Indoor farms could fine-tune the flavours of our food

A new way to farm indoors using different wavelengths of light could boost the taste of fruits, salads and herbs, while also increasing food supply and nutritional value.

Growing food inside brings many benefits to farmers by reducing the amount of land, fertilisers, energy and water needed to cultivate the plants.

But it can come with a major drawback – produce grown indoors sometimes lacks the depth of flavour it would have if it was allowed to flourish and ripen outside.

And it is the controlled environment of indoor farming itself that seems to be at least partly responsible.

"A plant that grows outside is stressed," said Alexander Penzias, co-founder of Ponix Systems, an agriculture company specialising in indoor farming based in Vienna, Austria.

Extreme temperatures, hailstones, torrential rain or too much shade all produce stress that affects the growth rate of food. But these trying moments also force plants to produce phytochemicals, the active compounds that give fruit and vegetables their distinctive flavours.

Despite increasing yield, the carefully controlled climates used in indoor farming do not stress the plants enough for them to produce these flavoursome phytochemicals.

This is bad news for taste. But it is also a weakness that could prevent this form of sustainable food production ever achieving widespread acceptance by consumers.

Indoor farming techniques like greenhouses and hydroponics systems, a soil-free system that uses artificial sunlight, also produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional agriculture. But if consumers are not willing to buy food produced in this way, the environmental benefits will be impossible to realise.

"If you have plants that come out of a hydroponic system, it is not a case of them tasting good or bad, it is that they don't have a taste at all," added Penzias.

His team, however, have focused on tuning light emitting diodes (LEDs) to produce specific wavelengths of light that encourage indoor plants to release phytochemicals.

They have developed this into a series of light recipes for specific plants that not only enhance flavour, but allow it to be tuned. Amber light, for example, can increase the flavour of basil, while ultraviolet light can boost the taste of tomatoes flavour and also make salad leaves thicker and therefore more palatable.

"If it tastes better, it means it has a higher nutritional content," said Penzias. Many phytochemicals can be classified as antioxidants, which are good for heart health and the immune system, he added.

Ponix Systems are currently conducting a feasibility study of their LED technology as part of the flexiLED project. Once it is completed, they hope to team up with researchers and farmers to develop a commercial product.

Currently, the indoor farming company specialises in a hydroponic system called Herbert, which are stackable modules that can be installed on walls in homes or larger premises like offices or restaurants. They have already installed some of these modules in a school and a hospitality academy in Austria.

"At first the cooks were sceptical of the system," said Penzias. "But as soon as the cooks started harvesting the food, the flavours were more intense than what they expected."

Ponix Systems are planning to introduce their new light recipe technology at the school within the next few months and at the hospitality academy soon after that. The chefs there are already eager to tune the flavours of their indoor-farmed food.

This is significant achievement, Penzias believes, because overcoming the scepticism of notoriously picky chefs is a good insight into the challenge of convincing the public.

"When consumers hear the term hydroponics they are immediately scared," said Penzias. He said the term can often sound too technical or chemical to appeal to environmentally conscious shoppers.

But one indoor farming business based in Berlin, Germany, may have found the secret to successfully addressing the taste issue on a large scale in Europe.

Infarm offers supermarkets monthly subscriptions to rent an indoor farming system alongside their optimising growing services, such as algorithms that determine the most efficient use of light, water and nutrients. They also use specific wavelengths to enhance the flavour of the plants they grow.

Martin Weber, chief financial officer at Infarm said: "We are really able to show that people are buying our produce and prefer it over existing stuff that is out there."

Infarm produce has already been used by Michelin star chefs in Germany, while their indoor systems have been installed in other restaurants and a Berlin supermarket, which allows the retailer to sell the produce grown directly to its customers.

"Normally, they are buying at a specific margin for a lot of produce, but they throw away a big amount of it," said Weber.

At the same time, it eliminates the costs of importing salads or herbs from other parts of the world, greatly reducing the environmental impact.

Infarm's technology is now being used in over 50 Berlin supermarkets and they are planning to expand to Paris, France, in August and then to London, UK, soon after.

Their first farm in a French supermarket will also be their biggest one yet. Covering 100m2, it will produce five tonnes of herbs, allowing the retailer to become self-sufficient for this commodity.

"The food we are consuming is travelling too far and its carbon footprint is devastating for the world," added Weber. '(In the future) we will be growing a lot of food in cities, or closer to the cities."

If food from indoor farms had any flavor they could “fine tune” it. All we can get here now are tomatoes from indoor farms, you might as well eat the packaging.

Ultimately I think this is the way to go for many crops. Obviously it will take the right formula of light, nutrients, conditions, etc. That will take a while to figure out for each crop to optimize taste and production. The ability to control all the inputs however should lead to much greater efficiency. This technology will obviously be necessary for colonizing the moon, mars, etc etc.

The lack of flavor is directly related to the lack of bio available complex phytochemicals in the soil. That comes from a wide range of biodiversity of life in the soil.

Impossible to produce in hydtoponics.

What is ignored is if your food is tasteless you get calories without nutrition, a recipie for obesity. Organic is the right track, with a farmer that is a soil nutritionist.

Costco now sells a tub of multi colored and shaped “cherry tomatoes”. I’m hocked on those things. The flavors are incredible.

I wonder if this is related.

All we can get here now are tomatoes from indoor farms, you might as well eat the packaging.

They lack the minerals that are in soil.

After a few years the minerals are also depleted from soil

You have to add rock dust and/or Jersey Greensand to get provide the minerals and get the flavor.

This could be done in hydroponics be either perhaps adding it to the nutrient mix or to the growing media.

Any fine rock dust from a granite quarry or gravel pit that has granite rock from stone crusher will do.

I don't know about other rocks.

Try it in your own garden, it makes carrots, tomatoes, beets, etc., much sweeter.

Electric cars & trucks——

Now more power usage for ‘indoor farms’.

Meanwhile-—NO new power generation plants & an aging & vulnerable grid system.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.