The Science of Food

Better BBQ through chemistry

WASHINGTON — As summer winds to a close, backyard grillers may be looking back on their last barbecue and asking some rather pointed questions: Why was the grilled chicken so dry? Does eating charred meat really cause cancer? Why did Uncle Fred pucker and cringe after each sip of beer? [MORE]

Burning issues in food science - Freezer burn!

The scope of the term freezer burn varies widely in both scientific and lay literature. In the narrowest use of the term, freezer burn describes only the loss of moisture (also termed as dehydration or desiccation) from the surface of frozen foods over time during frozen storage, yielding an opaque dehydrated surface. In the broadest use of the term, freezer burn describes both the dehydration and associated degradation in color, texture, and flavor that can occur on the surface of frozen foods, over time during frozen storage. These undesirable quality changes are exemplified by the toughening and discoloration of the surface of meat and poultry products, such as color changes in beef from red to brown and in skinless chicken breasts from pink to tan; the shriveling of the surface of frozen foods, shown in for frozen green beans; and the occurrence of lipid oxidation, which negatively impacts food flavor. Freezer-burned food is safe to consume from a microbial perspective, but is of poor eating quality. If the freezer-burned area is not too extensive, you can simply cut the affected portions off before or after cooking. [MORE]

To Make Lemons Into Lemonade,Try 'Miracle Fruit'

Berry Turns Sour to Sweet By Altering Taste Buds; A Lure to Scientists

By JOANNA SLATER  Wall Street Journal  March 30, 2007

ARLINGTON, Va. -- At a party here one recent Friday, Jacob Grier stood on a chair, pulled out a plastic bag full of small berries, and invited everyone to eat one apiece. "Make sure it coats your tongue," he said.

Mr. Grier's guests were about to go under the influence of miracle fruit, a slightly tart West African berry with a strange property: For about an hour after you eat it, everything sour tastes sweet. [MORE]

More from the New York Times "A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue" on Miracle Fruit parties.

FDA re-opens probe into benzene contamination of soft drinks

2/15/2006 - Food Navigator.com. US food safety authorities have re-opened an investigation closed 15 years ago into soft drinks contaminated with cancer-causing chemical benzene, following evidence the industry has failed to sort out the problem. The problem is caused by two common ingredients – sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) – which can react together to cause benzene formation. This prompted FDA testing that led the US Department of Health and Human Services to report, again in an internal memo: “Benzene formation occurs at part per billion (ppb) levels in some food formulations containing sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid [vitamin C].” [MORE]

The original article in the 1993 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is posted HERE.

3/06/2006 - BeverageDaily.com - The gamble by US authorities 15 years ago to let the industry deal with benzene residues in soft drinks has failed, and instead only kept those who needed to know in the dark. [MORE]

3/21/2006 - FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition - Letter Regarding Benzene Levels in Soft Drinks. FDA is testing products on the market that contain benzoic and ascorbic acids. Preliminary results do not suggest a safety concern. Full results will be released when testing is completed. [MORE]

May 19, 2006 - FDA CFSAN - Questions and Answers on the Occurrence of Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages [MORE]

May 19, 2006 - FDA CFSAN - Data on Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages [MORE]

Further developments on this issue will be posted here.

What's in those cans beside beer?

When you sip a can of your favorite brew, you are savoring not only fermented grain and hops but just a hint of the same preservative that kept the frog you dissected in 10th-grade biology class lily-pad fresh: formaldehyde. What is formaldehyde doing in beer? [MORE]

This 12 minute streaming video takes you form aluminum sheets all the way though the finished cans and ends being loaded by fork lift on the the trailer.

Trans Fats

The regulation
Food manufacturers have until Jan. 1, 2006, to list the amount of trans fats in food products on the nutrition label. The intent of the rule was to provide consumers with more information to make healthier food choices that could lower their consumption of trans fat as part of a heart-healthy diet....[MORE] 

What are Trans Fats?
A trans fatty acid (commonly shortened to trans fat) is an unsaturated fatty acid molecule that contains a trans double bond between carbon atoms, which makes the molecule kinked. Trans fat behaves like saturated fat by raising low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad cholesterol") that increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). It also decreases levels of HDL in the blood, this is the "good" lipoprotein that helps remove cholesterol from arteries...[MORE] and from Penn State, some background on the use of trans fats and associated health issues here.

How does the ruling affect the food industry?
Hydrogenation, the process that creates trans fatty acids, increases the thermal and oxidative stability of the original fat or oil, providing a desired firmness and plasticity to certain processed foods. The food industry values partially hydrogenated fats for their stability and suitability for margarine and creaming/aerating applications, especially in bakery applications. They also increase shelf life. With the labeling deadline approaching and consumers becoming wary, processors search for substitutes for the functionality of trans fatty acids. Read more from Food Processing magazine here. Everyone in the food industry is feeling the pressure to reduce or eliminate trans fat.  Read more from Prepared Foods magazine here and more here.

But wait! Not all trans fats are bad for you. Conjugated linoleic acid, popularly referred to as CLA (cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid), has beneficial effects such as enhancing weight loss and preventing heart disease. More here and here.

Bread crust rich in antioxidants

Some people say that eating the crust of the bread will give you curly hair.  But the crust is also a rich source of antioxidants and may provide a much stronger health benefit than the rest of the bread. They found that the process of baking bread produced a novel type of antioxidant, called pronyl-lysine, that was eight times more abundant in the crust than in the crumb. The compound was not present in the original flour [MORE].
[Link to original journal article]

Satiety triggers: food technology to identify the secret weapon against rising obesity?

Food designs that use flavours, ingredients or aromas as triggers to limit food intake could be the next generation of consumer food, as food technologists across Europe work together to address rising obesity levels [FoodNavigator.com]

Storage time and temperature effects nutrients in spinach

That seven-day-old bag of spinach in your refrigerator may not make you as strong as your grandma told you, because, according to Penn State food scientists, spinach stored for a long time loses much of its nutrient content. Luke LaBorde, associate professor of food science, and Srilatha Pandrangi, graduate student, both at Penn State, found that spinach stored at 39 degrees Fahrenheit loses its folate and carotenoid content at a slower rate than spinach stored at 50 and 68 degrees. However, the spinach at 39 degrees still loses much of its nutrient content after eight days. The average temperature of a refrigerator is 40 degrees. "This has implications in the shipping process," said LaBorde. Their research has been published in a recent issue of the Journal of Food Science. There is such a high demand for fresh products that it places a heavy burden on the producers. If the spinach is coming from the other side of the country, then the produce might be kept at a warm temperature in a shipping truck for an extended period of time. By the time the spinach reaches the dinner table, much of the nutrient content might already be gone, noted the Penn State researcher.

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Additive Might Fight Fast-Food Fat

In recent years fast food has been linked to the country's rising obesity rates and the increased incidence of diabetes. Findings presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego may provide a means of tempering the cuisine's ill effects: an additive that can slow the absorption fat to a healthier rate. More