Italy has always been the country of gastronomic excellence, a specialty that has crossed borders and has conquered the world. What is not known is that even the space points to the "Made in Italy"And in particular to the brand Tiberinus which since 2007 has been selected by NASA to produce foods suitable for aerospace protocols. The Apulian company is thus the first in history to produce food for astronauts.
Meals for astronauts have the flavor of Puglia
It all stems from the "Sudalimenta" family-run business founded at the end of the 800th century in Bari. Always specialized in the sale of food products, it has been transformed with Raffaele Tiberino into an import-export company with a lot of Tiberino brand. From the NASA to European aerospace agencies, everyone consumed the dishes created by the company, as well as Paolo Nespoli, Roberto Vittori, Luca Parmitano and Samantha Cristoforetti, the last Italians to travel in space. Tiberino products have filled a huge gap. Previously, meals were the direct responsibility of aerospace engineers who aimed at pills and dehydrated foods while setting aside taste and pleasure. The Apulian company has instead introduced appetizers, first courses, second courses and desserts, according to the best and most traditional recipes of the Mediterranean diet.
Raffaele Tiberino told the story of his company to various media: "It all started by chance. In 2006, during a reception, one of our importers met a NASA engineer in Florida who launched the proposal for a "space banquet". I couldn't believe it, it seemed impossible for them to entrust us with the provision of meals knowing their strict security protocols. But instead months and months of rigorous studies, experiments and tests followed and in the end we made it to the space with our kitchen produced in Bari.".
The particular characteristics of the Tiberino plates for space
To create meals that can guarantee the correct intake of vitamins and minerals, certain procedures must be followed. Thanks to the assistance of a team of nutritionists, the company was able to create tasty meals. They must undergo a pre-cooking and thermo-stabilization process capable of guaranteeing storage at room temperature for several months. Meals are moist, pre-cooked and thermo-stabilized using ingredients capable of resisting pasteurization and maintaining their organoleptic characteristics unaltered. There are over fifty recipes between pasta, risotto and soups but most of them are vegan.
"We were able to satisfy the requests of every single astronaut - underlines Raffaele Tiberino - for Paolo Nespoli, for example, we prepared a first course consisting of fregola pasta with peppers and porcini mushrooms, which was very popular with all the astronauts and was requested several times. We wanted to pay homage to the Sicilian Luca Parmitano with a standard barley with aubergines. It is more complicated to meet the needs of Cristoforetti, a vegetarian and very inclined to the use of healthy and natural cuisine. At his explicit request, we contacted the well-known Sicilian chef Filippo La Mantia who sent us his recipes and suggested a special quinoa soup.».
