FRUITS AND VEGETABLES-GOING OUT OF THE DIET?

It may be a global phenomenon that the market prices of fresh protective foods are always higher than durable foods with predominant starch content like cereals. For example in many western countries fruits and vegetables costs an average consumer almost two to three times more for getting the recommended minimum quantity in the daily diet compared to cereal based foods. Glaringly food industry manufactures more high calorie foods at low costs attracting more and more poor income group consumers than those based on fruits and vegetables. Naturally high calories foods with high sugar, starch, fat and salt flood the market with palate tingling quality and the result is there for all to see with people bloated bodies swelling the ranks of the population day by day, the obesity epidemic showing no sign of being contained. If this is the case of rich nations what could be the situation in a poor country like India? According recent studies, the syndrome of excluding fruits and vegetables from every day diet is spreading fast in India with very serious future implications on the health of the already nutrition compromised population. Here is a take on this new disturbing trend.  

"The fear of bad monsoon has suddenly hiked the vegetables and fruits prices by 300% from the farm to your dining table," Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said in a survey on "Rising prices of fruits and vegetables" in which over 5,000 people took part. Over 88% of middle income group (MIG) and lower income group (LIG) find difficult to manage the household budget and squeezing families' finances to the lowest level due to uncertainty of rains, according to a country-wide survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) under the aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF). The survey was conducted in major places like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Bangalore and so on.  During the last three years, the salary of average common man has gone up by 10-15% but on the other side the prices of vegetables have also gone up by 250-300%,adds the ASSOCHAM paper. The maximum impact was felt in major cities like Delhi (1st), Mumbai (2nd), Ahmedabad (3rd), Kolkata (4th), Chennai (5th), Hyderabad (6th) and Pune (7th). Around 82% of lower middle class families have been forced to skip or squeezed their budgets for vegetables because of skyrocketing prices.
The prices of most of the widely consumed vegetables have shot up during the last two weeks in most parts of the country with the early onset of monsoon rains. The sudden increases of vegetables prices have seriously hit the common men mainly in the metro cities, adds D S Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM"

Is it not tragic that the so called democratically elected government is indulging in petty politics by bringing an ordinance on food security (old wine in new bottle!) that is supposed to legally 'guarantee" two thirds of the population with some hypothetical quantity of rotten cereals? Assuming that the guaranteed quantity is delivered without any operational hiccups and imagining the grain is edible, does the government feel that its duty is just to keep the "body and soul" of its citizens together without providing any means of nourishment through protective foods? The spooky statistics from the government may say that there is less than 5% inflation in the country but the prices of essentials like fruits and vegetables have gone through the roof recently! The traders are now quoting the rate of these foods "per quarter kilo" to make it appear reasonable, a gimmick that may not go well with the consumers. Probably if the government further shirks its responsibility for ensuring "nutrition security" to its citizens, traders may start selling such foods "per 100 grams" basis by next year!   

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

      

ANOTHER "FRUITY" CLAIM-PANACEA FOR MANY DISEASES!

Health experts world over are unanimous in their opinion that regular consumption of fruits and vegetables can be best insurance against developing life crippling diseases which are so abundant to day affecting the lives of millions of people. The American "Food Pyramid" dietary guidelines of yesteryears as well as the current "Food Plate" version recommend that fruits and vegetables must form a substantial part of the every day diet to avoid health related problems. It is another matter that cost of these protective foods rules high compared to those foods which are calorie dense because of high sugar and fat components.  While dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals are available in plenty in most fruits and vegetables, they are also rich sources of a variety of phytochemicals with  varying healthy attributes. Many colored fruits are supposed to contain many chemicals like anthocyanins with high antioxidant properties capable of neutralizing oxyradicals generated at the cellular level and protect from dreaded diseases like cancer. According to a very recent study, phenolic substances present in stone fruits like peaches can protect human beings from diseases including diabetes. Here is a take on this new findings.    

