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Issue 4 2006, Past issues / 6 November 2006 / Olaf Heide, EHEDG Conveyors subgroup member
On June 21 2006 the new European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) subgroup ‘Conveyors’ was chartered in Amsterdam. The initial meeting was led by Jacques Kastelein, EHEDG Executive Committee member and chairman of the Equipment and Components group. Team members are delegates from different companies which are each involved with some aspect of designing machines, systems, components or cleaning issues for food processing equipment and conveyors.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Riikka Salokannel, Design Manager, Oy Sinebrychoff Ab, Carlsberg Breweries
The requirement of all packaging is to protect, help with delivery, and pass on information about the product. This task must be achieved with the least amount of effort and as effectively as possible. There are millions of variations of making this possible and this article outlines some recent trends in packaging design.
The most interesting aspect – given the intense competition in the market today – is how to accomplish this whilst also making it ‘magnetic’ to consumers. In other words, what makes people want to pick up and examine the product? What specifically draws one’s eye? And when the product is in our hands, what makes us read on?
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Jonas Westlund, Consulting Analyst, Frost & Sullivan
The European market for material handling robots has grown to approximately $800 million in 2005. More interestingly, forecast growth for 2006 of around 15 per cent shows that robots are playing an increasingly important role in the European food and beverage sector.
The implementation of robots help food processors meet heightened demand on operational efficiency and regulations on health and safety and traceability. Moreover, improvements in vision systems are expected to make robots increasingly important in quality assessment processes. The net result is likely to see material handling robot solutions achieve a year-on-year growth in excess of 16 per cent over the next six years to reach $225 million by 2012.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Jonathan Thomas, Senior Market Analyst, LFI
The international flavours industry is highly competitive, even more so in recent times as the world’s leading food companies become larger and exert more control over their ingredients purchasing arrangements.
In line with this, the flavours sector has itself consolidated, creating larger numbers of flavour giants with more diverse product ranges and greater geographical coverage in order to satisfy the demands of the world’s leading multinationals. There remain a number of significant medium to large flavour houses around the world, with the result that further consolidation in the coming years cannot be ruled out.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Albert Bär, Toothfriendly International, Basel, Switzerland
Ongoing discussions about diet and health; calls of politicians and consumers for healthier foods and debates about the benefit of advertising bans and restrictions of distribution, for example in schools, particularly threatens the manufacturers of beverages and confectionery. Such products are often loaded with sugar and are, therefore, destined to be the culprits in newspaper articles about obesity, diabetes and poor dental health.
Forward looking companies launched sugar-free and energy-reduced (‘lite’) confectionery and beverages many years ago. In the candy and chewing gum market, the sugar-free segment is actually the only one that consistently produces positive growth rates. With the positioning of chewing gum as a product that not only does not harm teeth but in fact promotes dental health, this type of confectionery has even acquired a positive health image. Following this example, dental health has now become a sales argument for certain candy products which are marketed with the ‘toothfriendly’ claim (Figure 1) and/or claims about a plaque-neutralising, remineralising or tooth-whitening action.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Tanja Virtanen-Leppä, Packaging Development Manager at Valio Ltd
With the multitude of products on today’s supermarket shelves, there is increasing pressure among manufacturers to set themselves apart in the eyes of the consumer. Packaging has the crucial task of making that all-important first impression, which can mean the difference between a sale or not. It must be attractive and succinctly convey the product’s message; as well as provide the necessary hygiene and safety functions whilst being easy to operate. But how does a food producer achieve the ideal packaging for its products? New Food spoke with Tanja Virtanen-Leppä, Packaging Development Manager at Valio Ltd to find out their packaging requirements and how they manage the task.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / MC te Giffel, NIZO food research, Department of Health & Safety, The Netherlands
Control of production processes in the food industry has always focused on examination of end products. However, feedback of test results to the production process is generally not possible because it takes too long before the results of the analyses are known. Moreover, high numbers of samples have to be analysed to obtain statistically reliable results and inspection of end products only enables defects to be observed; it cannot establish their cause.
Because of this, analysis at the end of the process has shifted to control of the process by the introduction of GMP and HACCP systems. The use of a continuous, preferably in-line, monitoring system is necessary to make sure that the critical points in the process are controlled. This enables rapid detection and correction of slight deviations of process parameters yielding increased productivity and profitability. In addition, large margins that are used e.g. in heat treatments to prevent safety issues, can be minimised to improve quality aspects such as nutritional value and taste.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 11 August 2006 / Pat Presswood, Business Unit Manager, Nonfood Compounds Registration Program, NSF International
According to a recent research survey by Gantz Wiley Research, two of the leading issues facing the food processing industry today are regulations and food safety. As economies continue to grow, the need to move and supply safe food will also increase. With this said, regulations and programs must evolve to reflect those changing needs.
One area of concern for food and beverage processors is lubricant contamination from production equipment. To help decrease the possibility of contamination, increasing numbers of processors are replacing non-food grade lubricants with NSF H1 food-grade lubricants.
