The Frankenfood that improves you

18th November, 2009 The Times

The future of food includes baby puree to improve brain power, beauty drinks to smooth wrinkles and chocolates to help you slim

The Restaurant of the Future at Wageningen University in the Netherlands looks like a staff canteen of the present — well lit, comfortable. There is, sad to report, no freeze-dried ice cream in pellets or nano-nutraceuticals piped straight to your lower gut.

Lunch is salads, a hot dish counter serving chicken breast in a cheese sauce and something vegetarian, pickled fish, a choice of soups. It’s bland but OK, apart from the bottled water. This carries the irritating slogan: “Drink Well, Live Well.” I don’t like beverages that order you around. The other odd thing is a consent form by the self-service tills — sign it and you permit Wageningen University access to the data collected in the restaurant. Everyone who eats here is a guinea pig.

Read the rest of the piece via Times Online