OLIVE POWDER-AN ANTIBIOTIC SUBSTANCE?

Olive oil is one of the most sought after edible oils in the world and this is reflected by the high prevailing prices in the international market. Its value is probably attributed to presence of healthy components in the fruit like Oleic acid, Polyphenols, Chlorophyll and Squalene, all with high antioxidant properties that can help neutralize the oxy radicals generated at the cellular level which are implicated in human diseases like cancer. While in the liquid form Olive oil is consumed as a salad oil, it is also considered a good cooking oil though its high price bar many consumers from using it regularly. Besides the aversion to fat, now being exhibited by the consumer community world over, will always come in the way of expanding its use in liquid form. Arrival of a host of products in powder form based on this oil is providing the consumers with an alternative to consuming in liquid form and reduce the guilty feeling! Powder form of olive oil based products find more varied uses in hundreds of products to provide the nutrition and improve the functionality. Now comes the news that in stead of whole oil powder, it is possible to make a much more healthy powder by using the pomace left over, after olive fruit pressing to recover bulk of the oil for commercial marketing, which is supposed to be much more nutritious in terms of antioxidants, phytochemicals and dietary fiber. Here is a take on this new development. 

An olive processing coproduct, olive powder was one of about two dozen plant extracts, spices, and herbs that the team evaluated for their potential to combat Escherichia coli O157:H7 and to retard formation of heterocyclic amines during cooking of hamburger patties. E. coli O157:H7 is a leading cause of food sickness in the United States and is blamed for more than 73,000 cases of illness annually. In recent years, many E. coli outbreaks have been traced back to ground beef and have led to the introduction of stringent new food safety rules designed to reduce the occurrence of this microbe, and six of its relatives, in meats, poultry, and other foods. Heterocyclic amines are of concern because they can inadvertently be formed when beef patties are cooked to the doneness recommended for helping kill unwanted microbes, such as E. coli. The two amines monitored in the burger experiment, MeIQx and PhIP, are on the National Toxicology Program's roster of possible carcinogens. For the study, high levels of E. coli O157:H7, along with the plant extract, spice, or herb of interest, were added to the ground beef patties. The patties were then cooked on a griddle until the meat's internal temperature reached 114°F, then flipped and cooked another 5 minutes until the internal temperature reached the recommended 160°F. The amine data showed that olive powder reduced MeIQx by about 80 percent and PhIP by 84 percent. Overall, olive powder was the most effective of the plant extracts (olive, apple, and onion powders) that were tested. Friedman notes that followup studies are needed to pinpoint the compounds in olive powder that are responsible for these effects and to determine whether the amount added in the experiments alters the burgers' taste.

Though the above study is more focused on preservation of hamburger patties where olive powder is reported to be very effective in neutralizing dangerous amines generated during cooking besides acting as an effective antibiotic against the much dreaded virulent E.coli in these products. It must be noted that virulent E.coli, several in number, are proving to be a major hazard in western countries, found in many products claiming precious lives. Therefore this finding, if confirmed, may be truly remarkable in fighting against such food borne infections. What remains unanswered is the identity of the chemical entities that were responsible for the beneficial effects of olive powder. Also uncertain is whether this powder will be equally effective in other food products also. More over addition of olive powder can modify the taste of the products in which it is incorporated depending on the levels required to be used for optimum performance. The trillion dollar palm oil industry in Asia is expected to be benefited if such value added products emerge from the shop floors of their palm fruit milling facilities.   

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

"COUNTERFEIT" FOODS-A GLOBALLY ROARING BUSINESS!

Cheating the consumer for making a fast buck is a universal phenomenon, whether in India, China or the US. While consumers can absorb occasional sub-par quality products marketed by some unscrupulous players, it assumes critical dimension when such foods can pose serious health hazards. For example adding water to milk is not directly dangerous
but concocting a milk look alike product made from urea, detergents etc can be really reprehensible and indefensible.
It is interesting that most risky foods churned out by fraudsters posing health risks are more prevalent in developing countries like India while counterfeit foods with doubtful quality are seen more in developed countries. This may probably due to more efficient surveillance and modern infrastructure seen in wealthy countries. According to a recent study economic fraud is more prevalent globally with high priced products like olive oil, saffron, honey etc though mass consumed products do not lag very much behind. Here is an informative piece of report on the subject.  

