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Meal Replacement Mass Reduction and Integration Acceptability StudyNASA, in planning for long-duration missions, has an imperative to provide a food system with the necessary nutrition, acceptability, and safety to ensure sustainment of crew health and performance. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and future exploration missions are mass constrained; therefore the team is challenged to reduce the mass of the food system by 10% while maintaining product safety, nutrition, and acceptability. Commercially available products do not meet the nutritional requirements for a full meal replacement in the spaceflight food system, and it is currently unknown if daily meal replacements will impact crew food intake and psychosocial health over time. The purpose of this study was to develop a variety of nutritionally balanced breakfast replacement bars that meet spaceflight nutritional, microbiological, sensorial, and shelf-life requirements, while enabling a 10% savings in food mass. To date, six nutrient-dense meal replacement bars (approximately 700 calories per bar) have been developed, using traditional methods of compression as well as novel ultrasonic compression technologies developed by Creative Resonance Inc. (Phoenix, AZ). The four highest rated bars were evaluated in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) to assess the frequency with which actual meal replacement options may be implemented. Specifically, overall impact of bars on mood, satiety, digestive discomfort, and satisfaction with food. These factors are currently being analyzed to inform successful implementation strategies where crew maintain adequate food intake. In addition, these bars are currently undergoing shelf-life testing to determine long-term sensory acceptability, nutritional stability, qualitative stability of analytical measurements (i.e. water activity and texture), and microbiological compliance over two years of storage at room temperature and potential temperature abuse conditions to predict long-term acceptability. It is expected that this work will enable a successful meal replacement strategy to be implemented that will maintain crew food consumption and health, while informing exploration missions with appropriate mass savings expectations.
Document ID
20160012786
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Sirmons, T.
(Leidos, Inc. Houston, TX, United States)
Barrett, A.
(Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center MA, United States)
Richardson, M.
(Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center MA, United States)
Arias, D.
(Wyle Science, Technology and Engineering Group Houston, TX, United States)
Schneiderman, J.
(Wyle Science, Technology and Engineering Group Houston, TX, United States)
Slack, K.
(Wyle Science, Technology and Engineering Group Houston, TX, United States)
Williams, T.
(Wyle Science, Technology and Engineering Group Houston, TX, United States)
Douglas, G.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
October 31, 2016
Publication Date
January 23, 2017
Subject Category
Man/System Technology And Life Support
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-37796
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2017 Human Research Program Investigators'' Workshop (HRP IWS 2017)
Location: Galveston, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: January 23, 2017
End Date: January 26, 2017
Sponsors: NASA Johnson Space Center, National Space Biomedical Research Inst. (NSBRI)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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