History Main / FutureFoodIsArtificial

In the future, things are going to change drastically -- including our diets. Whether it be from [[GaiasLament the destruction of arable land]], a move to [[ColonizedSolarSystem outer space colonies]], or because food processing technology becomes cheaper, eventually, real food will become a luxury item, unavailable to all but the elite. So, what do the rest of us eat? Highly processed foodstuffs, usually based on soy, lentils or yeast or cloned tissue, loaded up with artificial flavors and engineered to be nutritionally complete[[note]]Soy is one of the few legumes that has all 20 amino acids for a complete human protein, although soymilk is insufficient to supply a human infant's rapid brain development, because it lacks the right ''fatty'' acids.[[/note]] -- but [[NondescriptNastyNutritious not the least bit tasty or satisfying]].

* Implied in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. The fact that Misato, a Major working for the agency saving the world, would break her bank buying three steak dinners says something about the new pricing of meat.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' has several types of artificial PovertyFood in its destitute world. "Kibble" is made of kelp, plankton and soy, and described as being exactly like its dog food namesake, but with the nutrients for people. Then there's "scop" (Single-Celled Organic Protein), an artificial meat that can be made to taste like any animal, but is of such low quality that people call each other "scopsucker" as a FutureSlang equivalent to "fucking amateur". Finally you've got packaged meals called "Prepaks", which are usually heavy on soy, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein mycoprotein]], insects, and artificially textured vegetables. Prepak varies in quality from food pastes that resemble flavored sealing foam, to "TV dinner"-style meals that are actually decent. If you feel like cooking for yourself, you can also get synthetic ingredients, though most people don't bother. In ''Cyberpunk 2020'' it was said that only 3% of people eat real, fresh food more than twice a year.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''. Orochi Group tries to make this, sniffing a huge demand for a successful version but fails so far. They resort to conjuring a flesh golem directly from hell and hacking it with a chainsaw, exploiting its HealingFactor. The cuts are served in company cafeteria, but employees complain it tastes like despair, literally.

* Guess: where does the major source of Nutrients come from in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''? Kelp and people once you get recycling tanks. Fortunately the first uses of genetic engineering techs are developing crops that can grow on the planet.

* ''{{VideoGame/Starfield}}'': The most popular restaurant is "Chunks", which makes cubes of unknown food material, infused with flavours such as beef, wine or chocolate. Based on prop arrangements in cafeterias, it would appear that 2-4 of these cubes (each roughly the size of an apple) provide a full meal. One of their packages proclaims "Better than the real thing. That's the Chunks guarantee."

* In a temporal inversion of this trope -- that is, [[UrExample Past Food is Artificial]] -- the draconian fasting demands of medieval Catholicism (still preserved more or less as-is in many of the eastern churches) necessitated the creation of artificial dairy products; almond milk shows up quite frequently in medieval cookbooks, and there's little doubt that if medieval Europe had had soybeans, they'd have used the hell out of tofu and soy milk too. There are also preserved recipes for things like fake bacon, made from smoked salmon and whale blubber, pressed in layers to look like bacon.

* Because real maple syrup is so laborious to produce, it takes a lot of maple sap to produce even a little syrup (making one gallon of maple syrup involves boiling down ''forty'' gallons of maple sap), and it can only be made during a relatively small window of the year, so it can be expensive. [[OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap A cheaper alternative had to be found.]] Enter pancake syrup, which consists of corn syrup and caramel coloring/flavoring (and no actual maple of any kind, whatsoever). Which is cheap, and it doesn't taste ''bad'', but it tastes nothing like the real thing.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' has several types of artificial PovertyFood in its destitute world. "Kibble" is made of kelp, plankton and soy, and described as being exactly like its dog food namesake, but with the nutrients for people. Then there's "scop" (Single-Celled Organic Protein), an artificial meat that can be modified to taste like any animal, but is of such low quality that people call each other "scopsucker" as a FutureSlang equivalent to "fucking amateur". Finally you've got packaged meals called "Prepaks", which are usually heavy on soy, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein mycoprotein]], insects, and artificially textured vegetables. Prepaks vary in quality from food pastes that resemble flavored sealing foam, to "TV dinner"-style meals that can, in a pinch, be confused for something your mom would cook. If you feel like cooking for yourself, you can also get synthetic ingredients, though most people don't bother. In ''Cyberpunk 2020'' it was said that only 3% of people eat real, fresh food more than twice a year.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' magic item Murlynd's Spoon is a serving utensil that once a day magically provides enough bland (though a 0th level spell can explicitly alter taste...) gruel of unspecified nature to keep a party of four Medium-sized creatures (or eight Small creatures) fed. The "create food and water" spell does the same thing, with a note that characters who have put skill ranks into cooking can conjure slightly more appetizing dishes. Very few Dungeon Masters require players to keep track of food, though.

-->-- ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}: Shadowtech'' Sourcebook

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' features ''Kibble'', a low-cost mass-produced food that's described as having the same appearance, smell, and flavor as the dog food from which it takes its name, and which only the [[PovertyFood truly destitute]] actually eat. Most people's food is pre-packs, which are usually heavy on soy, mycoprotein, insects, and artificially textured vegetables. Pre-packs vary in quality from food pastes that resemble instant ramen-flavored sealing foam, to "TV dinner"-style meals that can, in a pinch, be confused for something your mom would cook. If you feel like cooking for yourself, you can also get synthetic ingredients, though most people don't bother. "Fresh", a slang term encompassing all forms of naturally grown food (though even "fresh" meat and fish tend to be vat-grown or aquarium-raised) is a thing, but availability and price keep it somewhere between "maybe for an extra-special birthday treat" and "utterly unattainable" for the vast majority of people.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', the lower classes are limited to artificially flavored soy, krill, similar mass breeding reptiles (which serve as meat), fungus products (which serve as the main base for booze -- and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein Mycoprotein]] is stated to be a staple)... and Nerps, of course!

* ''VideoGame/FrostPunk'' has the player oversees a post-apocalyptic ice age colony with the main goal of trying desperately to hold off the DespairEventHorizon, which one of the issues includes providing enough food but traditional farming methods being unviable thanks to frozen climate. So lichen and moss are grown in heated greenhouses called Hothouses. Though this is DownplayedTrope since meat is implied to be available through hunting while warm-weather crops can be regrown from research for second-tiered Hot Houses. Stew rations and watered soup can be made from the mentioned food sources to feed more people, though the latter will cause small discontent due to lack of filling and taste. If things get really desperate, there's always adding sawdust to the rations to feed even more people (at the cost of people's health and mood) and then finally, there's good old [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]].

* ''{{VideoGame/Starfield}}'': The most popular restaurant is "Chunks", which makes cubes of unknown material, infused with flavours such as beef, red wine or chocolate. Based on prop arrangements in cafeterias, it would appear that 2-4 of these cubes (roughly the size of an apple) provide a full meal. One of their packages proclaims: "Better than the real thing. That's the Chunks guarantee."

In the future, things are going to change drastically -- including our diets. Whether it be from [[GaiasLament the destruction of arable land]] , because we live in space stations or Moon colonies, or because food processing technology becomes cheaper, eventually, real food will become a luxury item, unavailable to all but the elite. So, what does the rest of the hoi polloi eat? Junk food and processed foodstuffs, based usually on soy, lentils or yeast or clones, loaded up with artificial flavors and engineered to be nutritionally complete[[note]]Soy is one of the few legumes that has all 20 amino acids for a complete human protein, although soymilk is insufficient to supply a human infant's rapid brain development, because it lacks the right ''fatty'' acids.[[/note]] -- but [[NondescriptNastyNutritious not the least bit tasty or satisfying]].

