“People are afraid of food, but not the one that should be”: an interview with food technologist Olga Kosnikova
Miscellaneous / / April 06, 2023
Blood thickens from thickeners, the body ferments from yeast, and “E” means “Edible” - we laugh and figure out if this is so.
Olga Kosnikova works as a food technologist. She has successfully launched several product lines, blogs and writes books about why you shouldn't be afraid of "chemistry" in food.
We talked with Olga, found out all the ins and outs of food production and tried to dispel the mystery around incomprehensible names in the composition of products.
Olga Kosnikova
What does a food technologist do
What is a food technologist? What is he doing?
- If you ask this question to people who are not familiar with the food industry, they will say something like: “He must be cooking sausage.” Many people think that a technologist is the same as a chef in a restaurant.
In fact, this is a broad concept. A technologist can be a person who develops a recipe in the laboratory and transfers the product to production. Or a consultant who helps to implement certain components - for example,
alimentary fiber or new flavors.A technologist can also be a person who ensures that the product is created with high quality and competently. He knows the equipment settings and the recipe well. For example, at what temperature the cheese should be sent to the melter and at what stage the starter should be added. The technologist is responsible for how and from what food is created, his goal is to ensure the stability and safety of the product.
Behind a long loaf, tea bags and other goods that we buy every day, there is a huge work of people.
For a while I was developing a product from scratch. This included not only the creation of a recipe, but also work with packaging, marketing research, and staff training. Very unusual and interesting.
- Sounds great! And what products of the created or improved by you do you consider one of the best?
— I am still proud that at the dairy plant where I worked, we launched the production of Italian cheeses: mozzarella, burrata and others. Production still exists, although the product concept has changed several times over the years.
I am very pleased that the result of my work is real tangible products that people eat every day. I am planning to create my own line. I hope that in 2023 these dreams will come true.
— Can you tell us what product line is planned?
- These will be products made with sweeteners. Most likely sweet and tasty. There are a lot of healthy lifestyle products on the market now, but they are often not the most interesting to taste. For its manufacture, a lot of stevia is used - a natural sweetener, which, however, is not even close to sugar. They put it in because they are afraid of lesser known chemical components.
I would like not only to create a new taste, but also to slightly change the worldview of society. To make it less afraid of food and more aware of its composition.
After all, stickerswithout GMO”,“ without preservatives ”is chemophobia, an irrational fear of chemical additives that has no basis.
Is that why you started a blog?
— I never thought that I would be engaged in educational activities. I just saw that people know very little about food and because of this they come up with a lot of horror stories that prevent them from living.
At first I talked about it in the office. Colleagues asked: What sausages And yoghurts can be eaten? Which E-shek to avoid? Then I started sketching the first articles and began to blog.
Going out into the public space, I realized that people are really interested in this topic. The "side effect" was that my blog helped those who had a disturbed relationship with food.
I am very glad that thanks to the blog, people are now less nervous and eat more tasty, varied, rational food.
Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Chemistry
- I like your thoughts on why you shouldn't be afraid of "chemistry". Could you briefly share them with our readers?
- Yes. It is a delusion that there is a "real, correct, natural food”, but there is food with chemical additives, which for some reason everyone began to add and poison people. In order to understand why this is not true, I will tell you in more detail.
Let's start with the fact that all substances in the world are chemical. Statements like "I eat foods without chemicals" sound ridiculous.
In addition, even the most natural products, whether it is a homemade chicken egg, tangerine or tomato, which you grown with their own hands, contain not only proteins, fats, carbohydrates and minerals, but also a huge number of others substances.
Some of them are responsible for taste and aroma, some perform various physiological functions needed by the plant, and some are not even known to us. But we don't think about it.
Like why strawberry red? Because it contains coloring pigments. Why do strawberries smell like strawberries? This is due to the composition of various flavors.
That is, in nature there are already preservatives, and dyes, and stabilizers, and flavorings. People saw this and started designing food the way nature does.
Nutritional supplements perform a specific function. We do not have the task of making a wonderful product from frankly bad raw materials, just pouring a couple of grams of magic powder into it.
What are the functions of nutritional supplements?
- Antioxidants or antioxidants protect the product from oxidation and spoilage. Thanks to them, in particular, fats do not go rancid upon contact with oxygen and under the influence of external factors.
- Dyes give the product a new color or restore the natural shade lost during processing. They make our food more appetizing and brighter, because the perception of food is also very important for enjoyment. Food is not only proteins, fats and carbohydrates, it is something more. And don't underestimate her looks.
- preservatives help keep food longer and warn us against poisoning with perishable foods.
- Stabilizers and thickeners - something that allows us to eat varied and see products on the table that do not stick together in a lump. The texture of food is important. It seems to us that it is useless, but we also experience great pleasure from how correct it is. Moreover, some thickeners are very important for people who have throat tumors, gastrointestinal problems, atrophy, ulcers. Since it is difficult for them to swallow, it is much better to eat food that is even in consistency.
- sweeteners, finally. Thanks to them, we learned how to make sweets without sugar and calories. This is the future.
There are also specific substances that prevent clumping of dry products. Or acidity regulators that improve the taste and properties of the product, giving it a pleasant sourness. There are defoamers and foaming agents - we use one or another option, depending on what task needs to be performed.
