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud,” writes Jenna Pelletier of Boston Magazine.
James Gallagher of BBC News speaks with several experts about the microbiome and how diversity in gut bacteria is essential to health. “One thing that we're learning is, based on the microbiome, different people may need to consume different diets in order to get the same effect,” says Prof. Eric Alm.
Four MIT alumni have teamed up with chef Daniel Boulud and will soon open Spyce, a fast-casual restaurant in downtown Boston. The restaurant will complete orders using a device the group first created as students, known as the Spyce Kitchen, “a self-cleaning robotic kitchen, designed to prepare an entire meal in less than three minutes,” writes Jay Cheshes for The New Yorker.
On WGBH’s Under The Radar, Amy Traverso, food editor at Yankee Magazine, speaks with host Callie Crossley about Spyce, the robotic kitchen developed by MIT students that will soon become an actual restaurant in Boston. “It’s going to be a fast-casual chain in Downtown Crossing and the consulting chef is Daniel Boulud,” explains Traverso.
Ripple Foods, co-founded by MIT alumnus Neil Renninger, produces pea-based milks with the same amount of protein as cow milk, Whitney Pipkin reports for NPR. Renninger notes the milk requires fewer natural resources to produce than cow's milk, as “anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of carbon emissions globally come from the food system — and a quarter of all food emissions come from the dairy industry.”
Boston Globe reporter Alyssa Meyers writes that a new study by MIT researchers shows that probiotics could be used to help fight high blood pressure. The researchers found that probiotics, “can boost beneficial bacteria in the human gut that prevent pro-inflammatory immune cells from increasing in number." Pro-inflammatory immune cells have been linked with hypertension.
Martin Finucane of The Boston Globe reports that MIT researchers are developing a method to allow oil and water to mix. Using a combination of a surfactant and condensation, “tiny water droplets form on the surface that sink into the oil and stay mixed for months, rather than separating in just a few minutes,” explains Finucane.
BostInno’s Karis Hustad spotlights how Solve tackles some of the world’s most pressing challenges. “You need a different type of innovation or technology or adaptation and affordability of technology for some of the big challenges of today,” explains Alexandra Amouyel, Solve's executive director. “To do that, you need a much more bottom up, grassroots innovation process.”
CSAIL researchers have developed an artificial neural network that generates recipes from pictures of food, reports Laurel Dalrymple for NPR. The researchers input recipes into an AI system, which learned patterns “connections between the ingredients in the recipes and the photos of food,” explains Dalrymple.