It's also a component of many {{Utopia}}s as well; if synthetic food is impossible to distinguish from the real thing, then why would you ''want'' to consume the parasitic organisms that pervade just about all food? It is possible that once ''tasty'' synthetic food is invented, awareness of contaminated food could become comparable to current awareness of sanitation as opposed to TheDungAges. The average person might find the idea of ''choosing'' to risk food poisoning to be similar to the notion of choosing to risk [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera cholera]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery dysentery]] by drinking CoolClearWater.

This trope is likely to overlap with PovertyFood in any CrapsackWorld setting. ArtificialMeat is a specific SubTrope where it's only meat that isn't real. If characters long to have tasty, real food but the government bans or heavily taxes it, they may try to buy BlackMarketProduce such as strawberries at a BlackMarket.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' features ''Kibble'', a low-cost mass-produced food that's described as having the same appearance, smell, and flavor as the dog food from which it takes its name, and which only the [[PovertyFood truly destitute]] actually eat. Most people's food is pre-packs, which are usually heavy on soy, mycoprotein, insects, and artificially textured vegetables. Pre-packs vary in quality from food pastes that resemble instant ramen-flavored sealing foam, to "TV dinner"-style meals that can, in a pinch, be confused for something your mom would cook. If you feel like cooking for yourself, you can also get synthetic ingredients, though most people don't bother. "Fresh", a slang term encompassing all forms of naturally grown food (though even "fresh" meat and fish tend to be vat-grown or aquarium-raised) is a thing, but availability and price keep it somewhere between "maybe for an extra-special birthday treat" and "utterly unattainable" for the vast majority of the population.

* In ''Anime/SyndualityNoir'', most food is 3D-printed from synthetic bases, including blocky sushi and CartoonMeat served on plastic "bones." Real produce is still grown, but sells for exorbitant prices since most of the Earth is toxic AfterTheEnd.

* ''Film/KinDzaDza'': The ''plastic porridge'' in the absurdist Soviet sci-fi comedy. On a planet where even all of the ''water'' has been processed into the "lutz" (AKA fuel), so they now need to convert lutz back to just drink, you're lucky to find even that.

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[[caption-width-right:350:Redefining "plant-based meat".]]

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This trope is likely to overlap with PovertyFood in any CrapsackWorld setting. ArtificialMeat is a specific subtrope where it's only meat that isn't real. If characters long to have tasty, real food but the government bans or heavily taxes it, they may try to buy BlackMarketProduce such as strawberries at a BlackMarket.

* In ''Anime/FuturePoliceUrashiman'' the protagonist Ryuu is hilarious about a deli offering original spaghetti. Sadly it's only for upper-class g-men.

* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'', 99% of Japan's food in 2113 is artificial. [[spoiler:It is also all produced in one place, which allows [[BigBad Makishima]] the chance to destroy Japan's food supply, in order to create societal collapse to make the [[BigBrotherIsWatching Sibyl System]] irrelevant.]]
* ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'': This is partially the case for humanity. Following [[ApocalypseHow Second Impact]] sea life is all but extinct and many of the coastal arable lands are now underwater. Additional climate changes have devastated agriculture and wildlife, further reducing food sources. The exact amount of replacement food in any given meal is never explicitly stated but what passes for meat is at least two-thirds artificial.
* Also implied in the original series ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. The fact that Misato, a Major working for the agency saving the world, would break her bank buying three steak dinners says something about the new pricing of meat.

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' has human meat come from "bastards," cloned humans grown without neural tissue, here the central product of a growing restaurant chain. And a lot of the food is produced by [[MatterReplicator "Makers"]].
** When Spider mentions his family living off reconstituted lizards and government-issue mycoprotein cakes before they coated Mercury in solar panels and the environment started to recover.
* Seen on a vending machine in ''ComicBook/ThePunisher2099'', "[=SlimSynth=] Burgers. Food so good, you'll think it's real!"

** This is often the case for future or alien civilizations. In Argo City (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s hometown, which survived the destruction of Krypton), people subsisted on food replicators (as seen in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton1959'', ''ComicBook/TheUntoldStoryOfArgoCity'', ''ComicBook/Supergirl1984''...) because the soil was radioactive, ergo, uncultivable.

* A DiscussedTrope in the ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}''. Eleya opines in an internal monologue that replicated food never tastes quite right and theorizes that it's because every helping is chemically exactly the same.[[note]]The author mentions in the liner notes that the explanation is borrowed from the science book ''Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek''.[[/note]] Chapter three makes mention of her bringing a big takeout box of handmade [[TrademarkFavoriteFood jumja sticks]] back to the ship from an eatery on Deep Space 9.

* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' story ''Fanfic/SupermanOf2499TheGreatConfrontation'', set in the 25th century, most people use artificial food generator units. At one point [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kath]] eats an apple and is shocked by the taste.

* In ''Series/Supergirl2015'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Survivors}}'' food in Krypton was artificially created. When [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] tastes Earth food for the first time she is shocked by how good it tastes.
* In ''Fanfic/IronHearts'', the Iron Warrior's mooks eat "Ration Tins," which is a can of tasteless paste with enough nutrition to last someone all day; it's stated that a person could live off them from birth to death of old age with no ill effects. Twilight loves them because it means she doesn't have to waste time cooking.
* In ''WebAnimation/FTLKestrelAdventures,'' Sandro is able to whip up a great meal by cooking ration bars in various ways. He says it's because they were all his mom had to cook with on his homeworld, so she invented ways to spruce them up. Although, real bacon was also available, likely as an extremely expensive treat. [[spoiler: His brother saved a couple of strips, which he dubbed "The Bacon of Memories."]]

* In ''Film/{{Alien}}'' the crew eats synthetic "food" which resembles spaghetti or cabbage, and it's very strongly implied that the "robochef" actually uses [[{{Squick}} the crew's waste]] to produce the meals.

--->'''Parker''': I don't wanna talk about what it's made of. I'm eating this!
** In the novelization, they're careful not to think too hard about it.
--->'''Parker''': Why would you care what it's made of? It's food now.

* Downplayed in ''Film/TheCloverfieldParadox''. The space station's nutrient supply appears based on worm protein that gets 3D-printed into something vaguely resembling food. Someone actually taped a "[[WorstWhateverEver Worst Bagle Machine Ever]]" sticker on the printer, implying the stuff tastes about as great as it looks. However, this sort of grub seems to be exclusive to astronauts in space (reasonable, given the logistical effort required to keep them supplied for a mission of unknown duration) while planetside meals appear to be largely the same as what we eat today.
* Apparently Luke's ration bars are this in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Yoda actually asks him "How you get so big eating food of this kind?"
* ''Film/JudgeDredd'' has its own send-up of this: "Eat recycled food. It's good for the environment and OK for you!"

##His last meal was at Taco Bell, which wasn't very filling back in 1996 and even less so in 2032 since it was one of those snob meals with nothing but tiny appetizers. ''Vegetarian ones.'' It's the only meat he's had in ''thirty-six years.''

-->'''Mouse''': *''to Neo''* If you close your eyes, it almost feels like you're eating runny eggs.\\
'''Apoc''': Yeah, or a bowl of snot.\\
'''Mouse''': You know what it really reminds me of? Tasty Wheat.

* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the people at the back of the train all live off of strictly rationed "protein bars", which appear to be a rectangular block of dark, dense gel. After making their way about halfway up the train, the main character finds out [[spoiler:protein bars are made of ground-up cockroaches]]. This happens about ten seconds after they find a ''ton'' of them and are happy to have as much as they want. He decides not to mention it.
* Pretty much the only type of food available on Earth in ''Film/SilentRunning''. And Lowell Freeman, who has eaten vegetables he has himself grown on the ground of the remaining forests of Earth, is the sole member of the crew of the ''Valley Forge'' that laments this.
* ''Film/KinDzaDza'': The ''plastic porridge'' in the absurdist Soviet sci-fi comedy. On a planet where even all of the ''water'' has been processed into the "lutz" (AKA fuel), so they now need to convert lutz back to just drink, you're lucky to find even that.
* In ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', due to extensive damage to the ecosystem, all of Earth's food is produced artificially by the [[MegaCorp Wallace Corporation]].
* M.I. Rations in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' consist of a bubblegum-pink, foamy substance (think Strawberry Mousse).

* In Creator/WilliamSleator's ''Literature/HouseOfStairs'', meat is a luxury.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'': People are vegetarian through no particular choice of their own -- the Earth is so overcrowded that real meat is a luxury most people can't afford, and artificial yeast-based proteins grown in vats ("zymoveal") are the food of choice for the working class. [[http://www.quorn.com Quorn]] is a real-life equivalent, made from molds instead of yeast. Real fruits and vegetables are available, but only in heavily processed forms. When Lije Bailey is offere a fresh apple, he's unfamiliar with the textures and flavors and accidentally bites into the core and is shocked by the seeds.
** "Literature/TheEvitableConflict": The Eastern Region grows yeast in hydroponic plants. They've managed to make it imitate the taste and texture of beef, ice cream, and many others. The majority of human food is now yeast-based.
** ''Literature/FoundationSeries'':
*** ''Literature/ForwardTheFoundation'': The Mycogen sector of Trantor specializes in producing yeast-based proteins as luxury foods that taste better than the real thing. Other sectors only produce relatively bland gloop, while Mycogenian exports demand a high price (and the Mycogenians keep the very best for themselves; when Seldon tries one little morsel, it is described in almost orgasmic terms).
*** Creator/GregoryBenford's ''Literature/FoundationsFear'': The story takes place so far into the future, humanity has spread out across the entire Milky Way, and people on Trantor eat meals recycled directly from the sewage. A "[[MatterReplicator food-manufacturum]]" creates food like eggs, sausage, and carrots, which are crafted to taste good to their audience.
--->''It was easy to forget, amid the tastes specially designed to fit his own well-tabulated likes, that the manufacturum built their meal from sewage. Eggs that had never known the belly of a bird. Meat appeared without skin or bones or gristle or fat. Carrots ar­rived without topknots. A food-manfac was delicately tuned to re­produce tastes, just short of the ability to actually make a live carrot. The minor issue of whether his souffle tasted like a real one, made by a fine chef, faded to unimportance compared with the fact that it tasted good to him--the only audience that mattered.''
** "Literature/GoodTaste" focuses on the orbiting colony Gammer, where fungus/yeast-based cuisine is SeriousBusiness and all recipes are based on standard extracts. The protagonist enters (and ''wins'') the annual cooking contest, and the chief judge raves about his entry until he admits that the key ingredient was a ground bulb of naturally-grown garlic. The judge immediately [[IAteWhat vomits at the idea]] of having eaten "A growth from the dirt" and the protagonist is banished. His mother's parting words are; "Can’t you see, Minor-mine, that what you did was not in..."
** ''Literature/LuckyStarrAndTheOceansOfVenus'': The primary export from Venus is seaweed, usually modified into a yeast. The yeast-farms export a number of different things to the rest of the solar system, including long-term compact space rations, fertilizer, and animal feed. On Venus itself, the Green Room is an experimental restaurant, providing the most advanced yeast foods, with different flavours and textures.
--->'' "You had no beef, no fruit, no tomatoes. Not even coffee. You had only one thing to eat. Only one thing. Yeast!"'' --'''Dr Morriss'''
* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/NorbysOtherSecret'': The family scout ship has an AutoKitchen that can serve a combination of real and artificial food. In chapter six, Jeff gets a meal of synthoburger, synthofries, and reconstituted applesauce.
* The Interim Coalition of Governance and future humanity from the ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'' has two types of food. The first is artificial gruel made from nanomachines by the bulk, consumed by the 'civilised' Coalition The second is reconstituted human corpses and fetus ration packs from degenerate posthumans. Yes, you heard us. ''Fetus ration packs''.

* In ''Literature/TheSpaceMerchants'', only wealthy snobs can afford to eat "new protein" exclusively. For the lower classes, there's a giant growing fleshy lump called "Chicken Little" (it was originally a piece of [[ShoutOut chicken heart]] [[http://thethunderchild.com/RadioDrama/LightsOut/TheChickenHeart.html tissue]]) that they carve slices off: the working man's "meat". Better yet, it's fed by hundreds of tubes carrying raw yeast in from a multi-story yeast farm above it, tended by hordes of perpetually abused sweatshop workers.
* One of Kilgore Trout's stories in Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' tells of a planet where all food is made from petroleum and coal because its animal and plant life had been destroyed by pollution. The planet's dirty movies showed [[FoodPorn vivid color footage of people eating fruit, meat, vegetables, and other such foods]] that didn't exist anymore.
* ''Literature/HeecheeSaga'':
** Robinette Broadhead was a "food miner" before accepting the CallToAdventure; specifically, he mined oil shale that would be processed to grow fungi that would be processed into food. Bob wonders at one point about the days when oil flowed out of the ground and people just used it to run cars.
** The second book in the series ''Beyond the Blue Event Horizon'' has a huge Heechee spaceship that mines resources from space (such as comets) and processes them into food. The book notes that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (these give the food the in-universe moniker CHON) are some of the most common elements in the universe, and also the main elements in the organic molecules that we can consume for food. For the record, those four elements alone make up for 97 percent of your own body.
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** Minor subversion. Cordelia, the protagonist, is from a [[{{Utopia}} utopia-ish]] planet and has recently moved to the more primitive former-LostColony Barrayar. She's used to eating carniculture (real meat, raised in a vat instead of a killed animal), and the fact that what she's eating used to be alive gives her a moment of pause. She still eats it, and enjoys it, but puts it down to her pregnancy making her have strange cravings. (Maybe she's right; in a later book her son says she "never eats anything but vat-protein if she can help it," and carniculture is common on Barrayar as well. But Cordelia ate the fish her son caught, because she loves him.) Later in the series, we're introduced to butter bugs, which are being designed to eat the BizarreAlienBiology of Barrayar's ecology and produce human-edible food.
** "Rat bars" (ration bars) are another staple of the series - perfectly formulated to contain all the nutrients and calories the human body needs (though just one a day is fairly lean rations for an adult), but usually tasting like old leather. And sometimes ''chewing'' like old leather, for the lower-quality varieties. They mostly come out in emergency situations and for prisoners, and sometimes as the economical choice on long tours of duty in various space navies and mercenary outfits.

