An army runs on its stomach. And keeping an Army fed in World War Two led to a processed food revolution that extended from combat zones to children’s Lunchables.
Food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo says that military-funded food scientists developed such modern day staples as powdered cheese and “restructured meat” as a way to make food more durable, more affordable, and to increase shelf-life.
Without the influence of military on processed food technology Marx de Salcedo estimates “that about fifty percent of the supermarket would be empty.”
In her book “Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat,” Marx de Salcedo traces the path of the foods developed at facilities like Natick Soldier Systems Center from the plates of the troops to the drive-thru window. Many of the popular food items of today began with a mandate from the Pentagon to create processed food that is both portable and (somewhat) palatable.
“The McRib is actually one of the very first consumer products to use this new technology that had been developed by the military,” Marx de Salcedo tells Steve Fast. “It had been researched in the 1960s as a way to reduce the Army’s meat bill by sixty percent.”
The food research continues for the military. Marx de Salcedo says that food scientists have developed a refrigeration-free rations pack with “a pizza that you can buy and put in the cupboard and eat months or maybe even a year later.”
Listen to the interview: Anastacia Marx de Salcedo on The Steve Fast Show
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