NEWS
New food aid ration debuts
After several years of work to improve food blends for emergency aid meals, scientists with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) have developed a nutritionally fortified, fully cooked corn–soy product that overcomes spoilage problems associated with uncooked and partially cooked products.
The challenges of using fortified uncooked or partially cooked corn, soy, and wheat blends are that the fats can go rancid and fine particles and vitamins and minerals can separate and settle. The team of ARS food technologists led by Charles Onwulata developed the new food aid ration, called instant corn soy blend (ICSB), using the same equipment that produces puffed snacks and cereals. The corn–soy meal, vitamin premix, and mineral premix are cooked for a short time under high heat and high pressure and then move through a twin-screw extruder to produce a fully cooked, expanded, and textured product that is crushed and milled to size to form the ICSB. The user then mixes the ground ICSB with water. One advantage is that the nutrients and oils are evenly distributed through the product, reported Onwulata.
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service-administered McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program may soon purchase ICSB for feeding children and others as part of its food aid humanitarian efforts.
Keeping produce safe
Harmful bacteria like Salmonella and Escherichia coli can live inside plant tissues so sanitizing the outside of produce may not be enough to remove them, according to researchers at Purdue University.
Scientists have faced challenges when detecting pathogens in plant tissues because the tests require slicing off pieces of the plants, which can actually move bacteria from the outside to the inside of the tissue or from the inside to the outside. The Purdue researchers froze the location of the bacteria in the plant tissues with a fixative before slicing the samples and then used antibodies labeled with fluorescent dye to detect the bacteria. The results showed that E. coli O157:H7 was present in tissues of mung bean sprouts and Salmonella was present in peanut seedlings after the plants’ seeds were contaminated with the pathogens prior to planting. Cooking produce to temperatures known to kill the bacteria would eliminate them from the tissues, according to the researchers.
Quickly detecting microbes
The food production chain is more complex than ever, and this makes it all the more difficult to determine the cause of food spoilage or contamination quickly. Norwegian researchers have developed a method of identifying contamination sources that they claim is faster and more economical to use.
The researchers from Nofima Mat and Elopak used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to detect microorganism like bacteria, yeasts, and molds in finished products and trace them back to the steps in the production process. They took spectral readings of various microbes collected from a variety of foods. Each microbe has its own unique spectral profile, which the researcher said is like a fingerprint used for identification. The database contains approximately 20,000 spectral profiles.
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Coriander oil breaks cell membrane
Coriander oil may help to prevent foodborne illness by breaking down the cell membranes of some foodborne bacteria, causing the cells to die, according to a Journal of Medical Microbiology study.
The researchers from the University of Beira Interior in Portugal applied different concentrations of coriander oil to 12 bacterial strains, including foodborne ones like Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, and Bacillus cereus. While the coriander oil was more effective against Gram-negative bacteria than Gram-positive bacteria, it still was effective at levels of 1.6% or less at inhibiting the growth of or killing most of the bacterial strains tested. In investigating the effect of coriander oil on cellular functions, the researchers learned that coriander oil damages cell membranes and as a result of that damage, cellular functions such as efflux activity, respiratory activity, and membrane potential are compromised, leading to cell death.
The study, “Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) Essential Oil: Its Antibacterial Activity and Mode of Action Evaluated by Flow Cytometry,” appeared online early in Journal of Medical Microbiology, doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.034157-0.
Spicy kick enriches health benefits
Pairing fresh broccoli with certain spicy foods increases the cancer-fighting power of both foods, according to researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
The researchers suggest eating spicy foods like mustard, horseradish, and wasabi that contain myrosinase, an enzyme that helps to form the cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane and ensures that the compounds are absorbed in the upper part of the digestive system to provide the maximum health benefits.
Improving food packaging
A certain combination of biodegradable compounds and silica nanoparticles produced an edible film with improved mechanical properties and may be used to reduce plastics in food packaging, reported researchers from Purdue University and University of Sassari, Italy.
The researchers tested films made with combinations of chitosan and methylcellulose (chitosan: methylcellulose 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 30:70, 20:80, 10:90, and 0:100) + 1% or 2% w/v silica nanoparticles. They found that the mechanical properties of films made with a 50:50 ratio of chitosan:methylcellose and 1% silica nanoparticles performed the best and that film solubility increased with the addition of methylcellulose. The results also showed that the addition of the nanoparticles resulted in films with high tenacity, elasticity, and homogeneity.
The study, “Innovative Composite Films of Chitosan, Methylcellulose, and Nanoparticles,” appeared online early in Journal of Food Science, doi: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2011.02295.x.
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Analyzing cocoa aroma compounds
The volatile compounds that make up the aroma of roasted cocoa beans are not what you think. They individually smell like potato chips, cooked meat, peaches, raw beef fat, cooked cabbage, cucumber, honey, and many other un-cocoa–like aromas, according to researchers with Technical University of Munich, Germany.
“To develop better chocolate, you need to know the chemistry behind the aroma and taste substances in cocoa and other ingredients,” said Peter Schieberle, a professor at the university. “That understanding must begin with the flavor substances in the raw cocoa bean, extend through all the processing steps, and continue as the consumer eats the chocolate.”
Chocolate flavor forms and changes throughout the processing of chocolate, with odorless, tasteless “precursors” forming during fermentation and then reacting during roasting to form taste and aroma compounds, reported the researchers. They said that the findings could help manufacturers improve the flavor of chocolate by assessing the compounds.
The research was presented at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
What’s new with food companies
• Ag-West Bio has launched a new website at www.agwest.sk.ca.
• Algatechnologies will increase production capacity of its AstaPure™ brand astaxanthin.
• Biovelop has named Brenntag North America the distributor of its PromOat™ beta glucan.
• Beech-Nut Nutrition’s facility in Amsterdam, N.Y., has received LEED® Green Building Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
• C.W. Brabender® Instruments Inc. has named Intelligent Sensor Technology Inc. as its sales representative in North America, Central America, and South America for the Taste Sensing System TS-5000Z.
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• The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has given the Dairy Research Institute a Conservation Innovation Grant to support its environmental stewardship initiatives.
• Firmenich has opened its Innovation Center in Grasse, France.
• Fuchs North America processing facility in Baltimore, Md., has received organic certification.
• Leprino Foods has given California Polytechnic State University’s Dairy Science Dept. a grant to support an endowed faculty position, cover costs to remodel laboratories, and provide for a new master’s degree program.
• SensoryEffects International and Abelei Flavors have formed a strategic sales agreement.
• Stratum Nutrition and CK Nutritional Ingredients have partnered to distribute Artinia™ fiber in Canada.
• Viterra has acquired Premier Pulses International.
• Wornick Foods has announced plans to reduce its water usage during retort processing.
Karen Nachay ,
Associate Editor
[email protected]