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Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Dipl.-LM-Ing.Achim Claus, Prof. Dr. Reinhold Carle and PD Dr.Andreas Schieber, University of Hohenheim, Institute of Food Technology, Section Plant Foodstuff Technology
Acrylamide is a food-borne toxicant mainly present in roasted, baked and deep-fried foods. To minimise acrylamide levels in bakery products, a comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting its formation is indispensable. Based on this knowledge technological strategies may be developed.
Due to the potential carcinogenic properties of acrylamide1 the announcement of the Swedish National Food Authority and the University of Stockholm in April 2002 regarding findings of acrylamide in foodstuff initiated intense and rapid research efforts. Early investigations on the reaction pathways associated with the formation of acrylamide were continued by studies concerning its noxious effects. Besides metabolism and toxicology2,3, ways to minimise its levels in heat treated products are the subject of current studies.While efficient strategies for the reduction of acrylamide levels in potato products have been developed, bakery products are still a neglected field. This is quite surprising, considering that the consumption of French fries and potato chips is much lower than bakery products such as bread and bread rolls. In Germany per capita consumption of bakery products amounted to 86.3 kg in 2005, which is equivalent to an average daily intake of 236 g4. Thus, bakery products contribute approximately 25 per cent of the total acrylamide intake via the diet5. From this data it becomes evident that food pattern largely influences dietary intake of acrylamide. Since continuous intake of low acrylamide levels present in staple foods might even be more harmful than occasional consumption of food containing higher amounts, strategies solely considering highly contaminated food commodities will fail to reduce health risks. This article therefore provides a brief review of the occurrence of acrylamide in bakery products and includes recommendations for minimising its levels.
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Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Dave Cruickshank, Chocolate Development Manager, Cadbury Trebor Bassett
Tempering and cooling are best regarded as two parts of the same process: the solidification of chocolate.There are interactions between the two processes and they both need to be carried out correctly in order to ensure an efficient process and create a high quality product.This article examines these processes and outlines the technologies employed at each stage.
The functions of cooling are:
- To remove specific and latent heat
- To contract the chocolate such that it releases cleanly from the mould
- To produce a stable and attractive product
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Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Iekje Berg, Hetty Jongbloed, Leo van Boxtel, TNO Quality of Life, Zeist
Micro-organisms are the main cause of food spoilage (spoilage organisms) and food-borne diseases (pathogens).Traditional methods to control the growth of micro-organisms include heating (blanching, pasteurisation and sterilisation), freezing and the use of preservative agents. However, consumer demands are changing and they are now asking for fresh, healthy food combined with an extended shelf life. For this reason much work has been carried out in recent years on new (mild) preservation techniques,which can be an alternative for thermal pasteurisation and sterilisation.
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Issue 2 2006, Past issues / 23 May 2006 / Mr Ollie Tossavainen, Research Manager, Valio Ltd, Finland
In April 2006 Valio won a Gold European FoodTec Award at Anuga Foodtec for their lactose-free milk technology, used to process such products as Valio Lactose free milk drink, Emmi Lactose free milk drink and Kaiku Lactose free milk drink.The technology completely eliminates lactose from milk without affecting the taste – with the added bonus of fewer calories – thus benefiting consumers with lactose-intolerance. New Food spoke with Mr Olli Tossavainen, Research Manager at Valio, to find out more.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 9 March 2006 / Pierre Schuck, Science et Technologie du Lait et de l'CEuf, Inra-Agrocampus
Milk is extremely perishable and yet, for a number of reasons, it has to be preserved for later consumption. The removal of water prevents the growth of micro-organisms and facilitates preservation and storage of milk constituents. Spray drying is one of the most convenient techniques for producing milk powders and for stabilising milk constituents.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 9 March 2006 / Wolfgang Hoffmann, Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Food, Location Kiel, Katja Borcherding, G.C. Hahn & Co., Lübeck, Matthias Denker, Marijana Parat-Wilhelms, Andrea Luger and Hans Steinhart, Department of Food Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Germany
The popularity of milky coffee beverages is based on its energising effect and special flavour. This is particularly true with younger consumers, who reject traditional beverages with evaporated milk or coffee cream, and prefer products with relatively high amounts of milk as it softens the bitter coffee taste effectively.
Numerous studies have been carried out on roasted coffee powder3-9, but not on the influence of milk processing and milk ingredients on odour and taste of white coffee beverages1,2. In the frame of a research project, milk products processed under defined conditions and analysed under physico-chemical aspects were added to a standardised, fresh coffee beverage. Some of the methods and results are presented in this article.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 9 March 2006 / Huub L.M. Lelieveld
To have food available all year round, preservation is essential. However, traditional preservation methods such as drying, salting, acidifying, fermenting and heat treatments, whilst providing specific advantages, also have drawbacks. These include negative effects on colour, flavour and concentration of nutrients such as vitamins. New methods are emerging and one that is likely to find its way into the industry is pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment.
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