FDA Study On Updating the Nutrition Facts Label To Better Help Consumers

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are looking at updating the Nutrition Facts Label found in food items. The update will incorporate the latest nutrition and public health research and improve the presentation of nutrition information to better help assist consumers in their food choices.

Most food items carry a Nutrion Facts Label. This contains the essential values of fat, protein carbohydrate, calories and other nutrients contained in the food.

Aside from nutritional values, the nutrition facts label also indicates the serving size, number of servings in the package and the % Daily Value (%DV). The % Daily Value indicates the percentage amount of nutrient the food contains based on 100% of the its daily requirement. The %DV is based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

These values and information help guide the user in their food choices in maintaining a healthy diet.

Space Food 101 - Spirulina

Ever wonder what astronauts eat when they’re hovering thousands of miles above the Earth?

In space, there are no fast food burger joints, deli shops, or even a side street hotdog stand. Although enjoying a gourmet meal in outer space with the Earth as a backdrop sounds exciting, it isn’t possible.

Before you think of space food as being eaten out of toothpaste tubes or little bouillon cubes, think again. We’re in the 21st century now. Astronauts have a very discriminating palette.

The space shuttles do not have refrigerators so food must be safe to store at room temperature for a year and should last around a year and a half. To adjust to these conditions, food is dehydrated, vacuum packed and freeze dried. Just add water, wait a few minutes, and it’s good to go.

Aside from allaying hunger, space food’s main priority is to provide the correct and proper nutrition a growing astronaut needs.

One major supplement is Spirulina. NASA and ESA have both proposed cultivating it as one of the primary foods for deep space travel and long-term space missions.

Spirulina are free-floating filamentous cyanobacteria characterized by cylindrical, multi-cellular trichomes in an open left-hand helix. In layman’s terms, Spirulina is an algae. A blue green moss found near lakes and under rocks.

Spirulina contains 3 to 4 times rich vegetable protein than fish or beef. It also has a high volume of beta-carotene for cell protection, gamma-Linolein acid to prevent cholesterol and prevent heart disease, and a good dose of multi vitamins and minerals.

Combination of Wet and Dry Food Beneficial To Cats For Proper Macronutrient Intake

Maintaining a healthy balance of both wet and dry food for cats helps in their proper intake of macronutrients.

In terms of nutrition, focus is more on the vitamin and mineral of both people and pets. Different brands of multivitamins and nutrients abound. These are called micronutrients.

Aside from micronutrients, there are also macronutrients. The difference is that micronutrients are required in small amounts whereas macronutrients are needed in large amounts.

These macronutrients are comprised of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. These are needed for body growth, energy, and building mass. Macronutrients are taken through food consumption.

Just like people, pets also require macronutrients. The primary source of macronutrients for pets are through commercially available pet food. These are available either wet or dry (in the case of cats and dogs). Dry food come in the form of pellets. While wet food are similar to canned food products.

The debate on whether wet food or dry food is a matter of choice. Both wet and dry food contains the required nutrients for the proper feeding of pets.

Countries Using High Fructose Corn Syrup Have 20% More Prevalence of Diabetes

Researchers have found a link between the use of high fructose corn syrup in a country's food source and the spread of type 2 diabetes.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are made from corn syrup. The syrup contains glucose (a simple sugar) which is then converted to another more sweeter type of sugar, fructose. Both glucose and fructose are simple sugars that are sweet, colorless, and odorless.

HFCS are commonly used as a sweetener in commercially available foods and beverages. Soda, cereals, candies, and bread are some of the food that use HFCS.

HFCS in food and drinks is said to be one of the major reasons for the rise of obesity in children.

Spray-On Hydrogel Coating To Delay Ripening of Bananas Being Developed

Bananas are one of the oldest harvested fruits. They are from herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. Banana plants are native to tropical areas in the South and Southeast Asia. The banana plant, often mistaken for a tree, is the largest herbaceous flowering plant.

Bananas grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant and come in different sizes and colors. When ripe, bananas turn yellow, purple, or red.

Bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, soluble fiber, and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and potassium.

Export bananas are picked green. These are refrigerated in lower temperatures to halt the ripening process. When ready, they are put in special air-tight rooms filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening.

For tree ripened bananas, retailers immediately put them on sale since the shelf life for these fruits are limited to only 7–10 days.

Good news for banana lovers: Help may be on the way to slow that rapid over-ripening

A solution finally may be at hand for the number one consumer gripe about America's favorite fresh fruit ― bananas and their tendency to ripen, soften and rot into an unappetizing mush, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

Scientists speaking here today at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, described efforts to develop a spray-on coating that consumers could use to delay the ripening of those 6.4 billion pounds of bananas that people in the U.S. eat every year.

The coating is a so-called "hydrogel," a superabsorbent material like those with many medical and commercial uses, made from chitosan, a substance derived from shrimp and crab shells. Xihong Li, Ph.D., who presented the report, noted that chitosan is attracting considerable attention in efforts to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer due to its action in killing bacteria that cause produce to rot, low cost and other properties. Until now, however, it has not been used to slow the ripening of bananas.