** ''The People of Sand and Slag'' eat exactly that. Being trans-human organisms that have NighInvulnerability as part of their augmentation, they don't really ''need'' food anymore, just any mass will do in case of having to repair injuries or lacking limbs. Apparently, rich people still eat "organic food", but it's considered an act of pure snobbery and showing off one's wealth since nobody has to eat anything at all and given [[GaiasLament the world's]] [[{{Mordor}} condition]], growing any sort of plants or livestock is prohibitively expensive. Doubly so when it's not needed for anything in particular. When the main characters end up [[spoiler: roasting a dog over burning plastic chairs]], they find the concept of meat to be extremely over-rated.

* Used in ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' novel "A Day for Damnation" to feed a herd (victims of a plague that affects intelligence) in San Francisco.
-->We pushed up near one of the bales. It looked like it was made of big pieces of yellow farfel. It smelled yeasty and buttery.
-->"It's impregnated with vitamins and antibiotics and God knows what else," Fletcher said.
-->As we watched, the herd members gathered around the bale and began to pull chunks away from it like pieces of bread.

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, the Serfs are fed "nutri-food", processed goo that can be shaped to various textures, while the Citizens can get anything up to and including bear steaks. This is a minor plot point after Stile goes into hiding-he asks Sheen to go get him some food, preferably some pudding or something else that won't change much since the only way to smuggle it to Stile is by eating it. When she gets back, she activates whatever passes for a gag reflex in [[RobotGirl gynoids]] and vomits up a double handful of pudding that does look distressingly used. Stile manages to eat it by telling himself that in the games, the standard nurti-hork can and usually is shaped into various disgusting things like puke and engine oil, and he just has to pretend this is what's happening now.
* In "The Food of the Gods," a short story by Creator/ArthurCClarke, all food is completely synthetic, but they can make exact copies of ANYTHING. One company introduces a food range of [[spoiler:synthetic human flesh]].
** Another Clarke story, ''The Deep Range'', has a weird version of this: there's no suggestion the Earth is particularly overcrowded or polluted, but land-based agriculture has apparently been phased out, replaced by plankton and farmed ''whale steaks''.
* It also comes up in ''Literature/RendezvousWithRama'', when the crew finds what looks like tilled farmland inside the cylinder. Apparently farming has become an eccentric pastime in this future since synthetic food requires far less space and energy to produce.
* ''Subspace Explorers'', by Creator/EEDocSmith, features an Earth that reached [[ScienceMarchesOn its limit of seven billion people]] by making almost all food synthetic (since it's more efficient to grow plants than animals), with only the very wealthy able to afford real meat and milk. Until the hardier souls among humanity started colonising other planets, where there was plenty of space and they could start large-scale farming again, bringing animal products back to the table.
* Played with in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': in the novel, the act of eating (one of the few pleasures for players [[TrappedInTVLand trapped in the game]]) couldn't be perfectly emulated. Mixing together certain in-game items, however, could produce flavors surprisingly similar to foods in the real world.
* In ''Literature/TheGoodnessGene'' by Sonia Levitin, synthetic food is part of the GovernmentConspiracy; dictator Hayli claims it's supposed to protect people from bacteria found in natural plants & animals [[spoiler:but really it's to protect ''him'' from a deadly allergy to peanuts and his severe germophobia, as well as to keep the populace dependent on the government.]] Still, people living in fringe communities are allowed to eat farmed food, though it's discouraged.
* Averted in ''Literature/TheParafaithWar'' by Creator/LEModesittJr. The main character eats a lot of algae crackers and drinks a lot of Sustain (like a cross between an energy drink and a protein shake), and a breakfast with real eggs, real juice, and real bread for toast costs him about a month's salary. But that's just because shipping foodstuffs between solar systems is incredibly expensive and he's posted on a planet undergoing {{terraform}}ing, so it can't support its own food production yet. When he visits home, on the capital world of his society, he has plenty of real food available. The problems in Utopia are a bit deeper than what's in the fridge.
* In David Zindell's ''Literature/RequiemForHomoSapiens'', the people of Icefall eat foods from the 'food factories', as their world makes the north pole seem warm and arable. This massively [[FreakOut freaks out]] the adopted cave boy, Danlo, who has been raised to pray for the soul of every animal that he eats.
* Subverted in Creator/PeterFHamilton's ''Literature/FallenDragon'' - most food is created artificially, but there is plenty of room for farmland. It's just that synthetic foodstuffs are not only cheaper and indistinguishable from the real thing, but natural food {{Squick}}s the hell out of most people in a manner equivalent to modern knowledge of CoolClearWater. The protagonist innocently eats a non-vat steak and vomits when he is told it came from a cow.
* Larry Niven's short story ''Vandervecken'' makes reference to a substance called "Dole Yeast"
-->'''Roy:''' ''(in reference to the price of food in the asteroid belt)'' Ye Gods, The Prices!
-->'''Alice:''' this is as expensive as it gets. At the other end is dole yeast, which is free--
-->'''Roy:''' Free?
-->'''Alice:''' --And barely worth it. If you're down and out it'll keep you fed, and it practically grows itself.
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Famine]] (in the guise of Dr. Raven Sable) develops [=CHOW=][[superscript:TM]], completely indigestible food which allows you to slim yourself down the terminal way. Then later on:
-->[=MEALS=][[superscript:TM]] was Sable's latest brainwave. [=MEALS=][[superscript:TM]] was [=CHOW=][[superscript:TM]] with added sugar and fat. The theory was that if you ate enough [=MEALS=][[superscript:TM]] you would a) get very fat, and b) die of malnutrition. The paradox delighted Sable.
* ''Literature/SpaceCaptainSmith'' plays this for laughs with Synthetic Ham (Sham), Sham Lite (Shite), Synthetic Curry (Slurry) Sham sausages (Homage) and synthetic bacon (Facon)
* Most animals in ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' have been killed by a pandemic, and "meats" are grown in vats. When protagonist Case is unable to eat a steak (due to suffering from withdrawal) in a posh restaurant at the orbital habitat of Freeside, his partner Molly angrily takes it and eats it instead.
-->'''Molly:''' Gimme that. You know what this costs? They've gotta raise a whole animal for years and then they kill it. This isn't vat stuff.
* In the section of Creator/SheriSTepper's ''Beauty'' set in the future, the population produces only one type of food. It is small, squarish, and cracker-like. The artificial colours indicate what vitamins each cracker provides. They are tasteless and textureless (although one of the blues has a slight flavour).
* Played for laughs in Harry Harrison's ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero''.
** Soldiers are fed with a thin soup that contains all the nutrients needed to keep them healthy but tastes like drek. Some soldiers get cards from home that can be rehydrated into chocolate bars or other, actual foodstuffs. Our Hero, Bill, gets a card from home that rehydrates into ... a larger card that plays tinny, annoying, "inspiring", military tunes and slogans.
** And then there's dehydrated water, a necessary staple when deployed on an alien planet. You just add water and you get... water! Though it doesn't taste as good as regular water.
* ''Small Minded Giants'' by Oisin [=McGann=], set in an enclosed city in which the population is waiting out an ice age, includes several references to this trope. Foodstuffs eaten by the working class main characters include spirulina, and the rather mysterious-sounding Promeat and Veggie-soy. Fruit and meat(which is vat-grown) are strictly for the wealthy. It is also mentioned that most people's staple diet is based on genetically modified soya beans and that the cheapest food available is [[{{Squick}} made from processed waste]].
* In Bruce Sterling's ''Islands in the Net'' (set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture), there's no shortage of 'real' food, but one major character eats only synthetic so as to avoid the toxins that real plants put in their tissues to discourage animals from, y'know, eating them.
* ''The Millennial Project'' recommends doing this with algae of all things in order to properly feed the denizens of space habitats, algae being quite easy to grow hydroponically and some species containing complete proteins.
* In ''Literature/RedHanded'', an offhand reference is made to "syn-chicken".