"Some fear higher world food prices are making food counterfeiting the next big global trend. Counterfeit food is a way to steal millions and put food safety at extreme risk. Obviously, anyone willing to rip off valued brands or products to manufacture counterfeit food outside of any the regulation of any country does not give a rip about food safety. Interpol Police have recently turned up candy bards, fish, cheese, and tomato sauce—all phony—foods that could have ended up in the U.S. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has its own police force for tackling fraudulent foods and drugs. Counterfeit drugs get most of the attention. The World Bank says consumers pay $30 billion annually for fake drugs with Africa being the hardest. Estimates for how much consumers pay for fake food are a little more fluid. At last month's 9th Annual Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Summit held in Midtown West, NY, a fact sheet from DuPont said counterfeiting cost U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually, affecting 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Food and beverages are only a slice of that, of course, but consider that Russia has documented $3.3 billion in annual losses due just to counterfeit vodka, the total for food and beverage products would probably be staggering".

If the above report is to be believed the cost of counterfeiting branded foods and drugs is staggering with many major brand owners suffering financially from this under-ground activities of fraudsters. More concerned should be the consumers who are cheated out of their hard earned money by enticing them to buy cheaper foods. Can this criminal activity ever be stopped? Probably not as many experts believe that it would be a logistical nightmare if taken up seriously and it is impossible to eliminate frauds completely. A possible option could be to increase the severity of punishment meted out to the food fraudsters such a way it has a strong deterrent effect on those contemplating committing such frauds.

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

NEW ANTIOXIDANTS FOR FOODS-POLYMERIZED VERSIONS

Why is that nutrition experts recommend including brightly colored fruits and vegetables in the regular diet? Because these plant crops are rich in antioxidant type of phytochemicals considered helpful in protecting human health from many diseases. One of the most important discoveries in medical science is that due to generation of free radicals with high oxidation potential in the cellular system, there can be many dangers like cancer of different types and if these free radicals are promptly neutralized such risks can be averted. The role of antioxidant is to "kill" these radicals and make them innocuous. Though there are many proven antioxidants present in almost all foods in varying concentrations, their absorption into the blood stream is constrained by their inefficiency in getting across the Gastrointestinal membrane. Recent attempts by a group of scientists in the UK to make these oxygen scavenging phytochemicals more efficient in their activity are being hailed as a breakthrough with far reaching positive implications. Here is a take on this exciting new development in the health food.

"What if you could take a naturally occurring compound and make it stronger so that it could make food last longer, create better flame-retardant material, and possibly develop a cancer- fighting drug? Research chemists at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center believe they may have found an answer to this question. They took a naturally occurring phenolic-based compound and enzymatically polymerized it; this chemical process basically means the compound is reacted to form a long chain of repeating units. "As you make this polymer chain longer, it becomes a more potent anti-oxidant than what you actually find in nature," said Nicole Favreau Farhadi, an NSRDEC research chemist. "(Due to the conjugation of this polymer, it) is more potent than its naturally occurring monomer." Roughly 10 years ago, this process began to be used with epicatechin, an anti-oxidant found in green tea, white tea, red wine, and elsewhere in nature. Research chemists at Natick thought they could use this same tactic for other compounds, such as hydroxytyrosol, one of the most potent antioxidants found in olive oil.  Polymerization in this way is incredibly important because it is relatively simple, now that the process has been formulated, which means polymerizing on a mass scale is feasible. "We reported in two patents the homo- and co-polymerization of hydroxytyrosol for possible application as an anti-oxidant for food, maybe even cancer drugs," said Ferdinando Bruno, also an NSRDEC research chemist. 'Anti-oxidant' seems to be a catch phrase used in magazines, news programs, diets, and even on food labels and elsewhere. This trend may be warranted, though, as free radicals tend to cause more harm than we realize." "When we talk about anti-oxidants as (they) pertain to food, oxygen just wreaks havoc on it," Favreau said. "If you can eliminate or lessen the effect of oxygen on the food, then (it will) last longer. That's why anti-oxidants are so important. You've probably seen how we have oxygen scavengers in rations. The contents of these packets bind with the oxygen, therefore blocking reaction with the compounds in food that cause degradation."

