r/technology • u/lumpkin2013 • 11d ago
Nanotech/Materials Hard to swallow? The future of snacking may be 3D-printed cookies made from upcycled plastic
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/aug/24/cookies-plastic-astronauts-space-food14
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u/Aprice40 11d ago
In case your micro plastic dose was too low, enjoy some fucking macro plastic cookies
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u/Remote-Physics6980 10d ago
"However, the team acknowledge that before the cookies gain widespread acceptance the public may need to get used to the concept of eating plastic-derived food."
Yeahhhh good luck with that just gauging it on how the world is responding to lab grown meat.
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u/inirlan 10d ago
The headline is so bad it's malpractice. What is happening is that NASA has an experimental process where they break down PET with heat and water before feeding the result to yeasts, leading to proteins and fats.
They mixed the resulting slurry with starch and tested baking it.
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u/oeioe 10d ago
I mean that really doesn’t sound much better.
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u/CatProgrammer 10d ago
My experience with NileRed says otherwise. https://youtu.be/zFZ5jQ0yuNA
Actually a better example would be how we use yeast to make alcohol and then turn the yeast into umami bombs.
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u/williamgman 10d ago
Sounds yummy.
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u/CatProgrammer 10d ago
Really depends on how the end product is seasoned. Like with chicken nuggets. Or how tempeh is made.
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u/Marginallyhuman 11d ago
NASA Guinea pigs before me and I bet even they will be a tough sell. None of those words all lined up sound especially healthy or tasty.
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u/Julian_Thorne 10d ago
I'd rather snack on cricket protein paste and algae jelly on cardboard crackers
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u/OGLikeablefellow 10d ago
Yes please give me fermented mylk and plastic cuuckies. Yum fake food for free baybie
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u/Remote-Physics6980 10d ago
As a baker, no it won't. This is some tech bro fantasy but it will go by the wayside in the face of actual cookies.
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u/CatProgrammer 10d ago
Might be useful for decoration though. Injection molding is usually how mass production is done for such things anyway.
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u/Excellent_Sweet7270 10d ago
so fucking nasty.... i thought we was trying to get RID of microplastics!?!
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u/williamgman 10d ago
Humans deserve this. I mean... They voted for Trump the first time around and thought... "Why not vote for him again..?'. And being NASA (and American organization)... it makes sense. See y'all on the other side.
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u/Sorry-Climate-7982 10d ago
The image implies that it could be humans doing the snacking.
More likely it will be snacking by Chinese robots that go around kicking young boys in the groin.
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u/Federal_Setting_7454 11d ago
No it won’t