"What is unique to these fruits, he said, is that their mixture of the bioactive compounds work simultaneously within the different components of the disease. "Our work shows that the four major phenolic groups – anthocyanins, clorogenic acids, quercetin derivatives and catechins – work on different cells – fat cells, macrophages and vascular endothelial cells," he explained. "They modulate different expressions of genes and proteins depending on the type of compound. "However, at the same time, all of them are working simultaneously in different fronts against the components of the disease, including obesity, inflammation, diabetes and cardiovascular disease," he explained. Cisneros-Zevallos said this is believed to be the first time that "bioactive compounds of a fruit have been shown to potentially work in different fronts against a disease."

It is notable that these fruits contain all the four major phenolic compounds which were found to act simultaneously on different cells to prevent the diseases posing much danger but if this finding is true the natural question that follows is whether other colored fruits do not have the same make up of phenolic compounds as in stone fruits? The phenolic chemical make up in most fruits is well known but what is not clear is their bio-availability to the body after the fruits are consumed. If consuming fruits like peaches can be a panacea for good health, there is a case for promoting their production through incentives and making the same available at low prices affordable to people, especially to vulnerable groups who over eat cheap junk foods leading to body over weight. One is reminded of the "famed" space juice evolved by the NASA for astronauts to protect them from UV radiation during space travel. This is a concoction of juices derived from 10 plant sources rich in anti-oxidants and found effective in counter acting the aging process and skin deterioration. Unless more clarity emerges in this field it is difficult to take at face value claims like the one made above and blindly start eating stone fruits. Of course no harm will be done even if these fruits become a regular part of the diet.    

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

A SLICING DEVICE-USE OF WATER MEDIUM FOR CLEAN CUTTING

One of the unit operations in food processing is cutting to reduce the size of raw materials to the desired size range. Slicing, dicing and cutting into different shapes, all need knives and other sharp gadgets. Time has changed since man used knives made of steel, copper and other metals to make knives and other cutting tools by a variety of domestic chores as well as for food processing as more and more mechanical and electric devices are being introduced to increase productivity and reduce manual intervention as far as possible. Special metal alloys have emerged which are robust and precise working for long time without losing their sharpness. In food industry, use of stainless steel knives and cutting blades have become standard because of the ease with which they can be cleaned up to avoid cross contamination of food in manufacturing facilities. Still contamination can still be a problem due to negligence and oversight. It is in this context that high pressure water jet cutting system is considered super efficient for food industry. High pressure water jets using Ultra High  Pressure (UHP) has been in use for some time for a variety of cutting operations in products like pizza, cakes, meat, fish, candy bars, french fries, many frozen foods etc but it gained added importance with food safety concerns due to pathogen contamination increasing day by day, especially in the US and the EU. Here is a peep into this marvelous cutting tool of immaculate efficiency.  

There are many wonders of engineering, confined to the labs and warehouses of industry, that we laypeople never get to see. That's the case with the water jet cutter, which fires out a thin stream of water through a diamond nozzle at nearly the speed of sound and can slice through everything from peaches to linoleum with the greatest of ease. It's been around in some form since the 1950s, but if you're not in the business of cutting things into ever-smaller pieces, you may not have come across it. Here is a cutter made by Paprima going through beets like a knife through butter: If you've never chopped a beet, let me enlighten you: beets are like spheres of wood. You may be tempted to pull out a hatchet to make any kind of serious progress—or, you could reach for a tiny stream of pressurized water. That stream of water has a delicate touch, too. It can slice through food items as fragile as canned peaches and leave not a scratch on them, except for a thin line of empty space. It also, as long as the water is clean, does not leave bacteria on them, which is a downside of using a metal knife to process sliced foods.

According to experts familiar with water jet cutting technology, pure water cutting has several advantages which include good sanitary protection, prevention of cross contamination, steady pressure of water ensuring uniform cutting and versatility to manage precise cutting, slitting, portioning etc using a pump generating 90000 psi pressure. Because of the high pressure water gets evaporated instantly without ever wetting the product subjected to cutting. The technology requires use of specific cutting nozzles for each application and food industry can manage the floor level processing without the need to remove the conventional cutting blades, cleaning them regularly and drying before using for the next operation. Since the high pressure jet nozzle does not come in contact with the food, contamination is never a serious issue. More over under such high pressures no microbe can survive for causing any future problem.


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