Academician Chen Jian: Strengthen original innovation to make future food safer, more nutritious, more delicious and more sustainable

Editor's note: General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "popularizing science is an important basic work for achieving innovative development." In order to help high-level scientific and technological self-reliance, the Science Popularization Department of the China Association for Science and Technology and Guangming Online jointly launched the "Academician High-end Science Popularization" column, inviting academicians from various fields to give authoritative answers to current hot scientific and technological issues in my country, serving to guide more scientific and technological workers to improve their scientific research and popularization capabilities, promote the improvement of the scientific literacy of the whole people, and contribute to the popularization of science for the construction of a strong country in science and technology. #千万IP创科普

Future food is the development of traditional food and modern food, reflecting the changes in future production methods and lifestyles. Its main task is to solve problems such as food supply and quality, food safety and nutrition, eating habits and spiritual enjoyment. From the perspective of scientific development, with synthetic biology, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, nanotechnology and other technologies as the basis, future food will be safer, more nutritious, more delicious and more sustainable. Before discussing future food, we need to understand the global background and challenges it faces.

First, there is the contradiction between population growth and food supply. According to a United Nations report, by 2050, the global population will reach about 9.4 billion, and the total demand for food will increase by 50%, of which the demand for protein will increase by 30% to 50%. This means that we need to find new food resources to improve food supply capacity.

The second is the connection between food production and environmental change. Crop food production not only consumes a lot of resources, but also emits greenhouse gases. It is estimated that crop food production emits 25% of global greenhouse gases and consumes one-third of the world's energy supply. In addition, the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has also led to increasingly serious food security issues.

The third is the impact of food waste and geopolitics. Every year, 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost worldwide, accounting for one-third of the production. At the same time, geopolitical conflicts will also affect global food trade and supply security.

Based on these challenges, the research goals of future food have become very clear: first, to solve the problems of food supply and quality; second, to ensure food safety and nutrition; third, to improve eating habits and enhance spiritual enjoyment.

In order to achieve the research goals of future food, we need to rely on a series of cutting-edge technologies as support. These technologies mainly include synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, etc.

Among them, synthetic biology is an emerging interdisciplinary subject that transforms, designs and reorganizes microorganisms through engineering concepts to achieve specific goals. In my research, we use synthetic biology technology to optimize the breeding process of industrial strains for food biomanufacturing. Through full-chain innovative research, we have broken through the bottleneck of efficient breeding and optimization technology and obtained a series of excellent strains with independent intellectual property rights. These strains have played an important role in improving food quality and yield.

Artificial intelligence will also be widely used in the food industry in the future. We can use artificial intelligence technology to predict and simulate the parameters of food processing to improve production efficiency and product quality. At the same time, through big data analysis, we can also guide the formulation of personalized nutrition plans to meet the health needs of different consumers.

Intelligent manufacturing is a key engine to promote the high-quality development of the food industry. It mainly aims at high efficiency, low carbon and high quality of food production, and realizes goals such as flexible processing, digital integration and intelligent control through the development of food industry robots, intelligent manufacturing processing systems and smart industrial kitchens. Our team actively explores the application prospects of intelligent manufacturing technology in future food production. For example, we use technologies such as intelligent robots and sensors to realize the automation and intelligent monitoring of food production, improve production efficiency and product quality.

Therefore, the research content of future food will be very rich, mainly including resource mining, food perception, smart supervision, intelligent manufacturing and spiritual nutrition.

In terms of resource mining, we can optimize the food supply structure and improve supply efficiency by mining new food resources. For example, we can use microbial fermentation technology to produce various functional food ingredients; we can also develop new plant proteins and insect proteins to replace traditional livestock and poultry protein resources. Food perception technology is an important carrier for creating a better life demand. It mainly focuses on how to break the opposition between deliciousness and health through the identification, control and optimization of food flavors. In my research, we are committed to improving the deliciousness and health value of food through research on perception paths and flavor creation. For example, we can use artificial intelligence technology to accurately predict and regulate food flavors to meet the personalized needs of different consumers; we can also enhance the taste and nutritional value of food by developing new food additives.

Smart supervision is the fundamental guarantee for the full realization of active prevention and control of food safety. It mainly uses technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence to conduct real-time monitoring and precise traceability of food safety. Through smart supervision, we can effectively respond to the safety challenges brought by various new formats and new resource foods to ensure the health and life safety of the people. For example, we can use technical means such as sensors and cameras to monitor the entire process of food production, processing and circulation, and promptly discover and deal with potential safety hazards.

Smart manufacturing is a key engine driving the high-quality development of the food industry. It will play an increasingly important role in future food production. Through smart manufacturing technology, we can achieve high efficiency, low carbon and high quality food production and enhance the overall competitiveness of the industry. For example, we can use technical means such as smart robots and automated production lines to improve production efficiency and product quality; we can also optimize production processes through big data analysis to reduce energy consumption and emissions and achieve green production goals.

In addition to the nutritional needs at the material level, spiritual nutrition is also one of the important directions of future food research. It mainly focuses on how to use food to regulate people's emotions, stress and other psychological states to improve people's quality of life and happiness. For example, we can use some functional food ingredients to improve people's sleep quality and relieve anxiety; we can also develop health foods with specific functions to meet the health needs of different groups of people.

The "big food concept" has clarified the direction for the future high-quality development of food technology and industry. In the face of new challenges and new demands faced by future food technology innovation and development, we must strengthen basic research, highlight original innovation, promote the continuous innovation and sustainable development of my country's food, enhance international competitiveness, form high-tech food technology with independent intellectual property rights, lead the development of the world's food industry, and enhance my country's participation and voice in the world's food technology field.

(Author: Chen Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chief expert of the Chinese Cereals and Oils Association, and professor of the Future Food Science Center of Jiangnan University; compiled by reporter Song Yajuan)