We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition ...really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our over-efficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a key technology in the food industry that facilitates real-time visibility of items as they move through the supply chain and on to the end-consumer. Among ...all the currently available automatic identification technologies, RFID has clear dominance in terms of its ability to support real-time two-way communication, data storage and update, authentication, ambient condition sense and report, batch read without direct line-of-sight, operation in harsh environments and sensor-based applications. RFID and Sensor Network Automation in the Food Industry provides sufficient detail on the use of RFID and sensor networks from `farm to fork' (F2F) to allow the reader to appreciate the myriad possible applications of RFID and associated sensor network systems throughout the entire food supply chain. This includes precision agriculture, the provision of seamless visibility in track and trace applications, reduction of wastage, identification of counterfeits and contamination sources, remaining shelf-life applications for perishables, and quality and safety measures, among others. Providing state-of-the-art information from peer-reviewed research publications as well as general industry trends, this book will be of interest to all stakeholders in the agri-food supply chain, and academics and advanced students with an interest in these fields.
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Embodied food politics Carolan, Michael S
c2011., 2011, 20160429, 2012, 2016-05-06, 2011-04-01, 20110101
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Drawing on a variety of case studies, this book explores the interrelationship between physical connections to and knowledge of food. This book inserts into the food literature living, feeling, ...sensing bodies and will be of interest to food scholars as well as those more generally interested in the phenomenon known as embodied realism.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an alternative technology with a potential to replace traditional universal product code (UPC) barcodes. RFID enables identification of an object from a ...distance without requiring a line of sight. RFID tags can also incorporate additional data such as details of product and manufacturer and can transmit measured environmental factors such as temperature and relative humidity. This article presents key concepts and terminology related to RFID technology and its applications in the food industry. Components and working principles of an RFID system are described. Numerous applications of RFID technology in the food industry (supply chain management, temperature monitoring of foods, and ensuring food safety) are discussed. Challenges in implementation of RFID technology are also discussed in terms of read range, read accuracy, nonuniform standards, cost, recycling issues, privacy, and security concerns.
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Why are people getting fatter in the United States and beyond? Mainstream explanations argue that people simply eat too much “energy-dense" food while exercising too little. By swapping the chips and ...sodas for fruits and vegetables and exercising more, the problem would be solved. By contrast, The Neoliberal Diet argues that increased obesity does not result merely from individual food and lifestyle choices. Since the 1980s, the neoliberal turn in policy and practice has promoted trade liberalization and retrenchment of the welfare regime, along with continued agricultural subsidies in rich countries. Neoliberal regulation has enabled agribusiness multinationals to thrive by selling highly processed foods loaded with refined flour and sugars—a diet that originated in the United States—as well as meat. Drawing on extensive empirical data, Gerardo Otero identifies the socioeconomic and political forces that created this diet, which has been exported around the globe, often at the expense of people’s health. Otero shows how state-level actions, particularly subsidies for big farms and agribusiness, have ensured the dominance of processed foods and made healthful fresh foods inaccessible to many. Comparing agrifood performance across several nations, including the NAFTA region, and correlating food access to class inequality, he convincingly demonstrates the structural character of food production and the effect of inequality on individual food choices. Resolving the global obesity crisis, Otero concludes, lies not in blaming individuals but in creating state-level programs to reduce inequality and make healthier food accessible to all.
Alternative Food Networks Goodman, David; DuPuis, E. Melanie; Goodman, Michael K.
2012, 20120220, 2011, 2012-02-20
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Farmers' markets, veggie boxes, local foods, organic products and Fair Trade goods - how have these once novel, "alternative" foods, and the people and networks supporting them, become increasingly ...familiar features of everyday consumption? Are the visions of "alternative worlds" built on ethics of sustainability, social justice, animal welfare and the aesthetic values of local food cultures and traditional crafts still credible now that these foods crowd supermarket shelves and other "mainstream" shopping outlets?
