In her talk, which could be followed live both in the exhibition of the Guest Country Switzerland and online via livestream, the future food designer Carolien Niebling spoke about her research on the subject of design and the sausage. As part of her master’s studies at ECAL (École cantonale d'art de Lausanne) she wrote a book that explains how the sausage is helping us to change our eating habits with a view to a more sustainable future.

The sausage is one of the very first foods designed by humans. It is a model of efficient slaughtering and was originally developed to make the best use of animal protein when food was scarce. With its huge variety of sizes and infinite selection of potential fillings, the sausage is now once again in a position to take a leading role. Not just, this time, as an optimal way of using animal protein, but also as a shell for all sorts of nutritional contents.

In her lecture, Niebling offered an impressive and engaging insight into her sausage-related field research, during the course of which she worked together with butchers, chefs, and a molecular gastronome in order to jointly think about the sausage of the future. In this work, Niebling was particularly keen that they should seek not to change industry but, rather, to use existing sausage production know-how to offer alternative products for a sustainable eating culture. Here, potential new sausage fillings such as insects, nuts, and pulses, but also the design of the sausage itself, have a role to play. The lecture offered convincing confirmation of the necessity of sustainably reducing our meat consumption and raising the profile of a wide range of other foodstuffs as a means of moving a further step towards shaping a sustainable consumer culture.

Click here for the recording.

The event took place as part of this year’s Guest Country cooperation with Switzerland and to mark the start of the Urban Food Funding Competition of the Vienna Business Agency.

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