Friday, August 26th, 2011
Bisin: Is this the food industry’s Holy Grail?
Article by Rose Prince.
I know some people buy their Christmas presents in July, but soon they will be able to buy their turkey in the height of summer too. And keep it fresh until December – and possibly beyond.
How? Well, it’s due to a too-good-to-be-true substance called bisin. This preservative occurs naturally in certain types of bacteria (eg, Bifodobacterium longum) that are harmless to humans. Microbiologists at the University of Minnesota discovered bisin by accident when studying organisms that populate the human gut. We are told it is safe to use. Its seemingly magical powers are said to be based on its ability to kill the bacteria that trigger decomposition in the fresh proteins found in meat, dairy, eggs and fish (but not fresh vegetables or fruit). It also prevents the growth of food-poisoning bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella and listeria.
So is this end of the sell-by date? If so, is it something to be applauded – or to be concerned about? Personally, I find something unnatural and disturbing about cheese that never moulds or milk that never sours.
We should, however, try to view such an invention as positive. For example, eradicating E.coli from some foodstuffs would help protect vulnerable children and old folk. It would mean that salmonella, a major culprit in the 85,000 food poisoning occurrences in 2010, could be brought under better control. Aside from health issues, there would be a huge saving in cost. The £5 billion worth of uneaten food thrown away by households each year could be greatly reduced. People who never throw away food, such as my mother-in-law, a farmer’s daughter brought up during wartime, would come into their own. That piece of roast pork that is never finished will be brought out for meals ad infinitum, I predict, should bisin be all it is cracked up to be.
Potentially, then, we are looking at the Holy Grail for the food industry – which is fine, as long as it falls into the right hands. As with cryonics (in which humans and animals are put in the deep freeze so that, in theory, they can be brought back to life when medical advances permit), the concept of everlasting food raises interesting ethical issues.
To read the whole article click here
(Published in The Telegraph Friday 26 August 2011)