* In StevePerry's novel ''Literature/{{Spindoc}}'', nearly all the cattle died in a plague (some types of meat being more common than others), and eating beef is illegal. The only exception is if you had a cow, and it was officially confirmed to have died from natural causes like a heart attack. There are rumors of people making a living scaring cows to death.
* In Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/MakeRoomMakeRoom'', the novel that inspired ''Film/SoylentGreen'', soylent steaks made of soy and lentils were an expensive item. Unlike in the film, they were just a minor detail of the dystopian future, not relevant to the plot.
** A rich man's mistress is given the privilege of pouring the juices from his steak over her oatmeal.
* Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/AllianceUnion'' setting uses tank-grown fish protein for this. Actually a case of ShownTheirWork, the stations route human sewage into tanks full of molluscs, which eat the waste [[spoiler:which if you think about it, is exactly what fish do in the real ocean]].
* In the ''Literature/InDeath'' series, soy-based substitutes take the place of meat and other animal food products for most of the population. It's a mark of Roarke's membership in the Fiction500 that he can afford real meat, real tobacco, and real coffee; Eve considers the food and the coffee to be the second-best benefit of being married to Roarke, after the man himself.
* In the novelisation of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', Ripley sardonically notes that the tasteless donut she just got from a vending machine on a SpaceStation "might once have flown over a wheatfield".
* In the novel tie-in to the videogame ''VideoGame/RebelMoon'', two characters mention in passing that the food they eat includes genetically modified vegetables and vat-cloned meat (ironically, chicken).
* Played with in Richard Kadrey's ''Literature/{{Metrophage}}'': meat from livestock is still fairly common, but the farm animals in question are genetically engineered to have no feet or other unpalatable parts and are themselves fed intravenous nutrition as they grow to slaughter-age in vats. When Jonny has a chance to try beef from a conventional steer that grazed naturally, he finds it so bland due to the absence of artificial growth-enhancers and other vat-stock chemicals that he can't finish his steak.
* In the ''Literature/AlexisCarew'' novels, vat-grown "beef" makes up the main course at nearly every meal aboard Navy ships, and officers are encouraged to purchase their own provisions.
* Averted in most of ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}'' because the tech level of Sol makes real food the norm. The thirty-kilometer colony ship ''Intrepid'' has entire farms and forests stocked with game, tended by robots. Played straight with the Noctus SlaveRace in the Sirius system, though, who are so used to vat-grown protein on their deliberately technologically depressed asteroid habitats that they're actually put off by the idea of natural foods.
* In the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels, several Adeptus Mechanicus worlds seem to run on soylens viridiens, a vat-produced foodstuff whose ShoutOut name implies it's [[HumanResources made from corpses]] but is eventually said to be mostly "reconstituted pulses" [[note]]beans and lentils, in American English[[/note]]. Tech-priests find it an efficient way to ingest nutrients, and can't figure out why Cain would rather have a steak.
* Nutripton in ''Literature/TheSheepLookUp'', a shapeless and tasteless paste produced by Jacob Bamberly, who'll ship it out for a good price though he won't eat any himself. Amongst its other charms, samples of it turn out to be contaminated with Ergot, driving crazy anyone unfortunate enough to eat it. In a departure from the norm, though, Nutripton has not yet become standard nutrition for the working-classes of America itself... At first.
* In ''Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries'', the future civilization of 3001 is quite fond of vat-grown meats, but people get queasy when a defrosted 21[[superscript:st]]-century HumanPopsicle tries to identify his steak and asks which animal it came from.
* In Sergei Snegov's "The Men like Gods", nearly all, if not all, of the future food is artificial. Unlike most of the examples, it's also noted to be much tastier, than the natural one, as shown, when the Pavel tried to make a barbecue from natural mutton. Gamazin even notes, that the barbecue from the natural meat tastes horrible, nothing like the "... real synthetic meat", and that if kitchen automats made a dish like this, they would've been sent to repair immediately.[[note]]For those who've never had it, mutton has an extremely strong, gamey flavor compared to meat like pork or beef. People who aren't used to it tend to find it less pleasant than other meats.[[/note]]
* Weaponised in ''Natural State'' by Creator/DamonKnight. The City dwellers are so grossed out by the 'Muckfeet' country dwellers eating natural food (though it's actually bioengineered) that when the latter storm the city they just throw food or eat it in front of them, causing the City dwellers to become so grossed out they run away or vomit helplessly.
* ''Literature/ThePlaceInsideTheStorm'': When Tara was younger, her dad would occasionally cook real food, but now her family almost exclusively eats instafood except when they eat out. She doesn't like the taste at all.
* In ''Literature/NeptunesBrood'', the metahuman protagonist enjoys a meal of "tubespam," that in this case is synthetic human liver.
* The ''Duchy of Terra'' series has Universal Protein, a substance that, as its name suggests, can be used as food for pretty much every species of sapient life in the galaxy as long as species-specific vitamin supplements are used with it. It's also got the consistency and flavor of soggy cardboard. Every species lives on it at least part of the time in space, and every species reviles it.
* ''Literature/TheAndroidsDream'': Most meat products are now made from lab-grown "vatted meat," which is technically vegetarian-friendly since no real animals were involved in its creation. Real meat, from an actual animal, is said to be vanishingly rare.
* ''The Manna Machine'' by George Sassoon and Rodney Dale. The authors claim that the "manna from Heaven" that fed the Israelites in the Sinai desert came from an atomic-powered machine (the Arc of the Covenant) for creating algae provided by AncientAstronauts. The machine would be stripped down and cleaned every seventh day, [[CargoCult leading to the tradition of the Sabbath]].
* ''Literature/TheExpanse'': While regular food's still present, it's generally prohibitively expensive (To the point that a cheese-smuggling ring on Ceres is considered a notable bust) due to the Earth being overcrowded and there not being much space elsewhere in the solar system. Most people - Belters especially - instead eat food made from fungal protein and similar substances molded and flavoured to represent other food, which despite the technology apparently leaves something to be desired. Also, much to Holden's chagrin, the ''Rocinante'' is able to produce an apparently foul coffee-approximation if it runs out of actual beans.
* In ''FKA USA'' by Reed King, future food isn't just fake it isn't even organic! After the nuclear civil war that broke up America into new factionalized states and decades of unrestrained polluting, one megacorp state United Crunch solved the food crisis. They invented "dymophosphylase" an addictive compound that convert almost any inorganic item into something edible and vaguely nutritious. Old sneakers, bricks, etc. are all consumable food stuff with dymophosphylase. However one time an old onion skin went into a vat and hydrocarbon reaction caused a massive explosion.
* Referenced in passing in the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' short story "Policy to Invade" by Ian Mond. One character describes how she and her husband used to go to a different restaurant for breakfast each weekend, searching for the perfect poached eggs, and found some places where you could almost believe the eggs were real. When the Doctor takes her to a diner in PresentDay New York to have ''actual'' poached eggs, she's completely blown away.
* In the original ''Literature/TheShipWho'' stories published in the 1960s, [[SapientShip brainships]] have larders stocked with ingredients of undescribed provenance, and kitchens in which they can be cooked. When Creator/AnneMcCaffrey returned to the setting in the 90s with several co-authors, she set those books roughly two hundred years later to cover for the (massive!) changes in technology. Brainships in this era have food synthesizers and can use them to make tempting-smelling dishes in a hurry. In ''The City Who Fought'' a character dining at an expensive restaurant in a SpaceStation reflects on what a treat it is to have so much food of a direct planetary origin, like saffron rice and grilled ribs, which implies synthesized food is the norm.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** This trope zig-zags throughout the franchise. It seems quite clear that the world of ''Star Trek'' has both artificial and natural foodstuffs, depending on whether you live on a starship or colony world. It's also frequently noted that replicator food never tastes quite right. The science book ''Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek'' theorized that meals are replicated based on a scan of a single order of that meal. This would mean that every helping tastes exactly the same, whereas "real" meals have variations.
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', [[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Food_synthesizer "Food synthesizers"]] make food from dehydrated tablets -- kids will apparently eat the resulting food without being forced, although this element is probably the effect of [[{{Zeerust}} 1960s technophilia]]. "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E2CharlieX Charlie X]]" suggests that starship food is artificial, as Kirk complains about eating synthetic meatloaf for Thanksgiving. Episodes like "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles The Trouble with Tribbles]]" exposit that colony worlds subsist on farmed food, though the grain is a type of futuristic hybrid.[[note]]Albeit one not far removed from real-world triticale, a wheat/rye hybrid originally bred in 19th century Scotland and Sweden. In the United States, some companies like Bob's Red Mill will sell you the flour, although it's rather expensive.[[/note]]
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', [[MatterReplicator replicators]] seem to make food from PureEnergy,[[note]]The ''Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual'', which was written by propmasters Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, suggest that it's actually a sort of organic slurry of a chemical composition to make food replication statistically easier; in other words, like many other examples on this page, food replicators run at least partly on shipboard waste.[[/note]] so it obviously never came from anything that was ever alive except in some kind of cosmic sense. The replicator uses transporter technology to rearrange the molecular structure of some kind of raw material (basically any sort of solid matter) into the molecular structure of edible food. This process can also be used to fabricate tools and spare parts. (Some) Klingons, such as Worf's brother Kurn, apparently have an issue with the replicator technology, as their culture demands that meat animals be hunted and killed. This issue pops up rather inconsistently, though. Certain foods, like ''gagh'' and ''racht'' (both a type of worm), cannot be replicated, as replicators cannot create living objects and those are universally eaten living.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' shows Ben Sisko cooking food by hand on numerous occasions (his eggplant stew is apparently a crew favorite), and it's even mentioned once late in the series that he grows his own hot peppers. His father runs a Cajun restaurant in New Orleans and has Ben and Jake out back scrubbing clams with a wire brush on their visits home. The Siskos are noted for being [[SupremeChef Supreme Chefs]], which, in a world where food is primarily provided from replicators, is a testament to their skills, as is the restaurant Ben's father runs successfully.
** Both used and averted in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. Due to constant supply problems in the early seasons, in [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E2Parallax the second episode]], Kes converts one of the cargo bays into a hydroponics garden to supplement the replicators. Neelix uses the resulting produce (and other ingredients gathered from planets they pass) in his kitchen. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E17TheKillingGame The Killing Game]]", Ensign Kim mentions that ''Voyager'''s emergency rations consist of "synthetic protein".
** In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', the NX-01 has a [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Protein_resequencer "protein resequencer"]] that is able to take a raw protein base and turn it into simple processed foods like scrambled eggs or meatloaf. Although the resequencer is supposedly able to create a variety of foodstuffs, it apparently all tastes the same. Also, this technology isn't the crew's primary means of sustenance, but is meant to supplement what the ''Enterprise'' can hold in its stores and what is grown in a hydroponic garden.
** In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Admiral Vance claims that replicated food comes from resequenced shit. This causes an "IAteWhat" reaction from a visiting Orion.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In one story set in the 26th Century, companion Victoria requests chicken from one of the guest characters. She is presented with a white box that is supposedly chicken and decides that she isn't hungry.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has food cubes, although Rygel seems not to mind.
* In ''Series/{{Lexx}}'', the eponymous spaceship/dragonfly dispenses food for his/her crew as a green, orange or blue slime through an organic-looking tube. It's stated several times during the show that the food consists of processed "organic material" Lexx him/herself ate before. Considering that Lexx often consumes parts of inhabited planets or passing starships, this leads to slightly disconcerting implications. There's a RunningGag of Stan ordering exotic delicacies from Lexx and expressing mock disappointment at getting the same slime every time.
* ''Series/TerraNova'': In the 22nd century AD, real food is rare that a single orange is considered a luxurious treat for a family of five. When colonists arrive in Terra Nova, they need to drink an enzyme solution to help their systems adjust to the plethora of 850,000th century BC fruits and vegetables.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has the Colonials supplement their dwindling food supplies with algae cakes. At least they have plenty of real booze (courtesy of [[MilitaryMoonshiner Flight Deck Distilleries, Ltd.]]).
* Unlike [[Anime/CowboyBebop the anime]], in which real food is apparently easy to get everywhere in the solar system by the start of the show, in ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'', it's made explicit that most food is artificial. When Spike and Jet go to a GreasySpoon for a meal, Jet asks if the popcorn shrimp is real or not and gets told that it's really just soy and algae. Meanwhile, in the kitchen we're treated to a shot of a worker squirting artificial cheese out of a tube onto bread (which also looks artificial). In "[[Recap/CowboyBebop2021S1E9BlueCrowWaltz Blue Crow Waltz]]", it's shown that even a Syndicate boss is stuck with a plate of synth beef. The meat is more difficult to cut, and he gripes: "I mean, seriously, how hard would it be to breed a couple of cows?"
* Possible example in ''Series/StargateSG1''. When Sam is aboard the Asgard command ship, a race millions of years more advanced than humans, she is presented with "food" which arrives via transporter beam and looks like geometric blocks of colored clay. The taste is apparently not at all pleasant to humans.
-->'''Thor:''' I like the yellow ones.\\
'''Sam:''' ''[picks up the yellow one and takes a tentative nibble bite, only to immediately spit it out]'' Oh my God. ''[sheepishly looks at Thor]'' Sorry...

