Food Additive in General
A food additive is a substance (or a mixture of substance) which is added to food and is involved in its production, processing, packaging and/or storage without being a major ingredient.
Additives or their degradation products generally remain in food, but in some case they may be removed during processing.
The following examples illustrate and support the use of additives to enhance the:
Nutritive Value of food
Additive such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and amino acids derivatives are utilized to increase the nutritive value of food. A particular diet may also require the use of thickening agents, emulsifiers, sweeteners, etc.
Sensory Value of Food
Color, odor, taste and consistency or texture, which are important for the sensory value of food, may decreases during processing and storage. Such decreases can be corrected or readjusted by additives such as pigment aroma compounds or flavor enhancers.
Development of “off flavor” for instance, derived from fat or oil oxidation, can be suppressed by antioxidants. Food texture can be stabilized by adding minerals or polysaccharides, and by many other means.
Shelf Life of Food
The current forms of food production and distribution, as well as the trend towards convenient foods, have increased the demand for longer shelf life. Furthermore, the world food supply situation requires preservation by avoiding deterioration as much as possible.
The extension of shelf life involves protection against microbial spoilage, for example, by using anti-microbial additives and by using active agents which suppress and retard undesired chemical and physical changes in food.
The latter is achieved by stabilization of pH using buffering additives or stabilization of texture with thickening or gelling agents which are polysaccharides.
It is implicitly understood that food additives and their degradation products should be non toxic at their recommend levels of use. This applies equally to acute and to chronic toxicity, particularly the potential carcinogenic, teratogenic (causing a malformed fetus) and mutagenic (causing a malformed fetus) and mutagenic effects.
It is generally recognized that additives are applied only when required for then nutritive or sensory value of food, or for its processing or handling.
Food Additive in General
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Anorexia and Bulimia
Anorexia and Bulimia
Anorexia nervosa is sometimes called the “starvation.” Obsessed with food, weight, and thinness, people suffering from anorexia deny their hunger and refuse to eat – even after extreme weight loss.
As they consume too few calories for their basic needs, their bodies slowly waste away. By starving themselves, people with anorexia don’t get the nutrients they need for normal bodily functions.
Bulimia nervosa is marked by binge eating and purging (self-induced vomiting). The person gorges, usually on high caloric foods, and intentionally vomits or uses laxatives or diuretics.
The consequences are serious: dehydration, organ damage, internal bleeding from the stress or vomiting, tooth decay from acids in vomit, and in some cases, death. Many people with these eating disorder alternate between anorexia and bulimia.
Reports indicate that 60 percent of people who have dieted extensively or starved themselves resort to bingeing, then purging to keep weight.
Disordered eating is more than the ‘big three.’ Also getting attention: night eating syndrome (not just eating at night) and orthorexia nervosa, a popular name for compulsive attitudes and behavior about healthful eating. Compulsive exercising is related concern.
When does an eating disorder start? Generally at begins with an ordinary weight loss diet, begun just before or after major life change or trauma. However, there’s no clear understanding of exact causes.
We do know, however, that eating disorders are more than food problems. The person’s whole life – school work or career, family life, overall health – gets wrapped up in the eating issues.
Anorexia and Bulimia
Anorexia nervosa is sometimes called the “starvation.” Obsessed with food, weight, and thinness, people suffering from anorexia deny their hunger and refuse to eat – even after extreme weight loss.
As they consume too few calories for their basic needs, their bodies slowly waste away. By starving themselves, people with anorexia don’t get the nutrients they need for normal bodily functions.
Bulimia nervosa is marked by binge eating and purging (self-induced vomiting). The person gorges, usually on high caloric foods, and intentionally vomits or uses laxatives or diuretics.
The consequences are serious: dehydration, organ damage, internal bleeding from the stress or vomiting, tooth decay from acids in vomit, and in some cases, death. Many people with these eating disorder alternate between anorexia and bulimia.
Reports indicate that 60 percent of people who have dieted extensively or starved themselves resort to bingeing, then purging to keep weight.
Disordered eating is more than the ‘big three.’ Also getting attention: night eating syndrome (not just eating at night) and orthorexia nervosa, a popular name for compulsive attitudes and behavior about healthful eating. Compulsive exercising is related concern.
When does an eating disorder start? Generally at begins with an ordinary weight loss diet, begun just before or after major life change or trauma. However, there’s no clear understanding of exact causes.
We do know, however, that eating disorders are more than food problems. The person’s whole life – school work or career, family life, overall health – gets wrapped up in the eating issues.
Anorexia and Bulimia
Monday, February 9, 2009
The First Cocktail
The First Cocktail
The true answer is lost to history, but many stories around. Most people agree that it’s an American invention.
The earliest printed use of the term that can be verified was found in the Hudson, New York newspaper, The Balance and Columbia Repository on May 6, 1806.
The editor received many questions about the new term, present in a concession speech from a losing political candidate, and here was his response:
“Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and butters – it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold at the same time that it fuddles the head.”
Here are some of the more colorful stories surrounding the creation of this now ubiquitous beverage:
Rumor has it that early in American history, bartenders used to pour remnants of drinks and almost empty barrels into single container, selling swigs from this mixture to patrons at a reduced price. ‘Cock’ was another name for spigot and ‘tailing’ is the last bit of alcohol, so his drink was called ‘cock tailing,’ quickly shortened to ‘cocktail’.
A similar story recollects a bartender who poured his dregs into container shaped like a rooster (or cock) and the tap was set at the cock’s tail, hence cocktail.
