Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-26

Foods Are
Developed

Space-age chefs are trans
forming familiar foods into
nutritious but strange con-
centrates.
The new dietary items are
being prepared by and for
United States military and
scientific agencies. often IN
cooperation with research
groups of universities ana
food industries.
Among triumphS achieved
so far are squeeze-tube roast
beef, semisolid chicken ana
noodles, dehydrated beef stew
and diced chicken in gravy
and bite-size pattieS Of ham,
sausage and hamburger.
For AstrOnauts and Others
Chief objective Of the work
is to find effective ways TO
feed the astronautS who will
make extended trips in space
and in time land on the moon.
says the National Geographic
Society.
But the improved preserv-
ing and packaging methods
developed in the experiments
are expected to have many
earthly uses, from military
rations to everyday market
foods.
Americas first astronaut,
John Glenn, carried tubes OF
semisolid veal and pork
strained peaches and apple
sauce, as well as malt and
mocha tablets, on his triple
orbit Of the earth.
One Of his chores aloft was
to test the effect Of weight
lessness on digestion. He chose
an applesauce tube. broke its
seal, opened his visor. and
squeezed the food into his
mouth. 1t tasted good. and he
had no trouble swallowing It.
II wish now" he said, II
had brought along that ham
sandwich someone once put
in the dittS bag as q joke"
Actually, ordinary sliced
bread and crackers are too
crumbly for spacecraft.
Weightless bits would float
away-as did Glenn's apple
sauce container after use
and get into aStronauts' eyes
and lungs.
Crumbled cookies were o
problem reported by Scott
Carpenter when his turn came
to whirl around the earth. In
his lunch bag were bite-size
snacks of specially coated and
compressed cereals with raj
sins, also rye bread, ground
orange peel with almond, and
peanut-cream. date, and
!: chocolate bars.
The chocolate melted IN
the capsules heat, indicating
the need for more resistant
chocolate. But the break
down Of the sweet cubes, or
Cookies" may not have been
due to space stress at all,
some say, but to accidental
crushing before the launch
ing. At any rate, such items
will doubtless be more dense
ly processed and coated for
future flight.
Food Appeal Is Problem
] Retaining flavor and tex
ture of concentrated foods
put up in small, light pack
ages is perhaps the space
chefs largest order. Spe-
cialists of the Army QuarS
termaster's Food and Con-
tainer Institute have been
experimenting for years. AS
early as 1856, they invited a
group of newSmen to sample
a lunch made up of some Of
the first semiSolid concoc-
tionS.
Most guests reported that
squeeze-tube corned beef and
cheese-and-ham sandwich
eS" on rye were surprisingly
tasty. The meats had been
cooked, ground, and soaked
in their own juices. The rye
bread flavor came from pow
dered carraway seeds in the
ham-cheese mixture. Less
popular was the homogenized
chicken blend, though some
chicken fanciers professed to
like it.
Bite-sized and semiSolid
concentrates are much i'm
proved now. and are expected
to continue in use for short
or orbital flights. But space
planners feel that the quick
freeze dehydration process Of
ferS the best technique for
preserving food supplies for
the long-range try for the
moon. The water needed to
reconstitute such products
would be obtained by chemi-
cal processes and recycling
purified waste water within
the capsule.
Atomic irradiation Is an
other food-preserving method
now undergoing intensive ex-
periments. Even a space
craft kitchen has been de-
signed. 1t includes special
oven and freezer facilities for
future way-out travellers, Ma
tional Geographic reported.