How to preserve your food without electricity. Hurricane Sandy has left an estimated 7.5 million people without power, and in some areas, it could be days before it is restored. U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends to keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40 °F and frozen food at or below 0 °F. This may not be an easy thing to do when the power is out. Here are some tips to prolong the life of your food, and the basics to know when it time to ditch items for good. Shut the Door The first rule of thumb is to keep the fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible. You can get a block of ice --or even dry ice --to keep your refrigerator as cold as possible.
Keep an Eye on the Temperature Use a thermometer to determine the temperature inside the fridge and freezer. When in Doubt Throw it Out Throw away any foods not in waterproof containers (ie, “those with screw caps, snap lids, pull tops, and crimped cans”) Foods commercially canned in metal or pouches can be wiped off and rinsed. Net : Caramelization. Food-Info.net> Topics > Food components > Food colours > Browning > Caramelization Caramelization is one of the most important types of browning processes in foods, together with Maillard reactions and enzymatic browning. Carmelization leads desirable colour and flavour in bakery's goods, coffee, beverages, beer and peanuts. Undesirable effects of caramelization are for example burned sugar smell and blackening.
Caramelization causes important changes in foods, not only in colour but also in flavour. As no enzymes are involved in the carmelization process, it is a non-enzymatic browning reaction. Caramelization occurs during dry heating and roasting of foods with a high concentration of carbohydrates (sugars). Simply speaking, caramelization is the process of removal of water from a sugar (such as sucrose or glucose) followed by isomerization and polymerisation steps. The process of caramelization starts with the melting of the sugar at high temperatures, followed by foaming (boiling). Importance of Staple Crops. Bruce Campbell Ph.D.: Food Security: A Ripe Opportunity for the G8. This piece is part of a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19.
The upcoming G8 summit gives world leaders an important opportunity to address some of the most urgent challenges that our world faces. Of these, one of the most pressing and complex is ensuring the future of our food supply while simultaneously improving environmental sustainability within our globally interconnected food system. There is real promise that this year's G8 Summit will announce a new food security initiative. Depending on what it includes and the scope of its vision, such an initiative could lay the foundation for a new era of innovation, prosperity and sustainability in our food system -- something we desperately require.
In short, our window of opportunity to avert a humanitarian, environmental and climate crisis is rapidly closing. Dr. Sydney and NSW Fresh Produce Guide - Seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables in season in Sydney and New South Wales. Most foods contain acceptable sulfite levels, FSANZ study shows :: FoodProcessing. Most foods contain sulfites at acceptable levels, a recent Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) survey has shown. The survey examined sausages, cordials and dried fruit and found that sulfite levels in almost all foods tested were well below those allowed in the Food Standards Code. “The results showed only three sausages, out of 156, had levels above the limits set in the Food Standards Code,” said FSANZ CEO Steve McCutcheon. “These exceedences have been reported to the relevant state or territory agency for follow up.” The survey was conducted as preliminary work on a proposal looking at the use of sulfites, McCutcheon said.
Sulfites occur naturally in foods and in the human body, but are also used to preserve food. They also have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. In people who are sensitive to sulfites, they can cause allergic symptoms and asthmatic reactions. The Code requires any added sulfites, above a certain level in a food, to be declared on the ingredients list. Tracing your food. This view is dedicated to those who are interested in giving/getting additional information about the quality of food which have some form of impact on food quality management. The efficiency of quality management and assurance could certainly be greatly improved if information was available/purchased together with the product.
Traceability provides a tool for remote quality assurance by finding spots in the value chain that are important with respect to provision of information. Different strategies for exposing information along a value chain can be modeled and implemented. Which strategy to select will depend upon several factors and which type of actor that has stakes in the information quality. Exchange and sharing of traceability information describes different strategies while this section may provide insights about what they actually mean from different viewpoints. Purchasing information along with the product How to avoid repeating costly analysis along the chain. Airplane food tastes strange and here’s why. Published in collaboration with The Conversation, a website that features commentary, research and analysis from Australian universities and the CSIRO.
