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.
Embodied food politics Carolan, Michael S
c2011., 2011, 20160429, 2012, 2016-05-06, 2011-04-01, 20110101
eBook
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.
Alternative Food Networks Goodman, David; DuPuis, E. Melanie; Goodman, Michael K.
2012, 20120220, 2011, 2012-02-20
eBook
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.
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.
Aims
The concept of using specific dietary components to selectively modulate the gut microbiota to confer a health benefit, defined as prebiotics, originated in 1995. In 2018, a group of scientists ...met at the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics annual meeting in Singapore to discuss advances in the prebiotic field, focussing on issues affecting functionality, research methodology and geographical differences.
Methods and Results
The discussion ranged from examining scientific literature supporting the efficacy of established prebiotics, to the prospects for establishing health benefits associated with novel compounds, isolated from different sources.
Conclusions
While many promising candidate prebiotics from across the globe have been highlighted in preliminary research, there are a limited number with both demonstrated mechanism of action and defined health benefits as required to meet the prebiotic definition. Prebiotics are part of a food industry with increasing market sales, yet there are great disparities in regulations in different countries. Identification and commercialization of new prebiotics with unique health benefits means that regulation must improve and remain up‐to‐date so as not to risk stifling research with potential health benefits for humans and other animals.
Significance and Impact of Study
This summary of the workshop discussions indicates potential avenues for expanding the range of prebiotic substrates, delivery methods to enhance health benefits for the end consumer and guidance to better elucidate their activities in human studies.
The production of drugs, cosmetics, and food which are derived from plant cell and tissue cultures has a long tradition. The emerging trend of manufacturing cosmetics and food products in a natural ...and sustainable manner has brought a new wave in plant cell culture technology over the past 10 years. More than 50 products based on extracts from plant cell cultures have made their way into the cosmetics industry during this time, whereby the majority is produced with plant cell suspension cultures. In addition, the first plant cell culture-based food supplement ingredients, such as Echigena Plus and Teoside 10, are now produced at production scale. In this mini review, we discuss the reasons for and the characteristics as well as the challenges of plant cell culture-based productions for the cosmetics and food industries. It focuses on the current state of the art in this field. In addition, two examples of the latest developments in plant cell culture-based food production are presented, that is, superfood which boosts health and food that can be produced in the lab or at home.