The global food market
Today, the global market for preserves has reached a turnover of more than $ 500 billion. The processed food market represents 32 % of the total food market. The United States alone represents about half of this volume, with more than 17,000 facilities for manufacturing and processing food and drinks in the country where it is the main player on this market. China is the largest WORLD food producer after China. Chinese food transformation ranks fourth in terms of production, India ranks fifth.
The advent of new and more sophisticated techniques of food conservation aimed at safety and quality to delivery has estimated that 40 %
of all the foods consumed in the world must be wrapped, treated and/or preserved. Although this makes food expensive for the poor, there is still a lot of room for the growth of chemicals that prevent the proliferation of bacteria, yeasts, fungi and microorganisms. The most important segment is that of dairy products, bakery, snacks, confectionery and drinks.
The turnover of chemical food storage agents in the United States has reached more than $ 400 million in turnover and is expected to exceed one billion dollars worldwide in the form of food packaged in China, In India and Brazil at an unprecedented rate, which will increase the demand for conservation agents. The cost of cooling is about ten to twelve times higher than the cost of chemical agents, which stimulates the demand for chemical solutions during the design and maintenance of a cold chain. It is estimated that in the United States only, the food processing industry spent $ 6.9 billion in refrigeration in 2008. The highest expenditure to offer healthy foods is massive deployment and integration of plastics in all phases of food processing. Globally, this is a company of $ 110 billion. The need to keep food is essential, but it is a matter of survival for vaccines. The price of a vaccine delivered can cost the company between $ 180 and $ 340 around the world. The administration of drugs is based on a cold chain. As chemical agents cannot be used in vaccines, temperature control remains the most common conservation technique. However, it is estimated that 50 % of vaccines lose part or all of their effectiveness due to the lack of refrigeration. In recent years, a certain number of companies committed have installed some 3,000 solar refrigerators in developing countries at a cost of $ 5,000 per unit to ensure the availability of quality vaccines. However, more innovative approaches are necessary to ensure the availability of vaccines worldwide.
Innovation
There has been a constant flow of new conservation techniques for food and medication. The plastic and chemistry industry has offered a wide range of synthetic additives to replace natural preservatives, antimicrobials, bacteriocins, edible coatings, antimicrobial enzymes. Consumer concerns about synthetic additives have pushed innovations to pH control, heat treatment and freezing, use of biotechnology, filtration on membrane, high intensity light, ultrasound, packaging under Modified atmosphere, pulsed electric fields and high hydrostatic pressure.
Bruce Roser, a biomedical researcher, has developed vaccines without refrigerator based on sugars (Tréhalose). Its molecules are trapped in a soluble glass that comes alive when it rains. It is the substitution of a cold chain deemed essential, by "no cold chain". Its vaccine is coated with these sugars to form inert spheres, thus creating tiny balls which can be packed in injectable form and which can remain in the doctor's bag for years. Dr Roser has refined the process, by heating at low temperature and drying vaccines such as the freeze -speaking powdered food, which are actually tiny glass microspheres in which the vaccine is imprisoned.
The slow liberation technique of the vaccine is an ingenious combination of a method used by plants and certain animals to stay alive under arid conditions, and the exploitation of the natural body mechanism to repair and reshape the fractured bones. A plant called resurrection fern (Pleopeltis Polypodioides) is capable of staying alive in the desert in the dry state for years while preserving humidity in a sugar solution solidified. The use of calcium phosphate - the compound from which bones are made - to manufacture particles allows the material to be decomposed naturally by the body. The amino acid accelerates the reaction, which allows it to control the release rate by varying the quantity.
The first cash flow
It is estimated that $ 300 million in aid, bringing vaccines to developing countries, are wasted because the drug does not have the power to strengthen the immune system once administered. The design of a vaccination system based on sugars that are reconstituted with water, save money and reduce the cost of energy. When the system is operational, it will offer double the quantity of vaccines half the cost.
Bruce Roser has managed to design a production model that uses an ultra -modern lyophilization system from Niro (Denmark) to prepare vaccines that no longer depend on the cold manufacturing chain on delivery. This Niro system is the high -end equipment of the food industry. He then created Cambridge Biostability Ltd. (CBL) and obtained several subsidies. He even mobilized Indian investors to test the performance of the model. Unfortunately, the liquidity required to obtain approvals have exceeded the bank funds and the entire patent portfolio was transferred to a new investor after the court declared CBL Insolvable. Nova Laboratories, the Spin-out of the British National Health Service found the patents sufficiently attractive to overbid three foreign candidates and take control of this innovation.
The opportunity
While the possibility of providing vaccines to the poor without needing refrigeration deserves all our support, the real contribution to the future is the possibility of rethinking food conservation without chain of cold, without refrigeration, without compressors, without energy intake high and without needing any chemicals. However, packaging will always be necessary. The impact of the elimination of the Cold Cold Chain in the Development World is millions of saved lives. On the other hand, if we consider the opportunity to use this proven technique and provide the taste and texture desired by customers but not available to suppliers, then we realize that this innovation could quickly spread in The whole world, thanks to massive energy savings that make obsolete a large part of the expensive equipment of the cold chain.
The entrepreneurial solution is "the substitution of something with nothing", by replacing the need for cooling and chemicals with the creation of a conservation system that does not need cooling or chemicals at all. The next time you visit your favorite supermarket, imagine the amount of money and carbon emissions saved if and when there are no more freezers. This would save energy and locally deliver quality products at a lower cost thanks to a conservation technique that has existed for millions of years for animals and plants. It may be time that we learn to be as smart as certain plants and certain animals.
