12 Nov 2024 TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024
TIME’s chosen 2024 food and drink innovations that are changing how we live…..
Every year for over two decades, TIME has highlighted the most impactful new products and ideas in TIME’s Best Inventions issue.
To compile this year’s list, TIME solicited nominations from its editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process, paying special attention to growing fields — such as health care, AI, and green energy.
It then evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
The result is a list of 200 groundbreaking inventions (and 50 special mention inventions) — including the world’s largest computer chip, a humanoid robot joining the workforce, and a bioluminescent houseplant — that are changing how we live, work, play, and think about what’s possible.
Here are the Best Inventions linked to food and beverages:
More nutritious plants – Brightseed Forager
Plants and fungi have sneaky superpowers — some of which come in the form of bioactives, natural compounds that could benefit gut bacteria and human health.
“Somewhere along the way, we lost a lot of that knowledge,” says Lee Chae, CTO of Brightseed and creator of Forager, which uses AI to help map the plant genome, which contains clues to the bioactives.
The system, in turn, has assembled the world’s largest library of natural small molecule compounds — over seven million and counting — and linked them to potential health benefits.
This map can be used by food companies to understand their bioactives, as with Brightseed’s partnership with US almond giant, Blue Diamond, attempting to optimise its almonds.
Keeping meat moist – Dreo ChefMaker Combi Fryer
Traditional air fryers risk dehydrating meat as it cooks, so what you get in convenience you lose in tenderness.
To combat this, the Dreo ChefMaker employs a “water atomization system” that sprays the food with tiny particles of water throughout the cooking process, using a probe to ensure it remains at the optimal level of hydration.
The “Precision CombiCook” mode allows for automatic tweaks in temperature at just the right time, such as searing a steak at the end.
As Jamie Wang, head of the kitchen product line at Dreo says, “We mimic the science of how a chef cooks, but without a lot of effort.”
Reimagining the spice grinder – FinaMill FinaPod GT
Freshly ground spices just taste better! When pre-ground spices come in jars, they eventually lose their flavour as the oils evaporate. But manual grinding is labour-intensive.
The FinaMill reconceptualises the spice grinder as an electrically powered way to grind not only pepper, but also sesame, garlic, onion, and countless other favourings, thanks to the swappable pods that contain different spices.
To grind, just push a button. Switching pods to use another spice mid-recipe is simple, too.
Barbecue without the hassle – GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
Smoking barbecue typically requires a backyard, over ten hours of supervision, and skill. The Smart Indoor Smoker requires none of these things.
GE Profile has pioneered an active smoke filtration system that allows pitmasters to smoke brisket, ribs, and pork butt directly in their kitchen.
With an interior meat-probe, users can plunk in the brisket before breakfast, go to work, check in on it via a smartphone app, and come back 12 hours later for dinner, thanks to the appliance’s “keep warm” option.
“This isn’t just designed to be food safe,” says Andre Zdanow, executive director of small appliances at GE Appliances. “It’s designed to be delicious.”
Filtered water, anywhere – LifeStraw Sip
LifeStraw — whose Max water cleanser, designed to clean impure water at a population level, was one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 — went in a more personal direction with its new device.
The Sip reusable water filter straw, made of stainless steel, uses a high-flow microfilter membrane with 0.2-micron pores to block out 99.999999% of bacteria, 99.999% of parasites, and 99.999% of microplastics.
Users can sip 1,000 litres of water over the lifetime of each straw, which comes in its own carrying case.
The ultra-portable filter is ideal for world-travellers and outdoors adventurers, and they’ll be helping others: CEO Alison Hill says that, for every purchase, LifeStraw donates a year’s worth of safe drinking water to a child in need.
Quick at-home cold brew – the Cumulus machine
The process of making cold-brew coffee usually takes hours. But the Cumulus Coffee Machine lets you make genuine cold-brew coffee, at home, in under a minute.
The device uses recyclable capsules of coffee concentrate, brewing them in water that its tower maintains at 31,1 C. It also makes cold espresso and creamy nitro brew (by drawing nitrogen from surrounding air).
As heat, which releases chlorogenic acids, isn’t involved at any point in the preparation, there’s no “bitter, acidic bite,” says Cumulus Coffee Company founder and CEO, Mesh Gelman, a former Starbucks exec. (Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is an investor.) “You get a more balanced, smooth, authentic coffee experience.”
A better meat thermometer – ThermoPro Twin TempSpike
Overcook chicken, and you’ll get sawdust; undercook it, and you’ll get salmonella. The Twin TempSpike thermometer allows for precision cooking — whether grilling, smoking, roasting, or baking — that removes all guesswork.
Users can stick the probe in the meat at the start of cooking and then get alerts via smartphone app when it’s done. Unlike other thermometers with similar functionality, the TempSpike has a 150m Bluetooth range, powered by an accompanying “booster” that sits beside the oven, letting users wander far from the kitchen.
“The Bluetooth allows you to go watch TV or do household chores,” says Reed Lalor, vice president at ThermoPro.
Read the full list of Best Inventions 2024 here: TIME
Related reading:
TIME’s best foodbev inventions of 2023
Every year TIME releases an always fascinating list of the best 200 inventions of the year that are changing how we live. Here’s a look at those related to food and drinks….