Some believe that an apothecary in New Orleans served his guests a mix of brandy, sugar, water and bitters in an eggcup or ‘cocquetier’ in French, which was quickly shortened to ‘cocktay’ and then ‘cocktail.’
Alcohol was often used as a medical treatment, rumored to be applied from the tip of a feather from a cock’s tail; then, when people started to drink or gargle the medicine outright, the name ‘cock’s tail’ was still used.
Betsy Ranagan ran an inn in Yorktown that was frequented by American and French soldiers after the American Revolutionary War. To impress her patrons one evening, she stole chickens from her neighbors and served mixed drinks with the chicken feathers sticking out as garnishes. As her guests became drunken and rowdy, they continue to call for more ‘cock tails’.
The First Cocktail
The true answer is lost to history, but many stories around. Most people agree that it’s an American invention.
The earliest printed use of the term that can be verified was found in the Hudson, New York newspaper, The Balance and Columbia Repository on May 6, 1806.
The editor received many questions about the new term, present in a concession speech from a losing political candidate, and here was his response:
“Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and butters – it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold at the same time that it fuddles the head.”
Here are some of the more colorful stories surrounding the creation of this now ubiquitous beverage:
Rumor has it that early in American history, bartenders used to pour remnants of drinks and almost empty barrels into single container, selling swigs from this mixture to patrons at a reduced price. ‘Cock’ was another name for spigot and ‘tailing’ is the last bit of alcohol, so his drink was called ‘cock tailing,’ quickly shortened to ‘cocktail’.
A similar story recollects a bartender who poured his dregs into container shaped like a rooster (or cock) and the tap was set at the cock’s tail, hence cocktail.
Some believe that an apothecary in New Orleans served his guests a mix of brandy, sugar, water and bitters in an eggcup or ‘cocquetier’ in French, which was quickly shortened to ‘cocktay’ and then ‘cocktail.’
Alcohol was often used as a medical treatment, rumored to be applied from the tip of a feather from a cock’s tail; then, when people started to drink or gargle the medicine outright, the name ‘cock’s tail’ was still used.
Betsy Ranagan ran an inn in Yorktown that was frequented by American and French soldiers after the American Revolutionary War. To impress her patrons one evening, she stole chickens from her neighbors and served mixed drinks with the chicken feathers sticking out as garnishes. As her guests became drunken and rowdy, they continue to call for more ‘cock tails’.
The First Cocktail
Monday, February 2, 2009
Salmonella: symptoms and infection
Salmonella: symptoms and infection
The ordinary symptoms of salmonellosis are abdominal pain, diarrhea, chills, frequent vomiting and prostration. However, there are instances in which much more severe symptoms may be encountered. The incubation period (time after ingesting the organisms until symptoms are evident) is 7 – 72 hr. In typhoid fever, the incubation period is 7 – 14 days.
Persons with salmonellosis often become carriers of the organism for a period of time after they recovered from the disease. That is, they continue to discharge the organisms in their feces. Because of this, carriers often contaminate their hands with these organisms that may not be removed completely even after thorough washing.
Hence, if carriers handle foods that after to be eaten by others they may contaminate them with these bacteria, and in this manner, transmit the disease to others.
In most cases the carrier stage does not persist longer than 12 weeks after symptoms with salmonellosis and for shorter periods with typhoid fever. However, there are isolated cases in which the carrier stage lasts much longer than 12 weeks and 2 -5 % of those ill with typhoid fever may become permanent carriers.
The salmonella bacteria are rod-shaped; they do not form spores, and thus are not especially heat resistant. They are motile (can move about in the water, in foods or other materials in which they are found) and will grow either with or without air (oxygen).
At the present time, more than 2,000 types of Salmonella bacteria are known, all of which are considered to be ineffective to man. Obviously, these organisms are very widespread.
Whereas it is considered that many Salmonella bacteria must be taken in to cause the disease in a normal adult, it is known that the very old and especially the very young may contract the disease after ingesting (eating) only a few of these organism. Therefore, any food, especially a food that can be eaten without cooking, should be kept essentially free of these bacteria.
Salmonella: symptoms and infection
The ordinary symptoms of salmonellosis are abdominal pain, diarrhea, chills, frequent vomiting and prostration. However, there are instances in which much more severe symptoms may be encountered. The incubation period (time after ingesting the organisms until symptoms are evident) is 7 – 72 hr. In typhoid fever, the incubation period is 7 – 14 days.
Persons with salmonellosis often become carriers of the organism for a period of time after they recovered from the disease. That is, they continue to discharge the organisms in their feces. Because of this, carriers often contaminate their hands with these organisms that may not be removed completely even after thorough washing.
Hence, if carriers handle foods that after to be eaten by others they may contaminate them with these bacteria, and in this manner, transmit the disease to others.
In most cases the carrier stage does not persist longer than 12 weeks after symptoms with salmonellosis and for shorter periods with typhoid fever. However, there are isolated cases in which the carrier stage lasts much longer than 12 weeks and 2 -5 % of those ill with typhoid fever may become permanent carriers.
The salmonella bacteria are rod-shaped; they do not form spores, and thus are not especially heat resistant. They are motile (can move about in the water, in foods or other materials in which they are found) and will grow either with or without air (oxygen).
At the present time, more than 2,000 types of Salmonella bacteria are known, all of which are considered to be ineffective to man. Obviously, these organisms are very widespread.
Whereas it is considered that many Salmonella bacteria must be taken in to cause the disease in a normal adult, it is known that the very old and especially the very young may contract the disease after ingesting (eating) only a few of these organism. Therefore, any food, especially a food that can be eaten without cooking, should be kept essentially free of these bacteria.
Salmonella: symptoms and infection
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