The Meal. . . . on a Stick

Meals in 2000 were supposed to consist of edible cans, cakes made from a mixture of water fleas and algae, and candy laced with discarded rayon underwear.

So said a 1967 issue of Science Digest magazine and a 1943 book called “Miracles Ahead!” (as recounted in “Uncle John’s Indispensable Guide to the Year 2000”).

Unfortunately, those culinary treats are still decades away. But we do have the next best thing: food in a tube. An Ohio company called Breakaway Foods (https://www.breakawayfoods.com) recently unveiled IncrEdibles, a line of microwaveable snacks that you eat out of a push-up tube.

Priced at $1.49 to $1.99 each, IncrEdibles are sold frozen, then microwaved briefly before eating. A plastic stick is used to push the food up a bite at a time from its cylindrical package. IncrEdibles are currently sold in a handful of Eastern states, with national distribution scheduled for late 2000.

Inventor Robert E. Berman, a former ad agency owner and Weight Watchers International executive, got the idea while sitting in a restaurant with his young daughter. He had finished his meal, but she was playing around with her pasta. Berman thought: Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to package the pasta so you could eat it on the run?

After two years of experimenting and consumer research, IncrEdibles were born. The flavors include macaroni and cheese (plain or with broccoli or chili) and scrambled eggs mixed with bacon, sausage or discarded rayon underwear. (OK, we’re lying about the underwear version.)

Although some people might feel queasy about eating push-up food that isn’t ice cream, “this is so unique it might hit a market niche,” said Fred Caporaso, chairman of the food science and nutrition department at Chapman University. For example, college students rely heavily on microwave ovens for cooking, so they might like the convenience of IncrEdibles, he said.

Also, people in their late teens through early 30s tend to be more adventurous about trying unusual foods, Caporaso said: “But the bottom line is, if it doesn’t taste any better than the package it came in, it isn’t going anywhere.”

Breakaway predicts its portable snacks “will change the way Americans perceive and enjoy hand-held foods.”

Maybe.

Page 2 convened a panel of seven taste testers--including several of the Food section’s discriminating palates--and fired up three tubes in the microwave. The verdict: Everything tasted too salty. Beyond that, scrambled eggs with bacon won the best reviews, despite a weird, pasty consistency.

“It’s about one step below an Egg McMuffin,” said one panelist. Another said it’s “not as bad as it looks.”

“If I were dying and all I had was this food from a tube, I’d think it was OK,” said one.

The mac-and-cheese concoctions didn’t rate as well. “I never met a macaroni and cheese I didn’t like,” said one taster. “Until now.”

“Not as good as Kraft from the box,” said another. “Really salty.”

Then again, as one reviewer noted, “People who would buy food in a tube probably aren’t going to judge it on flavor.”

Roy Rivenburg can be reached at roy.rivenburg@latimes.com.