Canadians are in outer space. And they brought snacks!
LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR?
Canada has a great history of explorers, and it sure has a lot of space, but what about Canadians exploring space? Believe it or not, Canadians also excel at space exploration. No less than eight Canadians have traveled aboard shuttle missions and the International Space Station: Dr. Marc Garneau, Dr. Roberta L. Bondar, Dr. Steven G. MacLean, LtCol. Chris A. Hadfield, Dr. Robert (Bob) Thirsk, Bjarni V. Tryggvason, Dr. Dafydd (Dave) Williams, and Capt. Julie Payette. But how to take a bit of home with you into the wild black yonder?
Food is one of the top ways astronauts keep their morale up 70 kilometers above the earth. However, not just any munchies will make the grade. Food for space needs to be selected on several criteria.
The first is shelf life: There’s no refrigeration on the International Space Station, and it won’t do any good to have food rotting in space. The second is ease of eating in microgravity. Puddings and stews stick to a spoon long enough to eat, while salad can be a bit more challenging. This also means that nothing crumbly is allowed, since in microgravity, crumbs can litter the inside of the space station and become an inhalation hazard. For instance, tortillas are sent up instead of bread. Poutine, obviously, is right out. Finally there’s the ability to prepare in the ISS’s galley, which only has a convection oven and water for rehydrating food.
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
After an exhausting search, thirty-five great Canadian food products were chosen. The winners? For starters, candies and snacks like Whistler Pocket Chocolate and HapiFoods’ Holy Crap Cereal make good space food, since they’re packaged in discreet bundles. There was also a lot of preserved fish—SeaChange salmon and Brunswick sardines and herring were all deemed space-worthy. For drinks, Four O’Clock maple herbal tea and Tim Hortons coffee all made the cut—meaning that Tim Hortons is now literally “the most Canadian place in the universe.”
Here is the full list, as published by the Canadian Space Agency:
The Great Short-Horned Lizard of Saskatchewan shoots blood out of its eyes for protection.
(*items selected through the Snacks for Space contest):
• Les Canardises Duck Rillettes
• Trails End Buffalo Stix Cranberry Craze*
• SeaChange Candied Wild Smoked Salmon*
• SeaChange Smoked Salmon Pate*
• SeaChange Smoked Sockeye Salmon
• West Coast Select Salmon Jerky Original
• Brunswick Seafood Snacks Herring in lemon and cracked pepper
• Brunswick Sardines in mustard sauce
• Brunswick Sardines with hot peppers
• SoSoya+ Crunchers unsalted (soy nuts)
• HapiFoods Group Holy Crap Cereal*
• Profitapom CroustiPom (dried apple chunks)*
• Taste of Nature Nova Scotia Blueberry Fields Snack Bars
• Honey Bar Trail Mix Bar
• Sun-Rype FruitSource Blueberry Pomegranate Fruit Bar*
• Sun-Rype FruitSource Strawberry Fruit Bar*
• Sun-Rype Fruit-to-go Wild-berry Fruit Snack
• Sun-Rype Fruit-to-go Raspberry Fruit Snack
• Dole Squish’ems! Apple Strawberry Squeezable Snack
• Fruit d’Or Dried Cranberries Original
• Leclerc Praeventia - Orange zest with green tea extract cookies*
• L.B. Maple Treat Maple Syrup Cream Cookies*
• Turkey Hill Sugarbush Maple Syrup*
• Citadelle Maple Hard Candies
• Four O’clock Maple Herbal Tea
• Tim Hortons English Toffee Cappuccino
• Tim Hortons French Vanilla Cappuccino
• Brookside Dark Chocolate Covered Cranberries
• Whistler Pocket Chocolate – Milk*
• Reese Bites (Reese Bouchées)*
• Mars Candy Bar*
• Smarties*
• Honibe Honeydrop*
• Rogers Chocolates – Maple Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Bars
• Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory – Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Maple Leafs
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