BOOK REVIEWS

ANIMAL BY-PRODUCT PROCESSING & UTILIZATION. H.W. Ockerman and C.L. Hansen. Technomic Publishing Co., Inc., P.O. Box 3535, 851 New Holland Ave., Lancaster, PA 17604-9961 (call 800-233-9936 or 717-291-5609; fax 717-295-4538; E-mail: [email protected]). ISBN: 1-56676-777-6. 2000. 523 pp. No price given.

It is challenging, at best, to write a book about an industry for which there is limited published scientific information. Although the current book is not technically considered a second edition, it is actually an updated version of an out-of-print 1988 publication entitled Animal By-Product Processing by the same authors. The current and former volume share the same 13 chapter titles, with the introductory chapter being the only exception. The updated book provides an excellent listing of subtitle headings for each chapter that will facilitate locating information quickly.

Opening with a history and introduction to animal by-product processing, the book then shifts into descriptions of edible and inedible by-products, concluding with animal processing waste disposal, reduction, and utilization. Among the new additions are brief descriptions on bovine spongiform encephalopathy, pork jowls, gelatin, and glue from chrome-tanned leather by-products, glycosaminoglycans, hypothalamus, trachea, quality control of casings, casing failure, nutritional aspects of blood, composting fish, and catabolism of organic materials. New tables describing a summary of tanning, U.S. regulations, history, equipment, and nutrient and chemical composition of mechanically separated meat, microbiology of hog and sheep intestines, chemical analysis of casings, pet food sales and composition examples, fish gelatin index, amino acid composition of gelatin, and composition of stabilized poultry fat are provided. While many of the original figures found in the 1988 volume are printed in the updated version, the visual clarity and sharpness of the figures were lost.

As an overview and general reference to animal by-product processing and use, this book will prove useful provided you do not already have the 1988 edition. For more specific, detailed information, you may need to refer to other resources.

Elizabeth A.E. Boyle, Associate Professor, Kansas State University, Manhatttan

CHROMATOGRAPHY IN FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. Tibor Cserháti and Esther Forgács. Technomic Publishing Co., Inc., P.O. Box 3535, 851 New Holland Ave., Lancaster, PA 17604-9961 (call 800-233-9936 or 717-291-5609; fax 717-295-4538; E-mail: [email protected]). ISBN: 1-56676-749-0. 1999. 552 pp. $189.95.

Applications of chromatography for food science and technology is the subject of this book compiled by two researchers from Hungary. It includes a very brief summary of the theory of gas chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, and high-performance liquid chromatography. The majority of the book is examples of these chromatography techniques applied to food macrocomponents (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins) and food microcomponents (vitamins, aroma and flavor compounds, pigments, food additives). The inclusion of capillary electrophoresis theory and applications in the book is not made obvious by the title, nor is the justification for inclusion made clear to the reader. The book includes numerous reprinted chromatograms and tables as examples of applications and data obtainable. However, in some cases they seem to be used excessively or could have been combined for ease of comparison.

While the book is a useful compilation of applications through 1996, it would be more useful to the reader if it included more summary, interpretation, and critical discussions of the applications reported. Also, the lack of a complete table of contents and an adequate index makes the book difficult to use—for example, some important terms are not included and page listings are not complete for some terms. Even with such shortcomings, this book would be useful for a researcher or analytical chemist to study before selecting specific conditions for analysis of food components by chromatographic methods.

S. Suzanne Nielsen, IFT Fellow, Dept. of Food Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.

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