Space Food

What is space food? A typical space menu is made up of a lot of the same items found in homes and restaurants here on Earth. It might include foods such as:

• Brownies
• Crispy rice cereal
• Beef stroganoff
• Chicken stew
• Scrambled eggs
• Pineapple
• Granola bars
• Macaroni and cheese
• chocolate pudding

The biggest differences between space food and regular food are in the packaging and design. Space food must be carefully contained so it doesn't float around in the low-gravity (microgravity) environment. Even something as simple as a few crumbs can become deadly in low gravity. Loose pieces of food can become lodged in shuttle vents or can waft into an astronaut's nose or mouth and pose a choking or breathing hazard. Liquids can float away as well, so drinks like coffee, orange juice, apple cider and tea are packaged as powders. Astronauts add water to the contained drinks to rehydrate them.

Does food taste the same when you're floating thousands of miles above the Earth's surface? Scientists say no. In the weightless environment, food aromas don't quite make it to the nose. Because smell is a big part of taste, astronauts miss out on a lot of the foods' flavors. Weightlessness also causes fluids to accumulate in the astronauts' upper body, giving them perpetual stuffy noses. If you've ever tried to eat when you had a cold, you know that congestion makes for very bland tasting food.

eating hamburgers

space food

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-food.htm