"We found that by spraying green bananas with a chitosan aerogel, we can keep bananas fresh for up to 12 days," said Li, who is the study's leader. "Once bananas begin to mature, they quickly become yellow and soft, and then they rot. We have developed a way to keep bananas green for a longer time and inhibit the rapid ripening that occurs. Such a coating could be used at home by consumers, in supermarkets or during shipment of bananas."

Discovery Leads To Growing Better Tomatoes

Tomatoes are from the tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum). Although they are fruits, they are better known as a vegetable. The tomato is one of the most common garden fruits in the United States because of the volume of fruit the plant provides.

Tomatoes are a good source of antioxidants. These are substances that protects the body's cells against the effects of free radicals that are responsible for aging and tissue damage.

Tomatoes are also a good source of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin c, beta-carotene, manganese (a mineral), and vitamin E. They are also abundant in phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are  plant material that have been shown to be necessary for sustaining human life.

Some phytonutrients that tomatoes contain are:

• Flavonones
• naringenin
• chalconaringenin
• Flavonols
• rutin
• kaempferol
• quercetin
• Hydroxycinnamic acids
• caffeic acid
• ferulic acid
• coumaric acid
• Carotenoids
• lycopene
• lutein
• zeaxanthin
• beta-carotene
• Glycosides
• esculeoside A
• Fatty acid derivatives
• 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid

Discovery may lead to new tomato varieties with vintage flavor and quality

A new discovery could make more tomatoes taste like heirlooms, reports an international research team headed by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist.

The finding, which will be reported in the June 29 issue of the journal Science, has significant implications for the U.S. tomato industry, which annually harvests more than 15 million tons of the fruit for processing and fresh-market sales.

"This information about the gene responsible for the trait in wild and traditional varieties provides a strategy to recapture quality characteristics that had been unknowingly bred out of modern cultivated tomatoes," said Ann Powell, a biochemist in UC Davis' Department of Plant Sciences and one of the lead authors of the study.

MIT News: New Sensor Developed To Detect Spoilage in Fresh Foods

Every year, U.S. supermarkets lose roughly 10 percent of their fruits and vegetables to spoilage, according to the Department of Agriculture. To help combat those losses, MIT chemistry professor Timothy Swager and his students have built a new sensor that could help grocers and food distributors better monitor their produce.

The new sensors, described in the journal Angewandte Chemie, can detect tiny amounts of ethylene, a gas that promotes ripening in plants. Swager envisions the inexpensive sensors attached to cardboard boxes of produce and scanned with a handheld device that would reveal the contents’ ripeness. That way, grocers would know when to put certain items on sale to move them before they get too ripe.

“If we can create equipment that will help grocery stores manage things more precisely, and maybe lower their losses by 30 percent, that would be huge,” says Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry.

Detecting gases to monitor the food supply is a new area of interest for Swager, whose previous research has focused on sensors to detect explosives or chemical and biological warfare agents.

“Food is something that is really important to create sensors around, and we’re going after food in a broad sense,” Swager says. He is also pursuing monitors that could detect when food becomes moldy or develops bacterial growth, but as his first target, he chose ethylene, a plant hormone that controls ripening.

Canned Food Cheaper and Offers As Much Nutrition As Fresh Food

The current trend in food is fresh and organic. It is believed that fresh vegetables are more nutritious than canned ones.

But in a 1997 study by the University of Illinois Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, canned fruits and vegetables have as much dietary fiber and vitamins as the same corresponding fresh foods, and in some cases, even more.

Some companies take advantage of this and charge more for fresh and organic fruits and vegetables than their canned counterparts.

Obtaining key nutrients from canned foods can save consumers money

Amid the steady drumbeat from nutrition experts and others to consume a healthier diet – particularly one rich in fruits and vegetables – there often is a bias to eat more of the fresh variety for optimal nutrition. But is fresh always best? Not necessarily.

Dr. Cathy Kapica, PhD, RD, adjunct professor of nutrition at Tufts University, and Wendy Weiss, MA, RD, both with Ketchum Global Health and Wellness, conducted a market-basket study comparing the cost of obtaining key nutrients from canned, fresh, frozen and dried varieties of common foods. The study found that when price, waste and preparation time are considered, canned foods almost always offered a more affordable, convenient way to get needed-nutrients. The results of this research, funded by the Canned Food Alliance, was presented at a poster session at Experimental Biology 2012 in San Diego, CA.

The Science of Food

Fat, Sugar, and Gluten. These 3 ingredients are what most consumers are avoiding these days when it comes to food. It comes to a point that fat-free, sugar-free, and gluten-free has become the selling point for most food products.

But without these, what do food manufacturers replace them with to maintain the same texture and taste consistency of the food product with the real thing?

