Conception of a fresh bacterial biomass based dessert for space traveling cooked in an ohmic oven

In a spatial environment in full expansion, researching for a more autonomy in the food
supply chain, this study aimed to develop a first food product which could be partially
prepared in space with fresh bacterial biomass. The idea was to increase the wellbeing of
astronauts and the dessert – a waffle – combined with an innovative cooking method –
ohmic – heating suits well for this. The first goal of this study is to create a fresh bacterial
biomasse – spirulina – based dessert suitable with the complexity of space environment.
The experimental part firstly consist of substituting the fresh ingredients of a classic
waffle recipe with dried ones for rehydration with water, then with fresh spirulina to
compare the two formulations. Secondly, waffle were cooked in a lab ohmic oven. Finally,
some parameters were recorded : texture, taste, heating evolution, nutritional
composition and visual aspect.
The results shows that ohmic cooking increase the speed of heating and reduce cooking
time, well retained moisture and have a fluffy texture. The taste of the final product seems
acceptable with a better nutritional composition for astronauts.
This experiment emphazised the potential of ohmic cooking and the integration of fresh
microbial biomass in the development of food products that suits space conditions.
Extra tests needs to be conduct to validate the viability of the concept in real conditions.