OUTER PLANET 46 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 11/22 www.petpla.net OUTER PLANET Choose your beverage and “print” it at home Scientists of the US company Cana, based in Redwood City, CA, claim to have identified and isolated those molecules that drive flavour and aroma of a beverage but also to have developed a way to use this knowledge to recreate thousands of drinks simply at home. Cana‘s goal was to develop a device that could “print” any beverage from the convenience of a consumer‘s kitchen by simply adding water. The ‘Cana One’ is what the company calls the world’s first molecular beverage printer. This device is claimed to be able to create thousands of beverages from juice, soft drinks and iced coffee, to hard seltzers, wine, and cocktails. Customers can use Cana’s touchscreen display to explore, discover, and create their perfect drink from thousands of beverage types and brands. Beverages can be personalised in terms of the preferred levels of alcohol, caffeine, sugar, carbonisation, vitamins and other supplements; customising beverages for breakfast, post-workout, dinner, or relaxation. “Cana One is designed to give each customer convenience, savings, and an experience they didn’t know they were craving – while cleaning up the planet,” said Cana CEO Matt Mahar. Maximum variety, minimum waste Cana One comes with a carbonation cylinder and sugar, spirits and ingredients cartridges. Unlike podbased beverage systems, a single Cana One ingredient cartridge can create hundreds of different beverages and should last on average for a month without needing replacement, states the company. The device comes with parental controls including a PIN code to keep certain beverages (including alcoholic and caffeinated options) away from others in the home. Cana intends to eliminate the need for more than 100 beverage containers per month for the typical American household. “Instead of making insignificant, incremental improvements to the beverage industry’s archaic systems, Cana accelerates the shift to clean, decentralised manufacturing and brings an incredibly fun product to your home,” said Cana Chairman Bharat Vasan. “Any beverage you want, any time, with ultra-low waste – that’s what people and the planet deserve.” Science in every sip Cana’s team spent three years studying beverages at the molecular level, commercialising research in flavour and analytical chemistry. The scientists identified and isolated the specific trace compounds that drive flavour and aroma for thousands of unique commercially available beverages. They created what they call the world’s first universal beverage ingredient set, which is intended to recreate thousands of different drinks using a simplified set of ingredients that can be printed out of the ingredient cartridge. Cana engineers designed, tested, and have now demonstrated a novel microfluidic liquid dispense technology that is claimed to be able to combine affordably, quickly, and accurately Cana’s individual flavouring ingredients in a small form factor, delivering a better beverage than the commercially available bottled options. “We just passed the 1,000,000th beverage ingredient scan in our labs - we think this means we have the world’s largest analytical beverage dataset in the world at this point,” states the company. Cana expects first shipments to go out in 2023, based on current visibility into its supply chain. At the InnoBev Awards 2022, Cana One was amongst the winners of the Best Technology Innovation award category, recognising a scientific and technological breakthrough for reducing the waste created per beverage while increasing the personalisation and convenience for the consumer. The company is funded by the business foundry The Production Board. www.cana.com Cana One comes with sugar, spirits and ingredients cartridges as well as a carbonation cylinder.
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