* In ''Series/FTLNewsfeed'', something called Textured Fungal Protein can be used to create reasonable imitations of common foods.
* In the ''Series/GoodEats'' episode, "The Once and Future Fish", Alton is now an old man shopping with his granddaughter (played by his RealLife daughter). He is dismayed to find that most of the offerings at the store consist of FoodPills and that the only thing that seems to be available at the fish counter is squid.
* In ''Series/TheExpanse'', most people seen are reliant on artificial foodstuffs made from soy, while most meat is grown in vats. "Real" food is such a rarity that the availability of genuine cheese was enough to calm civil unrest on Ceres.
* In ''Series/Loki2021'', one of the anachronistic objects that [[TimePolice the TVA agents]] confiscate in a branching timeline is a pack of "Kablooie" brand chewing gum, sold around 2047-2051. The packaging promotes that it has an artificial "blooberrie" flavor.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', where the lower classes were limited to artificially flavored soy, krill, and similar mass breeding reptiles (which serve as meat) and fungus products (which serve as the main base for booze - and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein Mycoprotein]] is stated to be a staple). And Nerps, of course!

** The food vats are a staple of the game, both as a menial job that the vast majority of Infrared civilians work in, as a punishment reassignment after demotion, and as a source of insults and curses. ("Vatslime!") One manual goes into detail as to how the food vats work, specifically a symbiotic interaction between an aquatic plant and a fungus that results in a highly nutritious (And flavourless) gel that can be easily repurposed in a multitude of different ways.

