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Cooking Up Burger Alchemy In an Argentine Laboratory
A team at the Center for Research and Development of Food Cryotechnology has spent the past two years developing a low-fat, low-sodium hamburger that tastes a lot less healthful than it is. From left are researchers Natalia Ranalli, Silvina Andrés, Carolina Pennisi Forell, Alicia Califano and Noemi Zaritzky.
(Courtesy of the Center for Research and Development in Food Cryotechnology)
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Who's Blogging  |
· More Argentines are eating hamburgers as fast-food options chip into the country's more traditional beef products, such as steaks and breaded milanesas.
· Argentines have one of the highest levels of heart disease in the world, according to the American Heart Association.
The scientists said they tried to tailor their research to take advantage of some of Argentina's other idiosyncrasies. Even though Argentines eat very little fish and few soybean products, there's an abundance of both here -- the seafood and soy farming industries have exploded since 1990 and now rival beef production in terms of national export income.
It was a post-graduate student at the National University of Mar del Plata who originally came up with the idea for the good-for-you-burger project. Zaritzky's team of researchers -- who are based at the National University of La Plata -- coordinated the lab work and tests.
"We had been working on trying to develop healthier sausages here for several years, so we were able to transfer some of that research to the hamburger project," Andrés said. "That allowed us to come up with results faster than we would have otherwise."
In a boxy building about an hour outside of Buenos Aires, more than 100 researchers in white coats mill around test tubes, big-bellied flasks and centrifuges, working on food-related science projects that are funded in part by the Argentine government.
The biggest trick to developing the burger, the researchers said, was getting the texture right, without creating a chemical composition that causes rapid oxidation of lipids, which can ruin the quality of the meat.
"It's sort of a game to find the right balance. . . . We have to play around with a lot of different combinations," Zaritzky said.
They first tested the finished product on colleagues around the lab. Then they compiled a group of about 40 nonprofessional tasters, presented them with a variety of samples and invited them to dig in.
"They liked it a lot," Andrés said.
But it can't yet be bought in a supermarket. The future of the project lies in negotiating with a company to mass-produce the burgers, Zaritzky said.
"It's already getting a lot of interest," she said. "I suppose it's because the hamburger has always been considered junk food. The idea of one that's good for you sounds contradictory."
To read more of these features, go to the Worldview page at www.washingtonpost.com/worldview.
