On Friday, April 2, 2021 at 7:52:44 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> I'm watching last Sunday's episode of Modern Marvels The Future of Food
>
> The episode is about the future of food being researched at the US Army
> Labs in Natick, MA It not only shows the future but much history and
> how the Army came up with processes used in out commercial foods.
>
> Dehydrated cheese eventually became Cheetos, potatoes became Pringles.
> Box cake mixes was patented in 1933 by someone that had a surplus of
> molasses and found a use for it.
> Also they show how the McEib came to be.
>
> It repeats on Sunday, 4/11 at 5 PM so set your DVR. New episodes on
> Sunday at 10 PM
>
> This Sunday is a marathon of The Food that Built America.
> History Channel


WW II was a huge impetus for the development of new food technologies...

In 1939 the US Army @ less than 200K troops was 19th in size, smaller than Portugal's, in a few years we had around 16 million troops and support personnel waging war around the globe. This was a MASSIVE logistical effort to feed and supply our troops (and assist allies such as the UK and USSR)...new methods of freezing/freeze - drying, vitamin enrichment, preparing food mixes/concentrates, etc. were employed. Despite much chaos, we worked miracles in getting food where it was needed...

Luck was with us -- we had bumper crops throughout the war, and despite rationing Americans ate more and better than ever... after the war we fed our friends and former enemies Germany and Japan...

A Soviet commander once said, "Without American Spam, Studebaker trucks and the DC-3 Dakota plane we would have lost the war..."

--
Best
Greg