Tech Used to Make Cold-Pressed Juice Could Change the World
Siddarth Bhide is living his dream. He works for JUST (formerly Hampton Creek) creating plant-based, nutritious, sustainable foods.
But his life hasn’t always been so sweet. Siddarth grew up in India, and while both his parents were doctors, he saw firsthand the effects of malnourishment in his community. He told me how 70 to 80 percent of the Indian population (which is 1.324 billion people total) experiences health problems due to improper nutrition. He saw his parents treating people for things like vitamin deficiency just because they didn’t have access to a wide enough spectrum of foods.
This perspective was turned on its head when he came to the United States to study food science. Here he saw (surprise, surprise) an epidemic of obesity — but he realized that these people were also malnourished. Just like at home, they weren't getting the nutrients they needed; the difference was just that they were eating huge amounts of empty calories rather than the variations on rice and protein Siddarth grew up with.
By the time he graduated, he was convinced that he HAD to do something to change the malnourishment problem on both sides of the spectrum. “What got me into food science is the fact that there’s so much necessity in food. Food is a basic necessity in life, and especially growing up in India, I saw that food is one of the ways you can make a difference in the most amount of lives,” he explained.
The problem was that this thing called “health” can be expensive. Those affected by malnourishment, whether they’re overweight or underweight, are often those who can’t afford to eat anything else.
Siddarth interned for Nestle and General Mills while he was breaking into the food industry, and it was during this time he regained hope that some day access to nutrition would become cheaper.
This hope came in the advent of High Pressure Processing.
Yep, that’s right — the tech used to make every basic b***h’s favorite post-Soul Cycle treat: cold-pressed juice.
You see, when Siddarth first learned about high pressure processing, a technique used to pasturize without any heat, meaning all vitamins and minerals are preserved, it was mega-expensive. We’re talking $2 million per unit.
But as the tech developed and became more widely used, the price went down because it was less expensive to produce — at $40 thousand per unit now and still decreasing, this development is a win.
HPP showed Siddarth that access to healthy food tech will increase as demand rises, even if slowly. I know $40k sounds like a lot, but for a big company it’s nothing. That means that as the price to produce continues to drop, product prices will drop, as well, so that things like cold-pressed juice are available to all socio-economic classes.
But no, don’t worry, this isn’t a post about bringing cold-pressed juice to the masses. Siddarth and I talked a lot about why bioprinting tech will follow the same path as HPP has in terms of price reduction.
Siddarth devoutly believes that “good food should be available to all.” When tech such as bioprinting becomes more developed and less expensive, this belief can be a reality.
By allowing for personalized nutrition, printing goes a step beyond just providing access to vitamins and minerals: It tailors each person’s diet to contain exactly what they need for peak health.
We’re looking at a solution to malnourishment here; all we have to do is continue supporting it.
Tech development → printing usage → price reduction → socio-economic accessibility → an end to malnourishment.
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Contact me at sgt26@georgetown.edu with any and all questions or thoughts. To learn more, check out Printing Your Dinner: Personalization in the Future of Food, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle starting June 11!
