Analysis & control - Articles and news items

Analysing barley to beer chain

Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Jari Rautio, Reetta Satokari, Kari Kataja,Anne Huuskonen, Heikki Vuokko,Arja Laitila,Annika Wilhelmson, Silja Home, Hans Söderlund and John Londesborough,VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

VTT’s novel TRAC system is a rapid, accurate and economic method to quantitate specific messenger RNA molecules and other gene transcripts. In the barley-beer chain, it can be used to characterise yeast condition, to monitor fermentation and malting and to measure the levels of harmful and beneficial microorganisms through the whole process by analysing critical transcripts of yeast, barley and grain microflora.The knowledge can be used to control current processes and as an aid for designing new, improved processes.

Yeast must change during fermentations

The familiar and ancient fermentation of wort to beer is a complex process, in which yeast must adapt to sequential changes in carbon (glucose, maltose, maltotriose) and nitrogen sources; to depletion of essential nutrients (including oxygen) and to a variety of stresses, such as increasing levels of ethanol and sudden re-exposure to oxygen when yeast cropped from one fermentation is pitched into the next. Many changes in gene expression are expected as yeast struggles to adjust to its constantly changing environment. Quantitative knowledge about how transcription profiles change during the process offers the possibilities of modifying process conditions rationally in accord with yeast behaviour and routinely monitoring yeast condition in the factory.

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Creating an atmosphere for food

Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Sabine Paulussen and Dirk Vangeneugden, Materials Technology Department, Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Belgium

The use of polymer films for food packaging has drastically increased during the course of several decades. However, the specifications demanded for these polymer films have increased simultaneously, as well as the pressure surrounding environmental impact and production cost.Today, one of the key challenges is the development of food packaging materials that extend the shelf-life of their content and in doing so improve food safety.

The packaging industry faces a challenge from the evergrowing demands of consumers, who want foods to remain fresher for longer, as well as being easy to handle, safe, healthy and packaged in environmentally-friendly materials. To meet the need for ready meals and convenience foods without compromising freshness and quality, food packaging is becoming more active.

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Predicting fat and quality of meat

Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Marjeta Candek-Potokar,Agricultural Institute of Slovenia

Use of near infrared (NIR) spectrum as an analytical tool has been established for some time, however it became popular only after the invention of high performance spectrophotometers associated with multivariate data analysis.Today NIR spectroscopy is also widely and successfully used in food analysis. First attempts to use NIR spectroscopy for meat analysis date back more than forty years, but the majority of research work has been carried out in the past decade.

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Innovative uses of NIR to improve baking

Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 21 November 2005 / Dr. Richard Dempster, American Institute of Baking

Near Infrared Reflection (NIR) is an established and valid measurement method for many specific compounds, (moisture, protein, fat, etc.) within the food industry. Recently, two ideas have emerged from the American Institute of Baking (AIB). The first is to use NIR to monitor processes and the second is to use NIR to predict the performance of flour in the bakery. This article will focus on how AIB is developing an NIR prototype to follow and/or predict dough development.

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Bran, bread and bubbles

Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 21 November 2005 / Grant M Campbell, Satake Centre for Grain Process Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester

The greatest challenges facing the domestic chef or his/her industrial counterpart frequently concern the creation, retention and control of aerated structures in foods. Many food products – and most of the more high profile and attractive ones – derive their distinction and appeal from the incorporation and manipulation of bubbles: soufflé, champagne, ice cream, meringue – the list is, if not endless, certainly extensive!

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Why is microstructure important in food systems?

Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 21 November 2005 / Peter Edmondson, Cadbury Trebor Bassett Ltd

Traditionally the food industry’s aim has always been to produce safe, convenient, good quality foods in sufficient volume to feed a growing and prosperous population. In the past food processes have been designed using practical experience. This has involved the culmination of the knowledge of product quality requirements, such as throughput and moisture content and processing costs, which have been used to select the most appropriate equipment commercially available.

