food | Ulysse Sabbagh

Mar 21, 2018 ∞

One of the world's most efficient human-only logistics network is Mumbai's lunchbox supply chain

In an era where many cannot imagine an efficient supply chain operating without the benefit of technology, Mumbai India has an example of a lean, just-in-time, 99.99 percent accurate supply chain operating without any form of technology.

In India, “tiffin” is a packed lunch typically prepared for working Indian men by their wives after they have left for work. These tiffins are delivered by the dabbawalla, of whom almost 50 percent are illiterate. This supply chain delivers home cooked food to the office in time for lunch, and then returns the empty tiffin-boxes by the end of the working day. In a crowded city like Mumbai where merely boarding a local train is a huge challenge, toting a bulky tiffin carrier and delivering it on time is a daunting task.

Started in 1890, today 5,000 dabbawallas serve 200,000 customers in Mumbai. This involves 400,000 last mile transactions per day (including the return of empty tiffin carriers) with an error rate of 1 in 16 million transactions. This high rate of dependability earned this supply chain a six sigma designation and an ISO 9001 accreditation.

[Source: Logistics Viewpoints]

Oct 31, 2016 ∞

Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick - LA Times

Paresh Dave for The LA Times:

Backed by more than $20 million in venture capital, Soylent has emerged as one of several popular start-ups hoping to change what and how people eat. Meant to be mixed with water or other liquids, the powder has enough fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients to replace a traditional meal, according to the company. People looking for a quick fix, such as software programmers in Silicon Valley, have become devotees.

Eat real food people?

Aug 28, 2016 ∞

The problem with food and exercise studies

In one study, some foods boost your immune system. In another, they weaken it. What’s going on? Apparently, we can’t measure people’s diet effectively and so the research is mostly irreproducible. This is a problem that plagues scientific research, too.

Gina Kolata writing for The Upshot:

Dozens of studies are publicized every week. But those studies hardly slake people’s thirst for answers to questions about how to eat or how much to exercise. Does exercise help you maintain your memory? What kind? Walking? Intense exercise? Does eating carbohydrates make you fat? Can you prevent breast cancer by exercising when you are young? Do vegetables protect you from heart disease?
The problem is one of signal to noise. You can’t discern the signal — a lower risk of dementia, or a longer life, or less obesity, or less cancer — because the noise, the enormous uncertainty in the measurement of such things as how much you exercise or what exactly you eat, is overwhelming. The signal is often weak, meaning if there is an effect of lifestyle it is minuscule, nothing like the link between smoking and lung cancer, for example.

Oct 30, 2014 ∞

There’s a 30% chance your shrimp isn’t what you think it is

And this surely does not apply to shrimps only.

Mar 20, 2014 ∞

[gallery]

Food maps.

Nov 26, 2013 ∞

Why Airline Food Sucks

Apart from the obvious reason that the food is not served fresh, there is a surprising aspect to the lack of flavour in airline food:

“When you travel at a high altitude, your sense of taste isn’t the same as it is in a restaurant,” says Peter Wilander, managing director of onboard services at Delta. The reasons for this primarily have to do with humidity … or, rather, a lack thereof.

Why is that?

The cabins of airplanes are pressurized with an extremely low humidity level of just 4%, largely to reduce the risk of internal corrosion; the only humidity in an airplane cabin comes from other people’s breath. The problem with low humidity, though, is it causes our sinuses to close. This is why you always feel as if you have a slight cold when you fly. Simultaneously, the low humidity dries your food out quicker than it happens on the ground.

Another reason is the expectations management; flying is boring (except if you are the pilot, probably). So you are waiting for food as a cure to boredom as well as hunger. Your expectations are too high for the reality and, as everyone knows: happiness = expectations - outcome.

When there’s nothing else to do but sit in a chair and look at the back of someone’s head, meals become something to look forward to. But their faults also become something to scrutinize. The result is that even the best airline meals have a hard time holding up to the critical eye of bored, stuffed-up passengers at 30,000 feet.

What will solve this problem?

Technology:

It is technology that is most likely to improve the experience of in-flight dining. New planes like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner feature improved cabin pressurization systems that not only make passengers feel healthier, but improve cabin humidity up to 15%. That’s a fourfold improvement in humidity that makes it all the more likely that your sinuses will stay open in-flight. Simply put? On newer planes like the 787, food will just taste better.

Fascinating article over at FastCo design.

Oct 19, 2013 ∞

If you want to become a vegetarian but waited for something to convince you, watch this.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

May 16, 2013 ∞

We’re cooking less and buying more prepared meals. Since the mid-sixties, the amount of time spent preparing meals has fallen by half. While the global trend is the same, Americans lead the way. They spend less time cooking than any other country.

One thing we do more of, however, is talk about cooking. Celebrity chefs are everywhere with books and television shows. The sad reality is that we spend more time watching food shows than we do thinking about and preparing our own meals.

On Farnam Street, an interesting look at Michael Pollan’s book, Food As Culture, of which he says that it connects us all. Indeed, meals are the first and most prevalent social network.

Michael Pollan: Food As Culture

Apr 8, 2013 ∞

What 2000 Calories Looks Like. Nicely done by Buzzfeed.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Mar 1, 2013 ∞

Why we are eating horse meat instead of beef

Der Spiegel:

Intense price pressure from retailers and discounters is forcing food manufacturers to purchase ingredients from all around the world, including preprocessed foodstuffs. This has resulted in enormous flows of goods, and once these products have passed through the hands of three, four or more middlemen before they reach manufacturers, it becomes extremely difficult to trace their origins. This jungle of cross-border trading gives criminals a golden opportunity to re-label commodities. After all, the authorities have little control over what is stored and transferred in Europe’s cold storage warehouses.

A prime example is Werk II, a refrigerated warehouse in the western German town of Neuss, which served as a gateway for a large proportion of the allegedly tainted frozen convenience food to enter the country. In December and January alone, at least 14 shipments were unloaded here, and then sent to supermarket chains. The concrete complex in the district of Norf serves as a transshipment center for goods from across Europe. A sign in German, English, French, Spanish, Polish and Russian directs delivering drivers to the reception office.

And you know they don’t lie.

Nov 20, 2012 ∞

The economic crisis is making Europe fatter

Fascinating article in the IHT magazine. Because incomes are decreasing, European consumers are starting to make food choices based on price rather than quality. Something the United States knew for quite a long time:

Europe is discovering what many in the United States have known for a long time: when times are tough one of the first things to go out the window is health and nutrition. Low-income Americans have disproportionate levels of obesity, and many ascribe that fact to diets that include fast food like that at McDonald’s as a staple.

The article contains reports and statistics about behaviour related to food consumption.

Sep 25, 2012 ∞

[gallery]

René Redzepi, Noma’s chef, a unique portrait made by Mexican Agency Golpe Avisa.