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Foreign body complaints in the food and drink industry

26 April 2013 | By Mike Edwards, Microscopy Section, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Campden BRI and EHEDG affiliate

Foreign bodies form the biggest single cause of consumer complaints received by many food and drink manufacturers, retailers and enforcement authorities. The accidental inclusion of unwanted items may sometimes occur in even the bestmanaged processes. Foreign bodies in foods are therefore quite rightly a matter of concern to all food…

Pork quality and carcass chilling

26 April 2013 | By Lars Kristensen, Section Manager, Danish Meat Research Institute

Chilling of hot carcasses is an important process in the meat production chain, and the rate of chilling especially has a major impact on meat quality, chill loss, shelf-life and microbial safety. The carcass temperature just before chilling is normally in the range of 39 – 40°C, and the goal…

Can we prevent another horsemeat scandal?

26 April 2013 | By Helen Bahia

Food fraud on an international scale is a reality – current preventive measures are not working and new techniques and tools are needed to address the problem, say experts. The recent revelation of large-scale and criminal food fraud involving the adulteration of processed meat products with horsemeat has cost the…

Juiciness enhances the perceived saltiness of meat products

26 April 2013 | By Fred van de Velde and Marijke Adamse, TI Food & Nutrition & NIZO food research

Meat products, including sausages and processed meats, are among the top three product categories that contribute to the high salt intake in the modern Western diet. Within the framework of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition (TIFN), researchers at NIZO food research has developed a strategy for reducing salt by…

Show preview: IFFA 2013

26 April 2013 | By Helen Bahia

Around 950 exhibitors from 47 countries will present their innovations at IFFA – The number one event for the meat industry – in Frankfurt am Main from 4 to 9 May 2013. With new products covering the entire process chain, they will occupy 110,000 square metres of exhibition space, an…

PAT in large-scale dairy processing

26 April 2013 | By Tristan Hunter, Technical Manager – Strategy, Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd

Open any magazine aimed at the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and there are regular references to Process Analytical Technology (PAT). There has been a significant focus on this area ever since publication of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report in 20041 encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to adopt PAT. Touted…

New perspectives from consumer and sensory sciences

26 April 2013 | By Nathalie Martin, Consumer and Sensory Science Group, Nestlé Research Center

Sensory and consumer sciences have evolved quite a lot over the past decade. Our ambition during this period has been to pioneer some of these changes to fully incorporate the challenge of better understanding the drivers of food pleasure, intake and satisfaction. Some of these changes are very close to…

Show preview: Total Processing & Packaging Exhibition 2013

26 April 2013 | By Helen Bahia

This year’s Total Processing & Packaging Exhibition takes place against a tough backdrop for the industry. Manufacturing output fell by three per cent in the year to March 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics. On top of that, the manufacturing industry is suffering a degree of collateral damage…

The new frontier in foodomics: the perspective of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

26 April 2013 | By Francesco Capozzi, Foodomics Laboratory, Department of Agro-Food Science and Technology, University of Bologna

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an investigation technique to study matter. It is based on the properties of magnetically active nuclei, which respond to a perturbation induced in a sample by applying a radio wave pulse. The nuclei, if immersed in an intense magnetic field, respond to the pulse…

Flavours: When performance and packaging are no longer compatible

26 April 2013 | By Martina Lapierre, Flavour Technologist, PepsiCo

“The sensory threshold for difference detection can be considered to occur when there is a 30 per cent decrease in the concentration of a flavourant”. Flavourings are concentrated aroma chemical systems used in food and beverage formulations and as such are important in the provision of aroma and taste. Their…

Show preview: Vitafoods Europe 2013

26 April 2013 | By Helen Bahia

Nutraceutical products are big business. Despite the tough economic climate and unstable raw material costs, the nutraceutical industry has shown resilience with the Freedonia Group predicting the sector will grow at 7.2 per cent annually until at least 2015.

How novel technologies can help you to use clean label colours

26 April 2013 | By Colette Jermann, Department of Food Manufacturing Technologies, Campden BRI

The trend for clean label products has been growing since the 1980s. In 2007, the well-known University of Southampton study linked certain artificial colours (tartrazine, quinoline yellow, sunset yellow, carmoisine, ponceau 4R and allura red) and the preservative benzoate to hyperactivity and attention deficit disorders in children. Since then, interest…

Food allergens: identifying thresholds and assessing the risk to consumers

26 April 2013 | By René Crevel, Science Leader, Unilever Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre

Food allergies have long been known as a clinical phenomenon, with welldocumented case studies as far back as the 1920s. Their recognition as a food safety issue only arose in the 1990s partly in the wake of the remarkable increase in prevalence of general allergic diseases. In order to protect…

The complexity of coffee processing

26 April 2013 | By Moreno Faina

Coffee roasting, at first glance, appears to be a simple process: applying heat to raw coffee beans. It is important to generate and control the correct temperatures at the right time, and then stop the process when the colour of the coffee is homogenous throughout the whole bean and the…