reverse engineering on food

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Do you think it's possible for scientists or companies to reverse-engineer food to find special trade secrets? For example, do you think Pepsi could analyze the Coca-Cola soft drink (with the aid of the list of the ingredients on the label) to find the Coca-Cola formula? How about the FBI? Could they do it? Would it be too hard or too costly? If scientists/chemists can figure out all the elements/molecules in a substance such as water (H2O), why can't they do the same with food?

Heck yes.

There are people with a talent for taste at savant levels. They can taste stuff and get a measure and listing of ingredients on a lot of things. Even lesser tasters can do that often.

In addition, a lot of patented recipes are well known. When you patent something, you have to list the recipe.The benefit is that its possible then to sue someone for copying. When you keep it a secret you cannot prove that they did! At least, not without making public records.

Coca Cola, KFC, Pepsi, all those really famous things are well know. Pepsi doesnt want to copy coke. They'd just get sued. And they want their own taste to be tops.

Other than that, a spectrograph of a solution will show the constituent ingredients as well. There are many companies that do this, though they normally test soil samples and the like.

In one well known case, a computer tech challenged the claim that a companies thermal grease had real silver in it. He had it tested for colloidal silver and it came back negative. When he sent his results to that company, they learned that their manufacturer had defrauded them, and they corrected the matter.

Also to note is that a small portion of women(Really small) have extra light sensing cones in their eyes, and they are able to see more of the light spectrum and at a greater range of shades than average people.

There is savantry all over in Humanity. It even appears in Animals.

The problem with patents is that in a patent for a chemical process or use of a substance it is normal to claim as much as possible while giving out as little information as possible.

I recall that United States Patent 6806347 which is "Golf balls with thin moisture vapor barrier layer" includes in the claims polymers containing astatine.

The longest lived isotope of At is At-210 which is only about 8 hours, it will also decay into Po-210. I suspect that it will be very difficult to coat a gold ball with a At compound, transport it to the tee and then be able to play a round of golf with such a ball. All these things will have to be done before the At decays away.

I think that most national radiation protection authorities would refuse to grant a license for an intensely radioactive golf ball. So I think that it will be impossible to ever make any money from the sale of a At containing gold ball, but the person writing the patent wanted to include all the halogens becuase it is possible to make polymers with F, Cl, Br and I. As they had heard of At as another halogen they added it.

This golf ball patent shows how the patent does not always give a clear idea of the invention. The mention of At is a clear red herring, but I am sure that other less obvious red herrings are present in patents.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Ever heard of "analytical chemistry"?

The problem I see is that a mere understanding of what chemicals are in food will not always give us the information required to recreate the food.

Sometimes the particle size and other details of the physical form are very important. Also it is not always possible to work out from the physical form of the food how it was made.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Why would anyone want to make pirate copies of secret junk food made from chemicals?

Well legally they have to put the ingredients, including breakdowns of compound ingredients on the side of the packaging in many countries. Most secret recipes are just marketing gimmicks

Yes it is possible to reverse engineer a food product. It is not just a question chemical analysis because food is about how it interfaces with the bodies senses. Much of "taste" isn't actually taste. Tea is largely aromatic, try drinking it with a nose peg. Also people taste with their eyes, try dying different fruit juices with food die. It is a large subject. For instance crunchiness (not to be confused with crispness) is actually your brain counting the number of vibrations traveling up your jaw towards the ear.

However it is not secret what make junk food successful. Any combination of fat, salt and sugar is known to be addictive.