POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Space food package of cottage cheese (творог) with fruit puree

Object No. 85/1053-2

Made in the Soviet Union, this vacuum sealed package contains bite-sized pieces of compressed cottage cheese and fruit puree. This allowed easy eating of the snack food in the weightless environment of space and visually resembled, to some degree, the food inside. These cottage cheese cubes could be rehydrated and eaten with rehydrated biscuit cubes. Space food needs to be lightweight, compact and appealing to eat. Cubed food packages were first introduced in the early 1960s and were in use until the early 1980s. Often cubes of bread, cereal, biscuit and cake were coated in gelatine to reduce crumbs. These can be dangerous to the spacecraft affecting, among other things, the ventilation system. Many surviving examples of space food were the least popular food stuffs. They were not eaten by the cosmonauts and thus returned to Earth with them. However, cottage cheese was among the most popular, particularly to swap with food from American astronauts. Weightlessness in space causes changes to the human body, including the leaching of calcium out of the bones. Any foodstuff high in calcium and flavoursome was a sort after item. Melissa Hulbert, Curatorial Assistant, Andrew Jacob, Curator, 2020

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Summary

Object Statement

Meal package, 'Cottage Cheese', space food, Soviet missions, compressed cottage cheese / fruit / plastic, maker unknown, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, c. 1984

Physical Description

A vacuum sealed plastic package containing 50gm of dehydrated and compressed cottage cheese with fruit puree in 10 pieces. On the front red and blue text in Cyrillic and Latin script between two blue semicircular shapes. The Cyrillic text reads 'Tvorog s fruktovim pyuree', the Latin text reads 'Cottage cheese with fruit puree'. Also on the front is written '50g'. On the back of the package is a rectangular label with a pale pink background and a smaller dark blue rectangle containing the Cyrillic text 'Tvorog s chernosmorodinovim pyuree' (or Cottage cheese with blackcurrent puree).

DIMENSIONS

Height

20 mm

Width

150 mm

Depth

69 mm

SOURCE

Acquisition Date

28 June 1985

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