Long term food stability for extended space missions: a review

At present, human spaceflight is confined to low Earth orbit but, in future, will again go to the Moon and, beyond, to Mars. The provision of food during these extended missions will need to meet the special nutritional and psychosocial needs of the crew. Terrestrially grown and processed food products, currently provided for consumption by astronauts/cosmonauts, have not yet been systematically optimised to maintain their nutritional integrity and reach the shelf-life necessary for extended space voyages. Notably, space food provisions for Mars exploration will be subject to extended exposure to galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events, the impact of which is not fully understood. In this review, we provide a summary of the existing knowledge about current space food products, the impact of radiation and storage on food composition, the identification of radiolytic biomarkers and identify gaps in our knowledge that are specific in relation to the effect of the cosmic radiation on food in space.