This timely book provides a critical review of the growth of alternative food networks and their struggle to defend their ethical and aesthetic values against the standardizing pressures of the corporate mainstream with its "placeless and nameless" global supply networks. It explores how these alternative movements are "making a difference" and their possible role as fears of global climate change and food insecurity intensify. It assesses the different experiences of these networks in three major arenas of food activism and politics: Britain and Western Europe, the United States, and the global Fair Trade economy. This comparative perspective runs throughout the book to fully explore the progressive erosion of the interface between alternative and mainstream food provisioning. As the era of "cheap food" draws to a close, analysis of the limitations of market-based social change and the future of alternative food economies and localist food politics place this book at the cutting-edge of the field.
The book is thoroughly informed by contemporary social theory and interdisciplinary social scientific scholarship, formulates an integrative social practice framework to understand alternative food production-consumption, and offers a unique geographical reach in its case studies.
All people involved with preparation of food for the commercial or retail market need a sound understanding of the food safety risks associated with their specific products and, importantly, how to ...control these risks. Failure to control food safety hazards can have devastating consequences for not only the consumer, but also the food manufacturer. This book provides practical guidance on how to control food safety hazards, with a specific focus on controls suitable for small-scale businesses to implement. Small businesses make up around two-thirds of businesses in Australia's food and beverage manufacturing industry. This book is aimed at those small-scale businesses already in or considering entering food manufacture. Those already operating a small business will develop a better understanding of key food safety systems, while those who are in the 'start-up' phase will gain knowledge essential to provide their business with a solid food safety foundation while also learning about Australian food regulations relevant to food safety.
•Cyclodextrins (CDs) encapsulate lipophilic molecules in an aqueous medium;•Inclusion methods (precipitation, neutralization, kneading, etc.) have different advantages;•Analytical characterization of ...complexes, in solution and solid state, was unraveled;•CDs protect sensitive food ingredients from chemical and physical processes;•CDs uses: Preserving food shelf life, masking undesired compounds, or controlling release.
This review offers a vision of the chemical behaviour of natural ingredients, synthetic drugs and other related compounds complexed using cyclodextrins. The review takes care of different sections related to i) the inclusion complexes formation with cyclodextrins, ii) the determination of the inclusion formation constant, iii) the most used methods to prepare host inclusion in the non-polar cavity of cyclodextrins and iv) the analytical techniques to evidence host inclusion. The review provides different literature that shows the application of cyclodextrins to improve physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of food compounds including solubility, stability and their elimination/masking. Moreover, the review also offers examples of commercial food/supplement products of cyclodextrins to indicate that cyclodextrins can be used to generate biotechnological substances with innovative properties and improve the development of food products.
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Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) combined with powerful bioinformatic approaches are revolutionising food microbiology. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of single isolates allows the most detailed ...comparison possible hitherto of individual strains. The two principle approaches for strain discrimination, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis and genomic multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) are showing concordant results for phylogenetic clustering and are complementary to each other. Metabarcoding and metagenomics, applied to total DNA isolated from either food materials or the production environment, allows the identification of complete microbial populations. Metagenomics identifies the entire gene content and when coupled to transcriptomics or proteomics, allows the identification of functional capacity and biochemical activity of microbial populations.
The focus of this review is on the recent use and future potential of NGS in food microbiology and on current challenges. Guidance is provided for new users, such as public health departments and the food industry, on the implementation of NGS and how to critically interpret results and place them in a broader context. The review aims to promote the broader application of NGS technologies within the food industry as well as highlight knowledge gaps and novel applications of NGS with the aim of driving future research and increasing food safety outputs from its wider use.
•Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics are ushering in rapid changes in food microbiology.•SNP and genomic MLST based WGS analyses for strain discrimination are complementary to each other.•In source tracking investigations, WGS results must be backed up by epidemiological and other investigative evidence.•Metabarcoding identifies complete microbial populations; metagenomics also determines hypothetical functional repertoire.•Harmonisation and standardisation has to be addressed and data sharing incentivised.
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