Is the Colonel collaborating with the Russians?
First of all, Kentucky Fried Chicken is a private business, and not a federal agency, so there’s not likely to be a lot of controversy about whether its business operations have dealings with private Russian firms. That’s just business.
It does appear to be the case that the former family business, which has grown into a fast food mega-corporation, is relying on a Russian partner called 3D Bioprinting Solutions to offer a new kind of chicken nugget.
Kim Lyons at The Verge reports how KFC shops are sending the Russian company ingredients like breading, and getting back lab-created chicken products that integrate animal and plant materials in an additive manufacturing process.
“3D bioprinting technologies, initially widely recognized in medicine, are nowadays gaining popularity in producing foods such as meat,” Yusef Khesuani, co-founder of 3D Bioprinting Solutions said in a statement, according to the article. “In the future, the rapid development of such technologies will allow us to make 3D-printed meat products more accessible and we are hoping that the technology created as a result of our cooperation with KFC will help accelerate the launch of cell-based meat products on the market.”
What is bioprinting, anyway?
From Cellink: “Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process where biomaterials such as hydrogels or other polymers are combined with cells and growth factors, then printed to create tissue-like structures that imitate natural tissues.”
Lyons’s report shows how sources like the American Environmental Science and Technology Journal have illustrated the environmental benefits of using a bioprinting process for product development. Bioprinting is also currently used for drug research and for creating human organs for potential transplant.
As for KFC’s project, Lyons reports it’s part of a more comprehensive plan to offer customers the “restaurant of the future,” which is also pending a Moscow pilot project this fall.
One of the main components of this modernization plan involves nearly full automation of the fast food restaurant’s delivery process, where robots will orders, cook food and take orders from shoppers.
Perhaps in a new post-ideological high-tech business world decades from now, this type of project will go down as part of a larger wave of modernizations that will change markets significantly.
