BUTTER VIA NON-ANIMAL PLANT ROUTE-NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Butter derived from animal milk is a standard feature of food in many cultures and especially in the US consumers cannot imagine a diet without butter used practically in every preparation. The process of butter making involves extraction of milk and removing the cream by centrifugation to be converted into butter sticks and slabs. Concern about the cholesterol content in butter, consumers welcomed alternative options like margarine prepared from vegetable oils and the latter has been slowly gnawing at the butter market during the last 3-4 decades. The technology for making margarine is now so sophisticated that it is very difficult for a lay consumer to distinguish between natural butter and high quality margarine in terms of appearance, flavor, texture, taste and functionality. But cheap vegetable oils like Palm oil which are used by the margarine industry as a raw material, are increasingly coming under attack from the consumers because of its cascading effect on denudation of rain forests in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia and consequent global warming. Against this background path breaking biotechnological processes are providing a viable alternative to vegetable oils via Algae. Algal oil can be processed to get a variety of products with different sensory characteristics and functional features and butter is no exception. The rapid rise of biotech companies capable of producing Algal oil on commercial scale from sugars using the fermentation route is an amazing feat with dramatic impact in the coming years. Here is a take on this "Cow to plant to Algae" story! 

"Consider for a moment that the average California cow produces just enough cream per year to produce 838 pounds of butter, or 3,352 sticks of butter per year. This is based on the assumption that it takes 11 quarts of milk to make 1 pound of butter and that the average cow produces 2,305 gallons of milk per year. On the other hand, there is 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in 1 stick of margarine and each cup of vegetable oil conservatively equates to 8 ounces. According to Solazyme's Form S-1, there are approximately 290 gallons in a metric ton [MT] of Solazyme's oil. This suggests that 1 MT of oil is capable of generating roughly 9,280 sticks of margarine. Therefore, we see that the 100,000 MT facility now under construction for the joint venture between Solazyme and Bunge (BG) could roughly support the production of 928,000,000 sticks of margarine in a given year. Assuming sticks of butter are equal replacements to sticks of margarine, we see that this one facility could theoretically displace over 275,000 cows and their related costs. That's quite impressive when one considers that there are roughly 60,000 dairy farms in the United States with the typical dairy herd averaging 135 cows per farm according to Purdue University. While this example may be a bit of a peculiar comparison, the point illustrates the efficiencies of utilizing Solazyme's technology in relation to the current food system". 

Mankind will be ever obliged to the biotechnology companies for investing billions of dollars on basic research to evolve strains of Algae with high fat accumulating traits and developing the large scale fermentors or bioreactors which can be set up vertically needing very little land unlike the conventional agriculture or pasture land based live stocks. Though sugar is the basic substrate from which fat is produced by the Algal cells, the versatility of the technology is such that any low grade sugars derived from non-edible cellulosic materials also can be gainfully utilized. What is not clear is whether the new potent Algal strains have been developed using genetic engineering and if so one can expect severe and adverse reaction from many consumers who are apprehensive about the safety of GMO foods in general. If Algal oil technology really takes off the whole agricultural landscape all over the world may change with potential for reduction of green house gases from the live stock animals and restoration of rain forests that protect the environment.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

IS BUTTER DEADLY FOR CHILDREN? NEW SCARE MONGERING!

It looks like that raising undue alarm about many common foods taken by consumers is a fashionable thing to do, at least for those who want to be in the lime light! Otherwise how can one justify a recent report highlighting the dangers of giving butter to children in their diet by mothers wishing to see their children grow fast and healthy! According to a "study" published recently food provided to children should avoid butter as it may lead to obesity in later life. It is true that butter does contain cholesterol and the role of this metabolite in developing arterial plaques is well known. But to argue that for young kids who are highly active butter would pose dangers is nothing but scare mongering. Poor children are not to be given sugar, salt and fatty products but still pundits want them to grow normally! It is time that the so called health pundits realize that any food ingredient can be dangerous if consumed in uncontrolled amounts and butter cannot be singled out for such malicious propaganda. Here is the report which blames parents for including butter in the diet of their children.  

