Pouch of 'Smoke and Fire' nut butter, Space edition

This 275g pouch of nut butter was created by New Zealand food producers Fix & Fogg and was designed specifically to be sent into space. It was the first time a New Zealand food brand had been sent into space.

Fix & Fogg

Fix & Fogg was founded by lawyers Andrea and Roman Jewell, who started out in 2013 selling a few dozen jars of peanut butter each weekend at Hataitai Market in Wellington. By 2021 the company was producing 7000 jars a day and looking to increase production as it expanded into Australia and the United States. It is now available at Woolworths Australia-wide, in all 500 Whole Foods Markets across the United States, and in Singapore.

Space food

In 2023, NASA approached Fix & Fogg with a request to make space-approved versions of some of their products. A fan of Fix & Fogg peanut butter in New Zealand had been sending jars to friends and family in the United States, one of whom was an astronaut. This astronaut ate the peanut butter every day, so when they were selected for a mission to the International Space Station, NASA reached out asking if the company could supply the crew.

The Space Station menu typically consists of about 200 food and beverage options prepared by the Space Food Systems Laboratory, although crew members can add a few off-the-shelf items or personal favourites. This is partly to keep up morale during each six-month mission, providing comfort to crew members far away from home.

The astronaut in SpaceX Crew-8 specifically requested ‘Smoke and Fire’ peanut butter, a peanut butter blended with New Zealand-grown chillies, mānuka smoke and smoked paprika. In reduced gravity, body fluids move freely in the astronauts’ bodies giving them a feeling similar to a head cold or blocked sinuses. Many foods taste bland, so astronauts often ask for spicy foods.

Safe for space

Fix & Fogg worked with NASA’s nutritionists for several months to create a version of their product that was safe for space. Glass jars are not allowed in space because they are heavy and can be dangerous if broken. Instead, Fix & Fogg worked with New Zealand company Snell Packaging to modify off-the-shelf, flexible plastic pouches and give them larger, 16mm diameter nozzles. The nozzles allowed the product to flow better in zero gravity, took into consideration the viscosity and texture of the peanut butters, and meant the astronauts could either suck the peanut butter straight from the pouch or squeeze it onto bread.

NASA also conducted a range of safety checks and lab tests, making sure the product was robust and tamper proof, had a suitable shelf life, and met their stringent food safety requirements. If a crew member was to get sick in space the consequences could be very serious, so NASA has much higher microbiological standards than commercially produced products. They ran tests for the standard plate Count, coliforms, escherichia coli, bacillus cereus, coagulase positive staphylococci, yeast & mould, listeria monocytogenes and salmonella.

References
---. 2024. ‘Fix & Fogg nut butter launched into space’. RNZ, 4 May. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515974/fix-and-fogg-nut-butter-launched-into-space
---. n.d. ‘What do astronauts eat in space?’ Royal Museums Greenwich. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-do-astronauts-eat-space#:~:text=In%20reduced%20gravity%2C%20these%20fluids,such%20as%20horseradi sh%20or%20wasabi.
Fix & Fogg. 2024. ‘Lift Off!! Fix & Fogg is Now in Space!’ Fix & Fogg Journal, https://fixandfogg.co.nz/blogs/journal/lift-off-fix-fogg-is-now-in-space
Grimm, Linda. 2023. ‘From Tang to Teriyaki: How the Space Food Systems Laboratory Keeps Astronauts Full and Focused.’ NASA Round up reads, 3 August. https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/2200
Lewis. Robert E. 2023. ‘Space Food Systems’. NASA Directorates, 16 March. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/esdmd/hhp/space-food-systems/
Waiwiri-Smith, Lyric. 2024. ‘First Kiwi-made kai blasts its way into outer space’. Stuff, 1 May. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350261627/first-kiwi-made-kai-blasts-its-way-outer-space