BOOK REVIEWS
HANDBOOK OF CITRUS BY-PRODUCTS AND PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY. Robert J. Braddock. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 (212-850-6569 or 1-800-Call Wiley). ISBN: 0-471-190241. 1999. 211 pp. $89.95
Of the annual U.S. citrus production, approximately 9 million metric tons are processed into juice or concentrate. Since peel, rag, core, and seeds constitute 40–50% of the fruit, some 4 million metric tons of these wastes are generated. The problems inherent in disposal of this waste stream are daunting, but the prospects for recovery of value-added by-products from this vast resource are of equal scale. This small volume does an excellent job of addressing this dichotomy.
Wisely, the order of the contents reverses that of the title, with the first third of the book devoted to processing technology. For a reader not steeped in citrus processing, this section provides a useful grounding in the fruit components and processes yielding various products and by-products. Even for those familiar with the citrus industry, this portion of the book is valuable as an attributable source of industry facts and figures.
The final 11 chapters discuss individual by-products or, in many cases, groups of related products. These range from the primary by-product streams, such as feed pellets, molasses, and limonene, to more speculative bioconversion products, seed products, and flavonoids. Of necessity, the treatments of individual by-products are brief, but the presentation is strengthened by the liberal citation of pertinent literature. For someone seeking a tribute to the nutritional or economic value of esoteric by-products, this volume will be a disappointment. The discussion is pragmatic, and the author points out problems related to extraction or economics. A refreshing novelty for a book of this type was the occasional hint of puckish humor, as in the tongue-in-cheek description of “mystical substances from grapefruit seeds.”
This book is a welcome replacement and expansion of a long-out-of-print bulletin on the subject. It would be useful to anyone in fruit processing; for those in the citrus industry, it will be a standard reference.
Robert A. Baker, Research Leader, Citrus and Subtropical Products Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Winter Haven, Fla.
ANTIOXIDANT FOOD SUPPLEMENTS IN HUMAN HEALTH. Lester Packer, Midori Hiramatsu, and Toshikazu Yoshikawa, eds. Academic Press, Inc., 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495 (619-231-0926; fax 619-699-6380; E-mail: [email protected]). ISBN: 0-12-543590-8. 1999. 511 pp. $99.95
From the tabloids to the Journal of Food Science, the health benefits of antioxidants are extolled. Even those of us who study lipid oxidation have trouble keeping up with the latest claims. Now we have a book that “presents some of the results of this exciting new research” based on papers presented in a symposium in Japan in October 1997. The 32 chapters are subdivided into three sections: “Health Effects of Antioxidant Nutrients,” “Nutrients,” and “Natural Source Antioxidants.” Like most such books, the quality of the chapters varies widely from the very useful to the questionable.
The first chapter, a review of potential prevention of lung cancer with vitamin E supplementation, was the most informative for me. It captured the complexity of the field and the contradictory indications from different studies. The author’s assessment is that there is evidence of a protective effect, but the data are not yet conclusive. Another review later in the book describing the effects of phenolics and flavonoids provided an excellent comparison of the effects of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species. Many of the rest of the chapters reported on very narrow research projects that lacked content. Most disappointing were chapters that failed to realize that a-tocopherol has other antioxidant functions than radical scavenging. Others introduced terms like “biochemoprevention” without convincing linkages between oxidative damage and the disease state. Some chapters, particularly ones on potential protection of pine bark and gingko, provided a mechanistic basis of observed effects that helped clarify the message.
For readers who want a varied collection of research in this emerging area, this book provides a good start. For a comprehensive look at the potential benefits and limitations of antioxidant food supplements, you will need to look elsewhere.
Robert L. Shewfelt, IFT Fellow, Professor, University of Georgia, Athens
BOOKS RECEIVED
Chocolate & Cocoa: Health and Nutrition. Ian Knight, ed. Published by the International Cocoa Association; order from Chocolate Manufacturers Association, 7900 Westpark Drive, Suite A-320, McLean, VA 22102 (703-790-5750; fax 703-790-5752; E-mail: [email protected]). ISBN: 0-632-05415-8. 1999. 342 pp. $110 plus s&h ($95 plus s&h for ACRI members).
Fatty Acids in Foods and Their Health Implications, 2nd ed. Ching Kuang Chow, ed. Marcel Dekker, Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 (212-696-9000; fax 212-685-4540; Web site: www.dekker.com). ISBN: 0-8247-6782-9. 2000. 1,045 pp. No price given.
Food in Global History. Raymond Grew, ed. Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301 (303-444-3541; fax 303-449-3356). ISBN: 0-8133-3624-4. 1999. 292 pp. $69.00.
Forage Seed Production 2: Tropical and Subtropical Species. D.S. Loch and J.E. Ferguson, eds. CABI Publishing, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8DE, United Kingdom (E-mail: [email protected]). Order from Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4314. ISBN: 0-85199-191-2. 1999. 479 pp. $160.00.
High-Dose Irradiation: Wholesomeness of Food Irradiated With Doses Above 10 kGy. (Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Study Group). WHO Technical Series 890. World Health Organization, Marketing and Dissemination, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. Order No. 1100890. ISBN No. 92-4-120890-2. 1999. 197 pp. softcover. Sw.fr. 42; US$37.40.
Microorganisms in Foods 6: Microbial Ecology of Food Commodities. Sponsored by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods of the International Union of Biological Sciences. Published by Blackie Academic & Professional; order from Aspen Publishers, Inc., 7201 McKinney Circle, Frederick, MD 21704. ISBN: 0-7514-0430-6. 1998. 615 pp. $165.00.
The Professional Chef’s Knife Kit. Culinary Institute of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 (212-850-6336, ext. 6904). ISBN: 0-471-34997-6 (softcover). 2000. 150 pp. $34.95.