Nicola Twilley, an author and host of the Gastropod podcast, dives into the intriguing world of food science. She discusses how refrigeration revolutionized our relationship with food, allowing us to enjoy fruits out of season. Twilley explores the role of ethylene in ripening, the innovations in produce storage, and even shares the story of a groundbreaking apparatus designed to keep lettuce fresh. Her insights reveal how the science behind cold influences not just flavor, but the future of food preservation.
Refrigeration acts as a vital time machine for food, effectively delaying decay and preserving freshness from farm to table.
Recent advancements in food technology, such as smart packaging, are revolutionizing how we preserve and transport produce without refrigeration.
Deep dives
Exploring the Food Superhighway
The journey of food from farm to table involves extensive refrigeration systems, where approximately 75% of what we eat spends time in controlled environments. These spaces, often overlooked, act like time machines, slowing down biological processes in food, thereby prolonging its freshness. Refrigeration not only preserves food by inhibiting the growth of microbes but also affects the cellular activities of fruits and vegetables. The conversation highlights that, once harvested, these living foods begin a dying process, and the entire food supply chain revolves around delaying that inevitable decay.
The Role of Ethylene in Food Ripening
Ethylene, which is both a plant hormone and a byproduct of certain decaying fruits, plays a critical role in the ripening and aging of produce. This hydrocarbon was discovered to have remarkable effects on apples, demonstrating that older apples release ethylene, causing younger apples and other fruits to spoil prematurely. British scientists found a way to inhibit this process, effectively preserving apples and allowing them to migrate long-distance seasonal changes. Today, the controlled use of ethylene is essential not just for apples but also for bananas, avocados, and other fruits that must ripen post-harvest.
Innovations in Food Preservation
Recent advancements in food technology have led to the development of smart packaging systems that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables without refrigeration. This includes differentially permeable membranes inspired by cellular structures, allowing for controlled atmospheres within bags to better manage the respiration of salad greens and other delicate produce. The conversation reveals how these innovations can transform the distribution of food, making it possible to transport items that were previously vulnerable to spoilage. As this technology continues to evolve, there are even discussions about applying these methods to meat, offering new ways to preserve food at room temperature for consumers.
We eat apples in the summer and enjoy bananas in the winter. When we do this, we go against the natural order of life which is towards death and decay. What gives? This week, Latif Nasser spoke with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Twilley spent over a decade reporting about how we keep food alive as it makes its way from the farm to our table. This conversation explores the science of cold, how fruits hold a secret to eternal youth, and how the salad bag, of all things, is our local grocery store’s unsung hero.
Special thanks to Jim Lugg and Jeff Wooster
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Latif Nasser and Nicola Twilley with help from Maria Paz Gutierrez Produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez Original music from Jeremy Bloom Sound design contributed by Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from Arianne Wack Fact-checking by Emily Krieger and Edited by Alex Neason
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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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