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Issue 2 2009
1 June 2010
The drive to maximise the storage and display lives of perishable foods has led to increasing interest in holding foods in the region between their freezing point and -12°C. This is a grey area in terms of much international legislation, since food is not usually considered fully ‘frozen' until it is below -12°C and only considered ‘chilled' above its freezing point. There is also a confusion of terms used to describe the states of foods and processes in this temperature region. The terms ‘super-chilled', ‘deep-chilled', ‘ultra-chilled' or ‘partially-frozen' are often used for foods held in this temperature region; the Japanese also use the term ‘Hyo-on'.
1 June 2009
Microbial analysis in foods is an integrated part of management of microbial safety in the food chain. Both competent authorities and individual food business operators use microbial analysis for monitoring of the actual situation and trend analysis in order to detect emerging risks. For compliance testing to defined microbiological criteria or assessment of the performance of management strategies based upon HACCP, microbial analysis is also a valuable tool. Molecular techniques, especially the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are one of the most important rapid methods for the sensitive and specific detection of pathogenic micro-organisms.
1 June 2009
In the first of a two part series interview, Helen Difford, New Food, speaks with Ian Davidson of Exxon Mobil Lubricants & Petroleum Specialities about the company’s current role in the food industry.
1 June 2009
Fats are present in most food products and they have a significant importance for fat-containing products such as chocolate and butter. The physical properties of fats depend on the polymorphic behaviour and inter-solubility of their major triacylglycerol components and the phase behaviour of these mixtures is of paramount importance for the food industry. Indeed, fat structures formed by their crystals determine the functional properties of fat-containing products such as their texture, plasticity and morphology. DSC and XRD are the two techniques generally used to characterise fats. Crystal size is another important parameter for determining the physical properties of fats because it affects the rheological properties and consequently modifies taste, graininess and texture.
1 June 2009
Consumer expectations of product quality for food emulsions drive the industry to continuously invest in new production methods. Membrane emulsification (ME) has been known for many years and its potential is emphasised in numerous scientific publications. ME is said to ensure highly controlled production of particulates and be a more energy efficient process than conventional methods. Scientific developments in this area cover the production of oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions to multiple emulsions of different types, solid-in-oil-in-water (S/O/W) dispersions, coherent solids (silica particles, solid lipid microspheres) and structured solids (solid lipid microcarriers, gel microbeads).
1 June 2009
Pasta is apparently a very simple food, with one ingredient: semolina of durum wheat and one reactant: water. In its native state, the ingredient has two main constituents, which are proteins and starch. The reactant, together with mechanical and thermal energy, is necessary to modify their structure to obtain the final configuration. In Figure 1, a dried spaghetti section, the starch granules and the protein net formed are clearly recognisable.
1 June 2009
For food processing applications, ohmic heating may be defined as a process where an electric current is passed through the food with the main purpose of heating it. Under these circumstances, heat is internally generated due to the food's electrical resistance1 and this simple fact is responsible for the particular characteristics of this technology.
1 June 2009
The launch in September 2005 of the ISO 22000 series, developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 34, Food products, signalled the arrival of a truly global option for ensuring safe food supply chains. This article gives a technical overview of the different standards in the series and how they can be put to use.
1 June 2009
Some of you may have read details of the standard ISO 21469 which covers ‘Safety of Machinery - Lubricants with Incidental Product Contact - Hygiene requirements,' and may wonder why the food industry or the lubricants industry need yet another standard to which they should adhere.
1 June 2009
Application of thermal heat in today's industrial scale food production and preservation is still the most commonly used processing technique, yet thermal treatment of foods affects their physical and chemical properties severely, which is often not intended but inevitable in order for sufficient preservation. Usually, sensorial appearance (colour, flavour, structure) and nutritional value undergo significant changes due to distinct heat sensitivity of the majority of raw materials.
1 June 2009
The process technology landscape in the chocolate industry has changed markedly over the last decade. Following the key business trends, research and development in most organisations has incorporated all the key ‘buzzwords', with focus given to terms such as efficiency, speed, low cost, flexibility, trade secrets, patentability, open innovation and so on. The sharp minded amongst the readers will have noticed that some of the keywords are, in fact, exact opposites. Efficiency and flexibility seem impossible to combine and secrecy seems to be the antithesis of open innovation.
1 June 2009
Increasing interest by consumers, producers and retailers in food safety, supported by several regulations of the European Commission (e.g. EC-regulation 178/2002; EC-2073/2005 amended by EC-regulation 1441/2007), gives accurate shelf-life determination of products a new consequence. Although there is rapid progress in food processing and new concepts such as predictive microbiology have found practical applications, differences between the predicted and actual shelf-life have to be noted. The reasons may be related to the wide range of reactions which cause food spoilage. According to EC-regulation 178/2002 (article 14, 2b, 5), spoiled products have to be considered as unsafe and as unfit for human consumption. In that case, food shall not be placed on the market.
1 June 2009
Moulding and demoulding is a processing operation commonly used in the manufacturing of candy and confectionary products for two main purposes: setting and shaping/forming. During moulding, a food material in the form of either flowable fluid (such as a melted sugar solution, a melted gel, etc) or semi-solid (such as biscuit dough) is poured or pressed into the mould. For a semi-solid food, product shaping and formation into a desired geometry is probably the main purpose.
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