Issue 1 2010

The food sector and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A 10 year overview

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Adrian J. Charlton, Food and Environment Research Agency, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

For many years, NMR spectroscopy was largely overlooked by the food industry. Maybe this was understandable. The instruments were expensive, the skills required to operate them could at best be described as specialist and there wasn’t a broad understanding of the way in which the technology could be applied within the industry. I joined the Food Science Group at Fera (then the Central Science Laboratory) in 1999. NMR spectroscopy was mainly used for measuring isotopes to check the authenticity of wines and fruit juice, whilst an archaic bench top contraption was used for fat and water measurements.

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Tagged with: Adrian J. Charlton, Analysis & control, Food and Environment Research Agency, Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)

NSF Registration

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Sarah Krol, General Manager, Nonfood Compounds Registration Program, NSF International

The use of food-grade lubricants has revolutionised the food manufacturing process, making it possible to increase productivity, improve food safety and protect metal surfaces from corrosion and wear. They withstand extreme temperatures and can be designed for specialised applications. So what does the future hold for these Titans of the food production process?

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Tagged with: Food Grade Lubricants, NSF International, Processing, Sarah Krol

Dairy Crest: In good shape with consumer focused innovation

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Arthur Reeves, External Affairs Director, Dairy Crest

Three years ago, Dairy Crest, the UK’s leading dairy company, stepped up its commitment to innovation and adopted new strategies aimed at bringing products to market quicker. The start of a new decade is a good time to evaluate whether this increased focus and change of emphasis has been successful.

Dairy Crest owns three of the most successful dairy brands in the UK, Cathedral City (cheese), Clover (dairy spreads) and Country Life (butter). It also supplies approximately one third of the country’s fresh milk through its doorstep delivery service and sales to the major retailers and to smaller food service customers.

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Tagged with: Arthur Reeves, Dairy Crest

Refrigeration and Unilever

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Rene van Gerwen, Global Lead Engineer Refrigeration & HVAC, Engineering Excellence Team (EET), Unilever Global Supply Chain and Jan Krieg, Expertise Team Leader Systems & Process Engineering, Unilever R&D

Unilever is one of the world’s largest FMCG companies, branding, selling and producing food, personal care, cleaning and washing products. The company has a global turnover of more than 40 billion Euros per year (divided equally between the three major regions: Western Europe, the Americas and Africa/Asia/Central-Eastern Europe). Unilever sells products in 150 countries and has more than 400 production facilities in 100 countries.

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Tagged with: Jan Krieg, Rene van Gerwen, Unilever R&D

Advances in hand hygiene: Reducing contamination to food, people and the work environment

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Debra Smith, Research Manager, Food Hygiene Department, Campden BRI

The importance of hand hygiene in the transmission of infection in the medical field has been recognised since Semmelweis’s observations in 1847 that the implementation of hand washing brought about a reduction in the deaths of women from puerperal fever1.

In the food industry, links between food workers and the spread of diseases, including the impact of poor hand hygiene has been well established2,3. Additionally, the food industry has recently acquired a better understanding of the ways by which food products may become contaminated from environmental sources, i.e., via surfaces, air, fluids and people4.

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Tagged with: Campden BRI, Debra Smith, Hygiene, QA/QC

PCR as a molecular method in the food industry

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Luca Cocolin, Paola Dolci & Kalliopi Rantsiou, DIVAPRA, Agricultural Microbiology and Food Technology Sector, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Turin

The presence of pathogens is a serious problem that industries producing foodstuffs have to face on a daily base. Foodborne pathogens can survive during processing or they can come in contact with the product due to recontamination or cross-contamination. Food products that contain pathogens represent a risk for human health since consumption of a contaminated product may lead to disease for the consumer. Consequently, there is a strong need for food industries to have methods for detection that are rapid, sensitive, specific and reliable.

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Tagged with: Kalliopi Rantsiou, Luca Cocolin, Paola Dolci, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), University of Turin

Pasteurisation: Oilseeds, nuts and almonds

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Jürgen Fischer, Member of the Executive Board, Bühler Barth AG

Agronomic foods are often naturally contaminated with harmless and pathogenic microorganisms. In most cases, agronomic goods are freshly processed, or appropriately processed to preserve and increase shelf stability. Common preservation techniques include heat pasteurisation or sterilisation, irradiation, disinfestations with gaseous substances etc. In particular, the two latter techniques are rarely used nowadays due to legal restrictions as well as safety and nutritional concerns.

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Tagged with: Bühler Barth AG, Jürgen Fischer, Pasteurisation

How to convert your processing plant to H1 and HT-1 registered food machinery lubricants

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Peter Bird, Marketing Advisor, Food Industry Machinery Lubricants, ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties

Recalls of food and beverage products due to contamination concerns have risen significantly over the last decade. Considering that recalled products can be devastating to a brand and potentially harmful to consumers, it is not surprising that the U.S. Food Processing 2008 Annual Manufacturing Trends Survey indi­cated that food and beverage processors’ number one concern is food safety, more so than energy, labour issues or environmental concerns.

This trend extends far beyond the United States, impacting regions all around the world. In today’s current global economic climate, food and beverage processors are under more pressure than ever to ensure the safety of their products, protect their brand reputation, enhance their company’s productivity and expand profit margins in the face of tightening economic times.

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Tagged with: ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties, Food Grade Lubricants, Peter Bird, Processing

The implementation of an Advanced Traceability System in a Polish fish processing plant

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Olga Szulecka, Sea Fisheries Institute, Gdynia

At present, food safety is one of the main priorities among European Union policies. The very significant element of food safety is traceability, i.e. “the ability to trace and follow a food, feed, food-producing animal or substance intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution1.”

Article 18 of the main EU legal act in the field of food and feed safety – Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council – requires that “the traceability of food, feed, food-producing animals, and any other substance intended to be, or expected to be, incorporated into a food or feed shall be established at all stages of production, processing and distribution1.”

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Tagged with: Food safety, Gdynia, Olga Szulecka, QA/QC

The challenge of clean label reformulation

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Holly Hughes, Charles Speirs & Sarah Chapman, Campden BRI

With consumers becoming more aware of what is in their diet, there is a growing interest in more ‘natural’ and healthy foods free from additives. The UK food industry is under increased pressure to simplify ingredient lists and remove ‘arti­ficial’ additives from foods. The increasing popularity of the clean label movement within the EU is shown through data obtained by Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD). Between January 2008 and June 2009, the most popular claim made when launching new food and beverages was ‘no additives’ or ‘no preservatives’. This was found on 13,441 products1. In addition, 23 per cent of global food and drinks launches in 2008 featured ‘natural’ or ‘no artificial….’ claims2.

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Tagged with: Campden BRI, Charles Speirs, Holly Hughes, Ingredients, Processing, Sarah Chapman

Cloning: What’s the beef?

Issue 1 2010 / 22 February 2010 / Chris Cattini, Senior Scientific Officer, IFIS Publishing

The International Food Information Service (IFIS) produces the FSTA – Food Science and Technology Abstracts® database, a resource specifically developed for the food industry. The database offers unparalleled access to a broad range of food science and technology information relating to every aspect of the food chain, including all the major food commodities plus biotechnology, microbiology, food safety, additives, nutrition, packaging and pet foods.

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Tagged with: Chris Cattini, IFIS Publishing, Processing