Supratim Ghosh and a platter of Veg@eez: Out of the world

A dream sown in a Baranagar home is poised to serve up a surprise in space — “mildly cooked” and “blended in tri-coloured paste”.

Supratim Ghosh, a former B. Tech student of Calcutta University, is part of a five-member team — also comprising research scholars Renne Britton, Vandana Totlani, Rajesh Potineni and faculty adviser Koushik Seetharaman — of the food and nutrition department at Pennsylvania University.

The US campus has helped Food Technology Commercial Space Centre (FTCSC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) develop a special ‘space’ food — Veg@eez — for astronauts.

“We had organised a competition among the food and nutrition departments of all the US universities last month. This group of students from Pennsylvania came out clear winners and we have decided to use their product in the forthcoming space missions,” said Cheryll Reitmeier, an education specialist of FTCSC and the competition coordinator.

“Our main objective was to have a food product with at least a year’s shelf-life. This product developed by Ghosh and his friends has met the necessary requirements, as the vegetables can potentially be grown at space outposts,” observed Anthony Pometto, director of FTCSC.

Veg@eez is made from chopped vegetables — tomatoes and carrots form a red layer, radishes, potatoes and sweet potatoes make up most of the white layer and the green layer has spinach and chard. Oregano, salt, vinegar, lemon juice, dried onion, hydro-collides powder and olive oil are added for flavour.

“We were working on this product for the past four or five months. After preliminary research, we conducted a few experiments and then the final product was ready, with necessary additives and spice blends,” Ghosh told Metro over phone from Pennsylvania.

“Though the calorie content is high, the food is nearly free from saturated fatty acids, cholesterol and sugar. This helps reduce the microbial attack on the food and ensures that it lasts,” he added. The food is also high in anti-oxidants, lycopene and beta carotene, the basic requirements for space food, said Atrayee Basu, a Calcutta-based student who helped Ghosh and his team by exploring the local market to find the suitable vegetables for the space menu.

Pometto explained why the ingredients of Veg@eez needed to be just right. “As we have to prepare a five-year space exploration project for International Space Station Missions, it is necessary that the vegetables grow on the surface of the moon and at the space station on Mars. The project work was really tough, as the vegetables that would best suit our purpose had to have low water intake,” added the director of FTCSC.