eli5: How do “instant” versions of foods (instant oatmeal, coffee, rice, etc.) exist? Why are they not the standard since they’re so efficient?
In: 11
They’re much lower in quality and taste.
Fresh food is usually healthier for you, too.
Instant foods were originally created to just last longer without going bad. In the US, they started with ‘desiccated foods’ which were just dried fruits and vegetables and grains during the Civil War for Army use.
These days, they’re cheaper because, again, they last longer and are usually comprised of lower quality foods that wouldn’t sell if sold fresh.
Instant items are typically precooked and then dehydrated versions of food. While they are easy to prepare for a meal, they often taste not quite as good and have less nutritional value than fresh counterparts. They also require a certain level of processing to make, which is often more effort for a large company to provide than just local farmers selling potatoes to grocery stores over boxes of potato flakes, etc.
Instant oatmeal is oatmeal cut up very small to absorb water or milk much more quickly than regular. It isn’t as good because it has a different texture
Instant coffee is dehydrated brewed coffee, it doesn’t taste nearly as good as fresh brewed coffee because a lot of coffee’s flavour is easily evaporated. It also has less caffeine than fresh coffee
Those sorts of problems exist across many instant products, and even good instant foods lose popularity because of their association with all the bad instant foods
Instant mashed potato is especially bad, incidentally
Because they’re fucking disgusting and people would rather spend the 10 minutes longer it takes to get something edible.
This is the case for some foods, like canned beans. Because it doesn’t sacrifice substantially in texture or flavor.
In the case of rice and oatmeal, they are par cooked (partially cooked ahead of time). You sacrifice on nutritional content and texture of the finished product, though.
In the case of potatoes, they are par cooked, ground, pressed into flakes, then packaged. Completely deteriorates not just nutrition and texture, but also flavor.
In the case of coffee, concentrated coffee is brewed, then dehydrated. Totally gross flavor.
Instant foods are generally more convenient and sometimes more shelf stable.
Standard foods are generally cheaper, more nutritious, taste better, and have better “mouth feel” and texture.
There is a time and a place for both, for most people, and most people will eat a subset of instant foods and not others.
There is a close parallel between fast food and slower food. Different people choose different tradeoffs at different times.
Instant oatmeal is about 10 times more expensive than rolled oats. And I am way too thrifty to spend that extra money.
Packaging makes them prob more expensive than they need to be. Lots of them are also just crappy.
Notice how instant noodles arent as good as noodles you get at restaurants or hand make at home.
They are worse in every other aspect important for a food.
Taste, texture, nutritional value (most of them anyway).
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