The diet of the International Space Station (ISS) crew has been supplemented with new items. This was announced by Andrey Vedernikov, Head of the Space Food Department at the Research Institute of Food Concentrate Industry and Special Food Technology.
Over the past few years, the list of dishes available in orbit has expanded. Cosmonauts have the opportunity to choose between classic omelets and options with additives: vegetables, mushrooms, or broccoli. First and second courses have also been diversified with soups made from red and green lentils with meat. In addition, oatmeal with apple and cottage cheese with sesame seeds have appeared on the menu.
According to Vedernikov, introducing a new product into space food is a long technological process. From the moment a wish is received from the crew to the first shipment of a ready-made dish into orbit, at least three years pass.
The specialist explained that this period is necessary to ensure the complete safety of the product. The development team is obliged to confirm the stability of the composition and the exact shelf life in conditions of weightlessness and radiation. Any change in the recipe requires repeated checks.
Currently, the institute's experts are continuing to work on expanding the menu. The plans include studying dishes that foreign partners on the ISS already have, but are absent in the Russian segment.
A project is also being considered to send individual ingredients into orbit. This will allow cosmonauts to prepare some dishes themselves directly on the station. However, this technology is still in the design stage and requires further development of logistics and storage.