** In later editions, it's not just the High Programmers who get to escape this; one of the perks of Red clearance is that you get to eat a ''real apple'' once a month or so, with the promise of more if you continue to be promoted. (Mid-level clearances can also afford to buy some extra real food from the [[BlackMarket Infrared market]].)
* In ''TabletopGame/FengShui'', one of the ''many'' unpleasant things about the dystopia of 2056 (equal parts capitalism gone berserk and Stalinist repression) is the awful vatfood. Side note: protein-based bio-plastics have replaced the petroleum version, and almost everything a person living under the Buro uses is disposable. Meaning the bowl and sporky-thing-that-can't-be-weaponized you eat with might just be better nutrition and flavor than the actual food.
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' setting, 'food' is very easy to come by for inhabitants of [[https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Forge_World Forge Worlds]] and [[https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hive_World Hive Worlds]]... as you can find public food paste dispensers dotted everywhere that seem to be described akin to soap dispensers in bathrooms. This isn't universal, however, as there are also many [[https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Agri-World Agri-Worlds]] that produce natural food.

* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' magic item Murlynd's Spoon is a serving utensil that once a day magically provides enough bland (though a 0th level spell can explicitly alter taste...) gruel of unspecified nature to keep a party of four Medium-sized creatures (or eight Small creatures) fed. The "create food and water" spell does the same thing, with a note that characters who have put skill ranks into cooking can conjure slightly more appetizing dishes. Very few Dungeon Masters require players to keep track of food, though.

** Similar to the above is the Gift: Cooking in ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', which allows its possessor to turn any old trash into mush that is perfectly sustaining but looks and tastes like "warm, wet cardboard." Granted, the Gift belongs to the Bone Gnawers, a tribe composed mostly of homeless and vagrants.
** ''Werewolf's'' Asian supplement, ''Hengeyokai'', includes a variant of that Gift that creates--what else--rice.
* ''TabletopGame/CarWars'' uses processed, flavored algae as its major source of food.
* The ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' setting, with its "fauxflesh" vats, can be either this or {{Veganopia}} depending on how the GM wants to play it, and on what part of the world you're in. Real meat is illegal in the EU, but just expensive (and possibly frowned upon) elsewhere.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' features ''Kibble'', a low-cost mass-produced food that's described as having the same appearance, smell, and flavor as the dog food from which it takes its name, and which only the [[PovertyFood truly destitute]] actually eat. Most people's food is pre-packs, which are usually heavy on soy, mycoprotein, insects, and artificially textured vegetables. Pre-packs vary in quality from food pastes that resemble instant ramen-flavored sealing foam, to "TV dinner"-style meals that can, in a pinch, be confused for something your mom would cook. If you feel like cooking for yourself, you can also get synthetic ingredients, though most people don't bother. "Fresh", a slang term encompassing all forms of naturally grown food (though even "fresh" meat and fish tend to be vat-grown or aquarium-raised) is a thing, but availability and price keep it somewhere between "maybe for an extra-special birthday treat" and "utterly unattainable" for the vast majority of the population.
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' most meat is grown in vats and a lot of food comes out of "makers" (the cheap ones dispensing nutrient pastes). Granted earth is no longer hospitable to transhuman life and most of the survivors live in space habitats, so it's not like there's much room for agriculture.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' there's a spell from the lowest Circle creating manna falling from the sky. It comes in large enough quantities to sustain relatively large groups, and is nutritious and satiating without any ill effects, but has very bland taste and unnatural pink color.
* Discussed briefly in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' where scientists attempted to create food products from whatever artificial starch/protein/fiber substitutes or organic chemistry leftovers they could find as a means to feed the growing sphere of humanity. This was quickly dropped because 1) MultipurposeMonoculturedCrop farming turned out to be an easier solution and 2) people refused to eat the various pseudo-foods they were producing (even in the early ScavengerWorld version of the setting, no one likes seeing the word 'recycled' in an ingredients list).

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' the most common food for normal citizens in the supervillain-ruled Rogue Islands is something called [=NutriPaste=].

* In ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' several foods that can be bought and sold in trade are this trope. The cheapest ones are food cartridges intended to manufacture cheap but nutritious meals in specialized 3D printers. There's also synthetic meat, which is grown in labs without the rest of the animal. Real meat is among the most expensive food items but is also illegal in some systems.

* The Synth Food Paste in the videogame ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' plays this trope in a different way: since its production is mostly artificial, it dealt such a massive hit to the household incomes of farmers from all over the Sirius system that there are several farmer rebellions fighting for their right to grow their own organic crops, whose main target is anything that has to do with Synth Foods, Inc. However, nobody says it's nasty or disgusting, and the closest the game ever gets to a real example of this trope is an article on the in-game news about factory workers from Leeds being fed with livestock-grade Synth Food, supposedly because the pollution ends up destroying their sense of taste. Supplementing the reason why Synth Food Paste is so popular is the fact the plant used to grow it can survive very harsh weather.

* Grob (likely a corruption of "grub") from ''VideoGame/JourneyToTheSavagePlanet'' is a thick purple gel whose description is mostly TechnoBabble, but it's a 100% synthetic food substitute that randomly generates its flavor by way of "mega-morphological re-configurable [[NanoMachines nanoclusters]]." It has approximately ''four trillion'' flavours, although a couple literally taste like [[ToiletHumor shit]] (inevitable when it can taste like pretty much anything based on a roll of a zillion-sided dice, really, but they're damn proud of it for some inexplicable reason). It is noted to be 4th best, so presumably there's more expensive versions that never roll "fecal won-tons." It's also shown in the [[AdvertOverloadedFuture commercial]] to replicate the shape and texture of whatever food it's mimicking, but "Tactical Grob" bait grenades only burst into a purple blot. It also acts as a dangerous mutagen to Space Gerbils.
* Space Goo in ''Lunicus'' is the brand of synthesized food you can get, although since part of the game takes place on a moon base, it's somewhat justified.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', the angara live primarily off a sort of nutrient paste they manufacture. A single fruit can feed one angara, or it can (somehow) be turned into enough nutrient paste to feed ''twenty''. [[spoiler: The revelation late in the game that they're a genetically engineered species makes this suddenly make more sense, as their metabolism and digestive system could have been optimized for the paste]].

* In ''VideoGame/Prey2017'', genetically engineered Eels are used to filter and clean the station's water supply and are also bred as the only source of protein on Talos 1 while doubling as an EasterEgg for the developer Creator/ArkaneStudios. However, much of station's other food is grown naturally in the station's Arboretum and in smaller planters scattered around, or imported from Earth.
** The only thing that's difficult to get ahold of on Talos 1 is meat, so instead, they make do with genetically-engineered plants that have the taste and texture of meat. For example, a common food item is a pack of tomato jerky, made from tomatoes that supposedly taste exactly like Iberian cured ham.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/RobotCity'', you start in an escape pod that can provide food and drinks if the player desires. However, food is delivered through a tube, and drinks are given intravenously - complete with optional artificial flavors. In the titular city itself, the only nourishment its robots know how to make is FoodPills.

--> "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people." -- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"'''

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest 6'', the food dispenser in the crew lounge is named "Mr. Soylent," and even comes with a cheeky advertising jingle, ending with "Soylent Clear: Clearly less people, clearly better taste."