Even in ordinary chocolate, we use a food additive such as E322. On an industrial scale, this product cannot be made without them: the mass will be too viscous and will clog the equipment.
- Let's conclude that there is no need to be afraid of "chemistry" and food technologists!
- Yes. Everything that we add to food has long been studied and continues to be studied to this day. The concerns that we have now were relevant at the beginning of the 20th century, when the use of food additives was not controlled.
In the past, they really put everything that they needed into the food.
For example, before the Second World War, formaldehyde was actively used for conservation - the same formalin for embalming corpses. It really kills all microorganisms very well. But it is also toxic to us. Now this substance is banned in the food industry. There was also such an additive as safrole, which was of natural origin, but at the same time was a carcinogen.
Many such cases can be remembered. That is why the system of food safety and E-additives was introduced.
The letter "E" stands for "Europe", since this system was created there. Although for most people "E" is a marker of "Foodiness". (laughs) I love this joke very much. No, friends, if a substance has an E-index, it means that we have studied it as much as possible and it is not harmful.
— How are E-additives tested for safety now?
I have written about this in detail in my book.Scary chemistry». Supplements are tested for many different important parameters: carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, teratogenicity and others.
Research is being done on animals and sometimes even on humans. We find out the daily safe dosage of this or that substance - the amount that we can consume every day throughout our lives and it will not harm us.
The daily dosage is always given with a hundredfold margin. Pay attention to the level of precaution and care for a person here!
For some substances and nutritional supplements, there is no acceptable daily allowance. For example, chlorophyll is a green dye that can be used in the food industry. We can eat a lot greeneryand nothing will happen to us.
Yes, sometimes we refuse certain nutritional supplements because we have learned that they are poisonous. But this happens extremely rarely. More often they go out of production because they showed low efficiency or turned out to be non-environmental. So, for example, it happened with the additive E909, which was extracted from the heads of whales - now this is unacceptable.
What food myths are worth laughing at
- Name three additives that everyone is unfairly afraid of.
- Artificial dyes, monosodium glutamate and aspartame.
- artificial dyes purported to cause hyperactivity in children. This statement originated 50 years ago, but after conducting qualitative research, it was refuted. However, some countries, under pressure from anxious parents, still introduced labeling of possible harm, and this decision is still criticized in the scientific community.
- Monosodium glutamate afraid, because he allegedly deceives our brain. Like, because of him we eat the wrong way, and then all the food seems wrong. Another common belief: monosodium glutamate can be added to absolutely any food - and it will become tastier. But such an action is possible only when it is added to salty meat food, it does not work like that with sweet foods. I will say more: glutamate has been comprehensively studied and does not represent no danger.
- aspartame It is a non-caloric artificial sweetener. People think that he allegedly poisons them, causes cancer, diarrhea and releases methanol, which can cause blindness. All this, of course, is not true. We also get some methanol from fruit, which is a natural metabolite. However, no one is afraid of them, and they roll a barrel on aspartame. Its security is also comprehensive confirmed scientific community.
— I know that you collect funny myths about food. Tell us a few of your favorites.
- Yes! From a recent one, these are stories that milk can be drunk only in the first 40 minutes after milking a cow. So I imagine: each of us has a cow somewhere in the pen, and we drink milk from under it only in the first 40 minutes, and then pour it out!
There is also an old, but tenacious myth. Many believe that preservatives do not decompose corpses. Then why is Lenin's grandfather mummified in some other way? (laughs)
Everything that enters the body is metabolized either output unchanged due to the gastrointestinal tract and the genitourinary system.
Heavy metals and some other substances are accumulated and not removed, but not safe and well-studied stabilizers or dyes.
I also heard that thickeners thicken the blood. The magic of similarity: if I eat preservatives, then I conserve, if yeast, then they roam inside me like in dough. People do not know how their body works, and because of this they invent a lot of game.
- You wrote that your mission is to reduce people's anxiety related to the food they consume. But are there any things that, on the contrary, it would be worth worrying about?
- Yes, people are afraid of food, but not the one that should be. This is reminiscent of a joke: “Please give me a triple big mack, a portion of potatoes with sauce. And cola. Just please no sugar. I take care of my health."
There are completely safe components that people have declared war on for some reason: gluten, lactose, E-additives, fats and more. And there are components about which little is said, although they are really harmful to us.
For example, carcinogens that increase the risk of getting cancer. We get the greatest number of them when drinking alcohol and smoking. However, they are also found in any fried food - be it coffee, bread or meat. Therefore, if there is too much of it in your diet, this is an occasion to think and try other methods of heat treatment: boiling, sous-vide and others.
Another example is trans fats. They are also not useful for us, but they are found in many products: from confectionery to freezing, from fast food to everything that is deep-fried.
My advice: do not forget about vegetables and fruits as a source of fiber and do not lean too much on sweets. And most importantly - consult a doctor if there are alarming symptoms, and not wait for it to go away on its own. There are several national cancer screenings, and they should not be neglected.
I will clarify: it is not individual components that need to be feared. You need to understand the principles of rational, adequate nutrition. With you there will be nothing terrible from one eaten burger. It's about your diet and the quality of your diet in general.
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