The global market for canned food
Today, the global canned food market has reached a turnover of over $500 billion. The processed food market represents 32% of the total food market. The United States alone accounts for approximately half of this volume, with over 17,000 food and beverage manufacturing and processing facilities in the country, where it is the leading player in this market. China is the world's largest food producer after India. Chinese food processing ranks fourth in terms of production, while India ranks fifth.
The advent of new and more sophisticated food preservation techniques aimed at ensuring safety and quality upon delivery has led to an estimate that 40%
of all food consumed worldwide requires packaging, processing, and/or preservation. While this makes food expensive for the poor, there is still significant room for growth in the use of chemicals that inhibit the proliferation of bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and microorganisms. The largest segments of this market are dairy products, baked goods, snacks, confectionery, and beverages.
Sales of chemical food preservatives in the United States reached over $400 million and are projected to exceed $1 billion globally in the form of packaged foods in China, India, and Brazil at an unprecedented rate, further increasing demand for preservatives. The cost of refrigeration is approximately ten to twelve times higher than the cost of chemical preservatives, driving demand for chemical solutions in the design and maintenance of cold chains. It is estimated that in the United States alone, the food processing industry spent $6.9 billion on refrigeration in 2008. The largest expenditure in providing safe food is the massive deployment and integration of plastics in all phases of food processing. Globally, this is a $110 billion enterprise. The need to preserve food is critical, but it is a matter of survival for vaccines. The cost of delivering a vaccine can range from $180 to $340 for society worldwide. Drug administration relies on a cold chain. Since chemical agents cannot be used in vaccines, temperature control remains the most common preservation technique. However, it is estimated that 50% of vaccines lose some or all of their effectiveness due to a lack of refrigeration. In recent years, several committed companies have installed some 3,000 solar-powered refrigerators in developing countries at a cost of $5,000 per unit to ensure the availability of quality vaccines. However, more innovative approaches are needed to ensure vaccine availability globally.
Innovation
There has been a constant stream of new preservation techniques for food and medicines. The plastics and chemical industries have offered a wide range of synthetic additives to replace natural preservatives, antimicrobials, bacteriocins, edible coatings, and antimicrobial enzymes. Consumer concerns about synthetic additives have driven innovations toward pH control, heat treatment and freezing, the use of biotechnology, membrane filtration, high-intensity light, ultrasound, modified atmosphere packaging, pulsed electric fields, and high hydrostatic pressure.
Bruce Roser, a biomedical researcher, has developed refrigeration-free vaccines based on sugars (trehalose). Its molecules are trapped in a soluble glass that activates when it rains. This replaces the previously essential cold chain with a "no cold chain" approach. His vaccine is coated with these sugars to form inert spheres, creating tiny beads that can be packaged as injectables and stored in a doctor's bag for years. Dr. Roser has refined the process by heating and drying the vaccines at low temperatures, similar to freeze-drying powdered foods. These are essentially tiny glass microspheres in which the vaccine is encapsulated.
The vaccine's slow-release technology is an ingenious combination of a method used by plants and some animals to survive in arid conditions, and the harnessing of the body's natural mechanism for repairing and remodeling fractured bones. A plant called the resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides) is able to survive in the desert in a desiccated state for years by preserving moisture in a solidified sugar solution. Using calcium phosphate—the compound from which bones are made—to manufacture the particles allows the material to be naturally broken down by the body. The amino acid accelerates the reaction, allowing the release rate to be controlled by varying the amount.
The first cash flow
It is estimated that $300 million in aid, delivering vaccines to developing countries, is wasted because the medication lacks the necessary potency to boost the immune system once administered. The development of a vaccine system based on sugars that regenerate with water saves money and reduces energy costs. When operational, the system will deliver twice the amount of vaccine at half the cost.
Bruce Roser successfully designed a production model that uses a state-of-the-art freeze-drying system from Niro (Denmark) to prepare vaccines that no longer rely on the cold chain from manufacturing to delivery. This Niro system is the high-end equipment in the food industry. He then founded Cambridge Biostability Ltd. (CBL) and secured several grants. He even attracted Indian investors to test the model's performance. Unfortunately, the cash required to obtain the necessary approvals exceeded the bank's funds, and the entire patent portfolio was transferred to a new investor after the court declared CBL insolvent. Nova Laboratories, the spin-off from the British National Health Service, found the patents attractive enough to outbid three foreign candidates and acquire this innovation.
The opportunity
While the possibility of providing vaccines to the poor without refrigeration deserves our full support, the real contribution to the future lies in rethinking food preservation without the cold chain, without refrigeration, without compressors, without high energy input, and without the need for any chemicals. However, packaging will still be necessary. The impact of eliminating the cold chain on health in the developing world represents millions of lives saved. On the other hand, if we consider the opportunity to use this proven technique and provide the taste and texture desired by customers but unavailable from suppliers, then we realize that this innovation could quickly spread worldwide, thanks to the massive energy savings that render much of the expensive cold chain equipment obsolete.
The entrepreneurial solution is "substituting something with nothing," replacing the need for refrigeration and chemicals with a preservation system that requires neither. 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 deliver quality products locally at a lower cost, thanks to a preservation technique that has existed for millions of years in animals and plants. Perhaps it's time we learned to be as smart as some plants and animals.
