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"The permanent government now is the anchorpeople. They don't get elected, and year after year they're responding emotionally to this or that."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Concentro  
  Concentrated synthetic food rations.  

When gathering dusk made jumping too dangerous, we sought a comfortable spot beneath the trees and consumed part of our emergency rations. It was the first time I had tasted the stuff--a highly nutritive synthetic substance called "concentro," which was, however, a bit bitter and unpalatable. But as only a mouthful or so was needed, it did not matter.
Technovelgy from Armageddon: 2419 A.D., by Philip Frances Nowlan.
Published by Amazing Stories in 1928
Additional resources -

Human beings have always sought to produce concentrated food sources for traveling or hunting. However, this is a very early mention of the idea of a synthetic nutritional substance.

Compare to the compact food pastilles from The Senator's Daughter (1879) by Edward Page Mitchell, nutritious pellets from Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999 (1899) by Arthur Bird, food tablets from John Jone's Dollar (1915) by H.S. Keeler, wine pellets from Redmask of the Outlands (1934) by Nat Schachner and dainties from Prelude to Foundation (1988) by Isaac Asimov.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Armageddon: 2419 A.D.
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip Frances Nowlan
  Tech news articles related to Armageddon: 2419 A.D.
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip Frances Nowlan

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NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge!

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