* In ''VideoGame/StarsInShadow,'' the Food Synthesis research allows an Ongoing Project called "Synthesize Food," which temporarily converts industrial production into food production. Said food is specifically noted to not taste very good and is strictly an emergency measure. Its next tier is called "food replicators," which makes the synthetic food taste better but still not as good as honest-to-goodness farmed food.
* In ''Franchise/StarTrek: Kobayashi Alternative'' the Hydroponics and Reclamation Decks are right next to each other. The computer reports on them state that between them they recycle every essential to life about a starship -- water, breathable air, and food. The food may be processed, but the ingredients are all-natural.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}'' basic fast food is [[MatterReplicator made from energy]], although you can also supply organic and mineral-based food supplies.
** Its sequel ''VideoGame/SpacebaseStartopia'' has food either created though energy or food crates, which are harvested from plants. There is sushi, which is made from plants. And molecular food, which is made from plants and medical supplies.Then there is that matter of some of the drinks having less that 5% real liquid in them...
* Becoming a cook in ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxies'' is quite revealing... it shows a side to the Franchise/StarWars universe you never thought of before...

* In the bizarre '90s PC CD-ROM game ''VideoGame/TotalDistortion'', you have a high-tech kitchen that can produce many kinds of custom sandwiches and drinks... that are made from a light-brown substance called Food Goo, sold by the rectangular prism by Taft Foods. As the game reverently sings after every meal, ''yummm-yummm!'' There's a bit of irony to this: the game takes place in a bizarre alternate dimension, but the kitchen and Food Goo come from good, weird old Earth. It's a cheap but effective way to handle shipping costs, the sandwich and drink maker is a state-of-the-art machine that can turn the base nutrients of the food goo to something edible.

* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'':
** [=BoFu=] is a very popular food for the Boron, being cheap and easy to make. It is very delicious to them. However, no other race likes it. It's sort of like the pemmican of the Borons since a single morsel can last them a while.
** The Terrans rely on good-fashioned [=MREs=], Carbocakes, and Vita Kai (a block of concentrated vitamins).

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/AlienDice'', the various alien species subsist on foods developed in labs. Their reaction to foods derived from plants and animals are mixed. Lexx vomits upon discovering the source of milk, saying that only animals should consume it. Riley, however, rather enjoys beer, though due to his BizarreAlienBiology he can't get drunk.
* In one space arc ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' space-arc strip, Arthur asks Guenevere if she's ever wondered why some flavors are named after animals, and she's grossed out by the thought. In another, during Gareth's time incognito in the ''Excalibur'''s galley, she [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/1763.htm makes scrambled eggs]] by literally combining the component chemical compounds together.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Terinu}}'' avoiding "food cube" starship rations is a minor luxury for the crew of the ''Terona''.

** Automatic food dispensers use "nutrifuel" to build food seemingly from nothing. "Soldier grade meatfuel" is when the dispensers ignore taste in order to increase efficiency; it's great fuel for meat, but the only people who will eat it are soldiers, and even then usually only when explicitly ordered to. More common is "people grade meals," which are prettied up and tastier, but cost more time and nutrifuel to make. They come from the exact same dispenser and are built from the exact same recycled biological material. The hopper is kept out of sight so that no one has to see exactly what goes into the dispenser.
* Defied in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''. One of the evil Nofun Corporation's biological projects is vat-grown runny meat that they plot to replace all real meat with by flooding the market. Torg, for whom steak is SeriousBusiness, promptly interrupts his own commando mission to destroy that project immediately.
* ''Webcomic/TwentyFirstCenturyFox'' has [[http://techfox.comicgenesis.com/d/20030613.html SPAM]], genetically engineered tissue culture meat. Note that in this universe practically everything with a nervous system is sentient, meaning that before SPAM carnivores had to kill other people for food, which briefly became illegal in one arc.
* In ''Webcomic/NotAVillain'', the only food Cities supply to Outsiders is a disgusting [[IndestructibleEdible nutrient paste]].
-->'''Kleya:''' Hate that stuff.
-->'''Mae:''' It tastes like they stuck salted dirt in rotting yogurt!
* In ''Webcomic/{{Magience}}'', Rune prefers virtual food because it tastes better.
--> '''Rune:''' The kind of food I can afford in real life is all synthetic. It's “nutritionally optimized” and rarely has any actual ingredients that weren't made in a lab. “Real” food is too expensive.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': While animal products aren't ''completely'' absent within the City -- the last known bastion of humanity after an event known as [[AfterTheEnd "the Collapse,"]] now confined to living under a [[DomedHometown protective dome]] -- the limited space available means there isn't enough room for large-scale livestock operations, and so for most citizens alternatives are necessary. The cartons of milk that show up are specified as being soy milk, for example, and a character at one point uses the expression "real meat on golden platters" in reference to extreme luxury.

* In ''Webcomic/SunsetGrill'' this is considered the norm. So much so that part of the reason the grill is considered low class is that it serves real food as opposed to this. That's also part of the reason why some people come to the grill to eat.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' ARG ''ARG/ILoveBees'' features a scene at a restaurant, where a character gawks at how the menu has ''real'' tuna, instead of what is implied to be this. Further implications of human society relying on this includes a mention of how Customs Agents were bribed with four ''goats''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E19LisasWedding Lisa's Wedding]]" shows a vision of the future which includes a vending machine offering "Soy Pops - now with gag suppressant!"

** There's Soylent Cola for a start - [[{{Pun}} "the taste varies from person to person."]]
** In "40% Iron Chef", Bender and celebrity chef Elzar compete on ''[[Series/IronChef Iron Cook]]'', with the SecretIngredient for their battle being Soylent Green.
** And everything is recycled, including sandwiches made from old discarded sandwiches.
** Then there's the BadFuture when Nixon solves hunger by dumping the crowd turning them into cans of "Soylent Majority".

* [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24825582 This]] B.B.C article on 'note by note cooking', where food is entirely constructed with the basic building blocks of food rather than raw ingredients.

* M.I. Rations in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' consists of a bubblegum-pink, foamy substance (think Strawberry Mousse).

* UsefulNotes/EastGermany had a burgeoning organic chemistry industry, that produced everything that could be produced from carbon and hydrogen atoms from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignite lignite]]. This included diesel, industrial lubricants, kerosene, jet fuel... and margarine.

* The US military is funding a research program aimed at developing practical portable 3D printers that can fabricate food from prepacked pastes for troops on the move by 2015. [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/11/04/361187352/army-eyes-3d-printed-food-for-soldiers See this article]]. And yes, the pioneers of cake icing through 3D printing are a big part of this program.

* In the original ''Literature/TheShipWho'' stories published in the 1960s, [[SapientShips brainships]] have larders stocked with ingredients of undescribed provenance, and kitchens in which they can be cooked. When Creator/AnneMcCaffrey returned to the setting in the 90s with several co-authors, she set those books roughly two hundred years later to cover for the (massive!) changes in technology. Brainships in this era have food synthesizers and can use them to make tempting-smelling dishes in a hurry. In ''The City Who Fought'' a character dining at an expensive restaurant in a SpaceStation reflects on what a treat it is to have so much food of a direct planetary origin, like saffron rice and grilled ribs, which implies synthesized food is the norm.

* The Interim Coalition of Governance and future humanity from the ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'' has two types of food. The first is artificial gruel made from nanomachines by the bulk. consumed by the 'civilised' Coalition The second is reconstituted human corpses and fetus ration packs from degenerate posthumans. Yes, you heard us. ''Fetus ration packs''.