Wellington nut butter company Fix & Fogg collaborated with NASA nutritionists to craft a space pouch suitable for zero-gravity consumption. Photo: Fix & Fogg
One Wellington peanut butter company has gone where no Kiwi food company has gone before.
Last year, nut butter brand Fix & Fogg was approached by NASA with a request to create a space rocket-approved product.
After months of working with the space agency to find the perfect delivery and storage pouch, Fix and Fogg's nut butter was launched into space on a recent six-month mission.
Fix & Fogg co-founder and chief executive Roman Jewell told Nights it was not something they thought would ever happen in "our wildest dreams".
"It's not something we were looking for, I wouldn't even know how to go about contacting NASA and connecting with them on this sort of level but this is a really organic, natural tale," he said.
As it happened, a fan of Fix & Fogg in New Zealand was sending jars overseas to friends and family, one of whom was an American astronaut.
"This astronaut, as we've been told, fell in love with the product and it became a part of their daily routine," said Jewell.
"[They] then got selected to go onto a mission up to the International Space Station and that's when NASA got in touch asking if we could supply the crew for that mission."
Jewell explained that astronauts were away for six months which was a really long time.
There are more than 200 different food items that are flown up to the station for each mission and within that there is leeway to include a few personal items.
"It's really important for morale, for mental well-being. There's only a few other people up there with them so if you can get those little nice moments up there, where food can be one of them, it's a really nice thing for them."
It was a "massive privilege" and "mind-blowing" to be included in the astronaut's comfort food preferences, said Jewell.
Developing a space-rocket approved product
But sending a food product into space definitely had its hurdles.
The whole process of creating a space-worthy version of Fix & Fogg's nut butter took about six to seven months, said Jewell.
He said initially they had no idea whether they could deliver what NASA wanted or anything about the requirements for sending products up to space.
"We jumped through all the wrong hoops first," he joked.
"I naively thought that we could just send NASA our product and they would look after it ... so I sent them glass jars because that's what we have."
"We got a pretty stern no on that one."
NASA wanted to prevent risk of breakage as much as possible and sharp bits of glass in zero gravity was far from ideal, said Jewell.
In the end, Fix & Fogg settled on a 275g soft and lightweight plastic pouch with an extra wide nozzle.
Jewell hoped they would be able to continue working with NASA in the future.
"We've built the relationship with the [NASA] food lab, they've tested, they've vetted our product ... and made the launch.
"I'd like to think we've proven ourselves and that we can be trusted to work with again.
He hoped the feedback from the crew was good and that they enjoyed the experience of having the nut butter in space.
"I'd like to think maybe NASA's eyes have been opened a bit wider and they'll look down this part of the world more for food."
