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High-pressure – meat processing and milk gels

20 February 2009 | By Professor Vibeke Orlien, Associate Professor Food Chemistry, University of Copenhagen

Consumers prefer food products, convenience products and ready-to-eat meals to have the taste of being freshly made. Moreover, it must be nutritious, safe, of high quality and originate from sustainable production. High-pressure (HP) technology can be utilised to its full potential as a minimal processing method to address consumers preferences…

Light waves and food products in display cabinets

20 February 2009 | By Hanne Larsen & Annette Veberg Dahl, Research Scientists, Nofima Mat AS

The consumers want to see the product they are purchasing. The shops use special lighting in order to sell more, at the same time as prolonging the opening hours. The price the consumer pays for the combination of increased light exposure and the desire to see food products is that…

Challenges to processing non-traditional pastas

20 February 2009 | By Frank A. Manthey, Associate Professor, Durum Wheat Quality/Pasta Processing Laboratory, North Dakota State University and Gurleen K. Sandhu, Graduate Research Assistant, Durum Wheat Quality/Pasta Processing Laboratory, North Dakota State University

Traditional pasta is made from semolina and water. Its simplicity in composition has made it an inexpensive meal that is familiar to many people worldwide. The milling of durum wheat into semolina removes the bran and germ which are rich in dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. To offset the loss…

LC-MS/MS based quantitative methods for multiple mycotoxins in food

20 February 2009 | By Michael Sulyok, Rainer Schuhmacher & Rudolf Krska, Centre for Analytical Chemistry, Department for Agrobiotechnology, IFA Tulln, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna

Since the introduction of atmospheric pressure ionisation liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (API-LC-MS) in the early 1990s, there was a continuous effort to further improve the performance of the LC-MS instruments concerning sensitivity and robustness. One result of this development is the trend towards methods that are designed to simultaneously analyse a…

Training, education and capacity building in food and water safety and in nutrition

20 February 2009 | By Leon Gorris, Senior Scientist Risk Assessment, Unilever and Yasmine Motarjemi, Corporate Food Safety Manager, Nestlé

This paper argues the case for increased awareness of the importance of training and competence in management of food and water safety, prevention of food-borne and waterborne illnesses and improvement of health and nutritional status. The challenge is huge as almost everyone needs to receive education commensurate with his or…

Quick scan of hygienic processing brings understanding and improvements

20 February 2009 | By Erik Hoornstra & Jacques Kastelein, TNO Quality of Life

Hygiene is a key focal area among food industry companies. At a time when producers are beset by a whole range of issues, this area demands investment. Ideally, the required level of hygiene should be adjusted in respect to the other requirements in the area of product quality and preservation.…

Proteins: a source of clean label ingredients

20 February 2009 | By Fred van de Velde & Arno Alting, Project Managers Ingredient Technology, NIZO food research

Consumer awareness of additives drives the industry to launch natural and/or clean label products. Products without added flavours and colourings or with only natural flavours and colours are well known in the market. However, further cleaning of the product label is thorough as it focuses on functional additives and texturising…

Non-target multicomponent analytical surveillance of food contact materials

20 February 2009 | By William D. van Dongen, Leon Coulier, Leo van Stee & Sander Koster, Analytical Research Department, TNO Quality of Life

Small organic molecules migrating from packaging or other food contact materials (FCM) may result in unwanted changes of the composition of the food. These molecules can be the ‘usual suspects', i.e. starting materials (non-reacted monomers) and additives but also by-products, reaction products, impurities, degradation products of additives and conjugation products,…

Pasta processing and nutrition

18 December 2008 | By Carlo Cannella, Professor, Department of Medical Physiopathology – Food Science & Nutrition Unit, ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome

Pasta has ancient roots that go back approximately 7,000 years to when humankind abandoned his nomadic lifestyle, started to cultivate the land and learned how to process grain. For many years, Marco Polo was credited with introducing pasta to Italy after his voyages in China, but several written documents deny…

Yeast forensics: methods for identification and tracking

3 December 2008 | By Dr Suzanne Jordan, ­Molecular Methods Manager, Campden BRI

Yeasts are a diverse range of organisms, many of which are beneficial to the food and drinks industry in fermentation and the flavour development of dairy, meat and beverage products. There are also strains that spoil products, resulting either in blowing packs or off odours and flavours.

New analytical approaches to investigate the fate of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) in foods

3 December 2008 | By Leon Coulier & William van Dongen, TNO Quality of Life and Emma Bradley & Laurence Castle Central Science Laboratory, York

Many new developments in analytical chemistry are driven by needs for life science applications. Examples are the various –omics technologies, i.e. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics and the use of isotope labelling. Food analysis is often thought to be less complex when one thinks of the determination of specific contaminants…

Food safety: no room for complacency

3 December 2008 | By Professor Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health, University College Dublin

In the 1990s, a chronology of food scares, culminating in BSE, damaged consumer confidence in the safety of food, in the commitment of industry to produce safe food and in the ability of the regulatory agencies to police the food chain. These scares precipitated a review by many EU Member…

Food grade lubricants and the ELGI – NLGI

3 December 2008 | By Anuj Mistry, TLP Development Manager, Bel-Ray Company, Inc. and Chairman of ELGI- NLGI Food Grade Lubricants Working Group

Lubricants to be used in the production, processing, packaging and distribution of food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and any other ‘clean’ products may be registered as meeting certain criteria that make them safe for use in these industries. A lubricant qualifies as food grade when, in the event of…

Steel: an enabler for sustainability

3 December 2008 | By The Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging

Sustainability has risen swiftly up the world agenda in recent years. Consumers, governments and the industry recognise that we must look to reduce our global footprint in every area of our lives. As the world demands solutions for a sustainable future, the sustainability performance of steel for packaging can provide…

Sustainable agriculture at Unilever

3 December 2008 | By David Pendlington, Sustainable Agriculture Programme Coordinator, Unilever

Sustainability has become increasingly important to Unilever, especially our food business – which includes brands such as Knorr, Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It is a core element in our Vitality Framework, which sets out how the company plans to achieve our mission of adding vitality to life…