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Detecting Salmonella antibodies in pork

Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 21 November 2005 / René Achterberg, Judith Maneschijn-Bonsing, Rinus Bloemraad, Manon Swanenburg and Kitty Maassen, Animal Sciences Group, Lelystad, The Netherlands

Programs for monitoring Salmonella in the pork production chain have begun in several European countries. For an assay to be used in a monitoring program, it is a prerequisite that the total testing time per sample is short and that regeneration is optimal. In collaboration with a major pork producer in The Netherlands, a pilot study for herd screening was conducted to compare the performance of two immunoassays for the detection of antibodies directed to Salmonella sero-groups B and D in porcine sera in a routine setting.

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Where is the nut oil in chocolate?

Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 29 July 2005 / Greg Ziegler and Kristin Szlachetka,Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Research Group, Department of Food Science, Penn State University

Oil migration is responsible for the poor keeping qualities of many composite confectionery products with nut-based centres, coated biscuits, or nut inclusions. Quality defects arising from oil migration include softening of the coating; hardening of the filling; deterioration in sensory quality and a greater tendency to fat bloom. For this reason, oil migration has been extensively studied (see references), most recently by magnetic resonance. Even with all the recent attention paid to the topic, confusion regarding its origins and control still exists.

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Evaluating chocolate blends

Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 3 May 2005 / S.J. Millar and A.G. Hall, Baking and Cereals Processing Department, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association

Chocolate is widely appreciated globally as a luxury food. Although its introduction to Europe and the rest of the world occurred some 500 years ago, the cocoa bean had been recognised as a highly significant plant in South America for thousands of years prior to that – having been cultivated by the Aztecs.

So prized was their drink (chocolatl, derived from the bean) that it was referred to as ‘the food of the gods’ in their mythology. In turn, this was clearly an influence many years later when the genus, of which the cacao species is a part, was named Theobroma – a derivation of the Greek words for God (Theos) and food (broma) (Russell Cook, 1963).

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The benefits of automated pathogen testing

Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 3 May 2005 / Eric Maucci, Food Hygiene Technical Manager, Laboratoire Inter-Départemental des Analyses Laitières (LIDAL)

Renowned for its ‘postcard’ lake-side setting surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the beautiful French town of Annecy is perhaps less well known as the home of famous regional raw cows’ milk cheeses, such as Reblochon and Tomme. Controlling the quality of these cheeses and the raw milk used to produce them, is the daily task of the Annecy-based reference laboratory, LIDAL.

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LC-MS/MS for safer seafood

Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 3 May 2005 / Kevin J. James, Mary Lehane, Brett Hamilton, Ambrose Furey, PROTEOBIO, Mass Spectrometry Centre for Proteomics and Biotoxin Research, Department of Chemistry, Cork Institute of Technology

Toxin contamination has forever been the curse on shellfish production worldwide. Dr Kevin J. James demonstrates how new technology can protect the health of shellfish lovers.

PROTEOBIO is at the forefront of food-borne biotoxin research in Europe and specialises in the development of novel methods to address the complex questions affecting food safety. The technologies used at PROTEOBIO to investigate biotoxins include liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), incorporating nanotechnologies, to seek solutions to problems related to trace contamination of foods by potent bioactive compounds that can seriously impact on human health. Some of the key activities and interests pursued at PROTEOBIO are summarised in Figure 1. The theme of this article however, is the centre’s approach to the investigation of toxins in edible bivalve molluscs, including mussels, scallops and oysters.

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What’s inside cheese?

Issue 1 2005, Past issues / 31 January 2005 / Dr Gerard Downey, TEAGASC, The National Food Centre, Ireland

NIR is widely used in food analysis with application to many sectors. In this article Gerry Downey addresses its value to the dairy industry.

The dairy industry is of enormous financial significance in Ireland and many other European countries and it is currently undergoing a period of large scale rationalisation into many fewer but larger production units. Concomitant decreases in employment numbers exerts pressure on the manufacturing operations to maintain high levels of quality in the wide array of products that the industry produces. Near infrared has obvious potential for addressing this issue, yet its use by the dairy sector is far from extensive. We have recently been involved in a study of the use of NIR for monitoring the quality of two types of cheese of commercial importance: Cheddar cheese and processed cheese. The results of this three-year study are currently being published but some highlights of already released material are described below.

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