Transcript - Catalyst
The Commodification of Taste The Food Processing Industry • • • • • A material transformation Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser Flavors and Fragrances Industry Off-shored to China But also a cultural transformation: as semiotic analysis of how taste communicates. The trope of “convenience” • From wartime logistics to postwar convenience. • Mass-produced, shelf-stable foods. • Flash freezing. • Flash re-heating: deep frying and microwaving. War Time Technologies in Agricultural Production Chemical Warfare Refrigerated Boxcar Freezer Trucks Microwave Oven Mass Spectrometer Data Representation The Engineering of Taste • The synthesis of flavor and image “makes of food a substrate: a base product to which is added not only taste, texture, vitamins or ‘functions’, but also added values: the signs of convenience, health or ‘sexiness’--everything our minds need” (Haden, p. 354). • The power of advertising to educate our palate. • Food for kids is brightly colored and flavored (sweet, salty, crispy). • And it is “fun” to eat. Food as a substrate • Taste is engineered as a sign system on top of a food as the base. • The flavor profiles do not derive from the food itself but from chemical additives carefully compounded to deliver sensation rather than nutrition. • “Edible food-like substances” versus food (Michael Pollan) Snack foods of the future • Sensates • Foods to make your mouth tingle, warm, cool, salivate, or tighten • But also neutraceuticals • Foods broken down into nutrient delivery • Food in Science Fiction: Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey Food as a Sign System • In advertising, food is invested with all kinds of meanings that motivate us to desire it. • The idea of “the m(e)atrix” is that we live in that world of signs that may not connect with the reality of our food systems. • If we have “lost our way with food” (Pollan), how do we get back? • Taste has the power to create a sensory bridge to a living reality ‘outside the matrix’ … one that promotes the activity of knowing as accessible, engaging and corporeal, rather than one pre-tuned for reception.” (Haden, p. 356) The re-education of the palate • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK wL5G5HbGA • Is it chicken? • Or is it chickenized? • Even the “good bits” have changed. • Julia Child: Chicken doesn’t taste like chicken anymore. • Chicken as a neutral substrate. What is HVP? • A major component of chicken or any meat related flavor is HVP (hydrolyzed soy or wheat proteins). • Labeling now has to designate either wheat or soy based. • Oil extraction from soy leaves behind soy meal. • This is hydrolyzed: “chemically digested” in a vat of sulfuric acid. • Lye is added to bring the pH back to neutral. What is HVP doing in our food? • Hydrolyzation breaks it down into amino acids, one of which is glutamic acid (glutamate). • Free glutamate plugs into the taste receptor we call “umami.” • The only non-processed sources of free glutamate is in shellfish, meat, fish, and milk. • Our taste sensors for umami evolved to sense protein. Other Sources of Glutamate • • • • Seaweed (nori, kombu) Hard cheese Cured meats Vegetables (peas, potatoes, grape juice) • Traditional condiments (soy sauce, fish sauce, • Green tea From Food to Simulacrum • HVP is a flavor enhancer • It is a handy substitute for making edible food-like substances easy and cheap to produce. • We can use it as a red-flag for cheap food (we can change the sign system).