C&EN Senior Business Editor, Melody Bombgardner, explains that manufacturers face the problem of recreating the texture or "mouth feel" of food products that have cut back or reduced fat, sugar and gluten content. Because of consumer demand, more of these type of products are being sold. Replacing these components with alternatives without using complicated lists of ingredients with the names of hard to pronounce chemical compounds is what food companies are having problems with these days.

In her article, Bombgardner describes how other natural ingredients, are assuming increasingly important roles in giving those processed foods a satisfying taste. A mouth map is used to help formulate "light" foods so that the taste is comparable to the full-fat versions. The article also features one sidebar on natural food ingredients used to give processed foods a satisfying texture and another on food ingredients that do double-duty as ingredients in toothpastes, shampoo, skin creams, and even oil and gas drilling.

An example used is Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing.

The light version of the product has 40% fewer calories and 50% less fat than the regular dressing. The slogan on the bottle even says, “Betcha can’t tell it’s light!” The reason for this is because the ingredients include modified food starch, carrageenan, and xanthan gum, rather than oil and sour cream.

“We have to add ingredients to build up the viscosity and give that creamy mouth feel,” says HV Food Products food scientist Edith Neta. “To get the right viscosity, we have to use more than one texturizing ingredient—they have synergistic activity.” She explains that each input has different properties. For example, starch thickens products. In contrast, “With xanthan gum, when you shake the bottle, the dressing flows. But when it’s on the salad it will cling to the lettuce. It’s also good for dipping; it helps the dressing stay on your carrot.”

FDA Video: Food Label and You

What food processors are avoiding is the negative reaction in using chemically altered food substitutes. With this, Ingredient suppliers are playing a big role in helping customers balance health claims, good taste, and consumers’ desire for “natural” foods.

There are two major categories in textural replacement, hydrocolloids and carrageenan and alginates.

Hydrocolloids hold on to and control the migration of water in foods and beverages. Two most popular ingredients from this category are starches and gelatin. Carrageenan and alginates are from seaweed; cellulose, derived from tree pulp and cotton; other plant-derived substances such as pectin and guar gum; and xanthan gum from bacterial fermentation.

Seisun estimates that 1.4 million tons of hydrocolloids was consumed worldwide in 2010. Of that amount, 73% was starch. Asia in general, and China in particular, is a growing market for hydrocolloids. The global market for hydrocolloids used in food was worth US$5.8 billion in 2010.

China Marine Technologies Corporate Video: Producer of food ingredients



There are new alternatives to food ingredients that are fast becoming popular. All of them are trying to replicate the taste and texture of the original product without the presence of fat, sugar, and gluten. But with consumer preference for organic and natural, food processors are fast trying to compensate this with maintaining taste and texture consistency.

Neta says, “We’re trying to stay very connected to what consumers want and don’t want in their products. But taste is king for us. We’d rather make some compromise like using modified food starch and xanthan gum than have a product that consumers won’t buy because they don’t like the taste.”

Professor to make US$400,000 Hamburger

Professor Mark Post has been given around US$417,000 (€300,000) to make a hamburger.

But he has to do it without using meat coming from an animal and has one year to do it.

Mark Post is head of the Department of Vascular Physiology at Masstricht University in the Netherlands. He is focusing his research on growing meat in the lab rather than procuring it the natural way. "We want to turn meat production from a farming process to a factory process," he explained.

A philanthropist got in touch with Prof Post and offered to pay him to make the hamburger using his research. "It is likely the most expensive hamburger that we will ever see on this planet," said Post. In the same vein, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA) has also announced a prize of $1 million for the first company or individual to bring synthetic meat to consumer shops in at least 6 US states by 2016.

Instead of using cows and other farm animals for meat, Post will grow the meat using muscle stem cells procured from the animal. Instead of using embryonic stem cells which according to him does not work, Prof Post will be using stem cells called myosatellites. These are stem cells normally used by the body to repair damaged muscle.

Video: In Vitro Meat or Meat grown in a lab:

Myosatellite cells can be extracted from a mature animal without killing it and have numerous advantages. Firstly, they are "one way" cells, in the sense that they can only become muscle cells.

Secondly, as the muscle cells proliferate they have an innate tendency to organise into muscle fibres. All that Prof Post has to do to form a strip of muscle is provide anchor points for the fibres to grow around, and the muscle forms by itself. "It's a bit like magic," he said.
Source: BBC

Professor Post wants a celebrity chef to prepare the hamburger, minced with onions and spices. "It would be great if someone like Jamie Oliver agreed to cook it for us, and a famous actress ate it...We don't really know where the taste of meat comes from," Post said. "We assume it comes from fat, but there may be other components, most of them are unknown so it's a bit of a mystery how the conditions we use during the culturing of the meat will affect the taste."

The only know person known to have tasted the meat was a TV journalist from Russia. "He just grabbed it out of the dish and stuffed it into his mouth before I could say anything," said the professor. "He said it was chewy and tasteless."

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