A new study on food preference of schoolchildren and influences exerted by their mothers on food choice suggests that over 50 per cent of the mothers do not have an inkling of the connection between diet and heart disease and cholesterol. Around 80 per cent of the mothers are clueless on the role of diet in developing cancer later in the life."Despite high prevalence of obesity among both mothers and children, mothers do not tend to associate overweight with an unhealthy diet or ill-health in the short or long term," said the study carried out on 1,800 children from 24 schools and the same number of mothers. Six schools each were selected from Delhi, Agra, Pune and Bangalore for the study. The research, which will appear in the journal "Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism" in a month's time, coincides with the "Global Burden of Disease" data that flag poor diet as the number one risk factor for the death and disease burden in India. "We are increasingly adopting unhealthy eating habits. The consumption of processed food, high-salt snacks and chips, pizza, burger and cola are on the rise while intake of fresh fruit and vegetables are going down," Lalit Dandona, research professor at the Public Health Foundation India, who is not connected to the study, told Deccan Herald. Many mothers were not concerned about childhood weight gain. 

Universally the first principle of keeping oneself healthy is to consume a mixed diet containing whole cereals and pulses, varieties of fruits and vegetables in liberal quantities and milk, Of course lean meat and fish in limited quantities are welcome. If obesity has become a global problem, with most such people residing in the US, it is due to consumption of too much calories, salt, sugar and fat and highly refined cereals. What type of message is being sent to mothers through such convoluted theories and surveys which are deceptive and misleading? There are well laid down dietary guidelines, nationally and internationally put in place by experts and one need not get scared by this type of reports from time to time by authors based on half baked studies! 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

REDUCING FAT AND SALT IN CHEESE-NEW CHALLENGES

Salt and fat in the foods consumed by human beings, are two constituents which are considered to be critical in controlling many life style diseases like CVD, Blood Pressure, Kidney disorders etc and their reduction in the diet is a necessity to control further escalation of the risks to the health of consumers. These two substances present naturally in many foods. per se do not present any dangers as Nature has made sure that they are invariably present in moderate quantities in most foods but they become a risk when added to foods while processing to enhance the sensory quality to make them more appealing  and literally addictive. Realizing the dangers posed by salt to human beings, sustained campaigns are going on world over to persuade the industry to reduce salt incorporated during processing. Same is true for fat also and here the success rate in making and marketing no-fat and low fat products has been phenomenal. While most foods are amenable to efforts to reduce salt and fat without seriously affecting their organoleptic attributes seriously, Cheese is an exception in that salt and fat are the critical ingredients that decide the acceptability to the consumers.   

"Under pressure to reduce sodium and saturated fats in American diets — especially those of children — the cheese industry has tried to make products with less salt or fat that consumers will like. It has not had great success. "We've made some progress in that arena," said Gregory D. Miller, president of the Dairy Research Institute. "But we have not been able to crack the code." Dr. Miller, whose group is financed by the dairy industry, was referring to efforts to reduce salt, but he had a similar appraisal of the challenges of low-fat cheese. "When you take a lot of the fat out, essentially cheese will turn into an eraser," he said. The trouble with cheese is that salt and fat are critical components, responsible for far more of its character than consumers might think. Salt helps control moisture content and bacterial activity — the starter culture that is added to the milk and naturally occurring strains. All of them can flavor the cheese, for better or worse, as it ages. "Salt serves as a preservative, as a director of flavor development," said Mark Johnson, senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "If I remove it, my flavor goes in a different direction." Fat affects moisture levels, too — less fat generally means more water, which can speed spoilage — and helps govern texture, balancing out proteins so a cheese slices properly and feels right when chewed. Because salt and fat both affect moisture, it is particularly difficult to make a product that is low in both".

Cheese is historically an American food consumed in large quantities because it costs relatively less compared to the cost of fluid milk. To a large extent lower cost of  cheese in the US is as a result of deliberate government policy to help the dairy industry which gets fluid milk for making products at practically throw away prices. Fluid milk prices therefore are raised to compensate the producers for the loss incurred due to sale of milk to the processing industry. No doubt Cheese is a highly nutritious food containing more than 30% high quality proteins but its 35% fat content makes Cheese a dangerous food too if not consumed in moderate quantities. The salt content varies from 300 mg (spreads) to 1650 mg (Roquefort) of Sodium equivalent per 100 gm and if cheese is not consumed beyond 30-50 gm a day, the salt present in cheese is unlikely to be of any consequence. The salt need of human body is placed at 5-6 gm (2-2.4 gm of sodium equivalent) a day per person. But imagine the consequences of liberal consumption of more cheese on the health. Though an average American eats about 16 kg of cheese annually, what is surprising is that cheese consumption is more than double this quantity in a country like Greece! Whether Cheese is really the culprit for host of health disorders prevalent in the US is a matter of opinion as the per capita average consumption figure is less than 50 gm a day. What is however more dangerous definitely is the saturated fat content in cheese which can be a factor in obesity development. Dairy technologists will have to double up their efforts to bring down both salt and fat in cheese products and technical problems cannot be cited as an excuse for not doing this.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com