As a chemical reaction is needed to convert the naturally occurring phenolic compounds into more effective antioxidant, the product so formed is considered a synthetic chemical and for use in food products same has to be tested clinically to prove its safety. Probably such efforts in getting approval is time consuming and expensive, it is unlikely that these new generation plant based antioxidants will ever find an entry into foods. The organization which developed this process must strive to get government funding to prove the safety of the products for use in food products. Of course the alternate and easy option to use these polymerized products in non-food industry may be more attractive as it does not involve any elaborate safety assessment.

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

FOOD ADULTERATION-A UNIVERSAL THREAT TO CONSUMERS

The hapless citizens in India can take solace from a recent scholarly report about fraudulent practices adopted by manufacturers of foods world over to get economic benefits at the expense of the consumer. One is familiar with the famous saying of one of the past prime ministers of India describing corruption as universal and not confined to India. Same appears to be true with food adulteration also. It is surprising that the fraudsters are always one step ahead of the safety agencies when it comes to detecting adulteration and their techniques are increasingly becoming more and more sophisticated with time. Food frauds literally constitute a high tech industry because of the enormous economic gains inherent in adulteration. Interestingly costlier the food product, more incentive is available for evolving appropriate methods to mimic the original product with cheap alternatives.Here is a gist of the report that elaborates on economic frauds perpetrated in the US based on reliable data base. 

"Olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice are the seven most likely food ingredients to be targets for intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food, or food fraud, according to analysis of the first U.S. public database created to compile information on risk factors for food fraud published in the Journal of Food Science. The database was created by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and provides baseline information to assist interested parties in assessing the risks of specific products. It includes a total of 1,305 records for food fraud based on a total of 667 scholarly, media and other publicly available reports. Food fraud is a collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. A more specific type of fraud is the fraudulent addition of non-authentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain of the seller. According to the authors of the paper, food fraud may be more risky than traditional threats to the food supply because the adulterants used in these activities often are unconventional and designed to avoid detection through routine analyses. "The vast majority of food fraud is primarily technical and economical," said John Spink, associate director with the anti-counterfeiting and product protection program at Michigan State University. "However, there are some cases where there can be serious health consequences as illustrated when melamine was added to infant formula and pet food in order to falsify the level of protein content in these products."

When it comes to food adulteration no other country can beat India because this is a country where every one has unlimited freedom to indulge in such activities with no possibility of retribution. Though food laws that exist are comparable to international ones, there is very little activity at the ground level to monitor or detect adulterated foods in the market or punish the guilty. Milk is mentioned as one of the top adulterated products but can any country beat the ingenuity of the Indian fraudsters in evolving a milk completely without a cow or a buffalo, using ingredients like detergents, urea, cheap oil etc that competes with genuine milk in the market with complete impunity? Of course Chinese may be providing close competition by using the deadly Melamine to increase protein values in milk for economic gains! Saffron is another commodity that attracts fraudsters like the honey beckoning the bees! Consumers are invariably advised by well meaning pundits that they should go for branded foods marketed by established food manufacturers but it is like asking people to eat cake if bread is not affordable! Besides almost all commodities that do not undergo any significant are not available in the branded format from reputed industry players. There does not appear to be any lasting solution to this vexed problem. Stringent punishment to proven fraudsters in double quick time, if made the hall mark of the food safety regime, may see a decline in adulteration cases significantly. A separate and dedicated food fraud court stream under the judiciary for fast tracking such cases may also have a deterrent effect.  

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