Taste is not just determined by the gustatory qualities of the food. It is also substantially influenced by the state of your mouth. Transient changes in our sense of taste are quite common. This can occur with gum and dental disease and mouth problems such as thrush and mucositis associated with a cold/flu or chemotherapy. Some medications can also alter taste sensation including some anti-hypertensive drugs, antibiotics and antihistamines. Contaminated pine nuts may also trigger a persistent unpleasant taste, known as pine mouth.
Low zinc levels can also alter our sense of taste. The best dietary sources of zinc are crustaceans, meat and poultry. Strict vegetarians are at increased risk of low zinc levels, partly as they avoid zinc-rich meat and partly as fibre in plants reduces zinc absorption. Changing tastes High and dry. 100 taken ill after marriage feast. Blog Archive » Does Your Food Make the Grade? Do you help your parents shop for groceries? If you spend much time in a grocery store — or looking at the foods in your refrigerator and freezer — you’ll notice that some foods have grades. For example, you might see Grade “A” eggs in your refrigerator. Did the eggs have to pass a test? Or did the chicken have to take the test? What does the Grade “A” on eggs even mean? You might also notice that different types of meats have grades, too. What do these grades and terms mean when it comes to the food you eat?
The food we eat comes from many different sources. Not all foods are treated in the same way, though. For example, meat (like beef) and poultry (like chicken) are regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The FSIS, however, is not responsible for grading these food products for quality. Grading for quality is done by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The number of available grades depends upon the particular food being graded. 7 Food Ingredients Most Prone for Food Fraud. ROCKVILLE, Md. —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. Shift Happens 2012 Shocking Customer Service Stats.
Govs tour Neb. beef plant to see 'pink slime' - The Daily News Online: Food. The three governors and two lieutenant governors spent about a half hour learning about the process of creating finely-textured lean beef in a tour of the main plant that makes the product, then blasted the media for scaring consumers with a moniker coined by critics. "If you called it finely textured lean beef, would we be here? " asked Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Several other leaders echoed his comments as they tried to smooth over consumer concerns about the product. Beef Products, the main producer of the cheap lean beef made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts, has drawn scrutiny over concerns about the ammonium hydroxide it treats meat with to change the beef's acidity and kill bacteria. The politicians who toured the plant — Texas Gov. "Why are we here today defending a company that has a rather sterling record dealing with making a food product that is very much needed in this country in a very safe manner?
"It's lean. "I'm not saying it's perfectly safe. The dilemma of pink slime: cost or culture? Proof That Not All Food is QUALITY FOOD! « Cody Witt: Real Deal Compost. March 28, 2012 by Cody Witt So here is an interesting bit of information for all people interested in the food you eat. Here is proof that there is a difference between conventional food bought at the local store and food grown sustainably in you own garden or if our conventional food was grown sustainably! We bought some peppers from our local “high quality” store and picked some peppers from our own garden. We left both of these peppers to dry naturally and dehydrate. Here are the pictures to prove something is wrong with conventional agriculture.
Store bought peppers vs home grown peppers! The key is looking at the mold growth on the store bought peppers vs the home grown peppers. Molded store bought dried peppers! There is a difference in food quality. This shows us that the ways in which conventional food is grown with an emphasis on chemical fertilizers and mass production is not creating quality food for us to eat.
Healthy Peppers grown in healthy soil creates long lasting results! Kids in the kitchen. A new initiative that teaches children how to grow and cook their own healthy food is taking off in schools around the country - and the head chef is none other than Stephanie Alexander Twelve-year-old Tim has a black smudge on his nose.
It isn’t dirt from the footy field or escaped ink from his school pen. It’s charcoal from the flat breads he has been grilling to go with the garlicky white bean dip he has just prepared. He is one of the lucky children attending Southmoor Primary School in the southern suburbs of Melbourne, one of 27 Victorian schools that participate in Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Program, the aim of which is to provide a pleasurable food education for primary school students. The program takes a holistic approach, teaching kids how to grow, harvest, prepare and share food in a school environment, and has been hugely successful.
Tim needs little prompting to tell me just how much he enjoys the program’s gardening and cooking classes. Ramen Data: Mouth to Anus. Processed food like ramen noodles and gummy bears are bad for you. Now, for the first time ever, you can see how for yourself. Artist and provacateur Stefani Bardin‘s newest project M2A™:The Fantastic Voyage offers a graphic look at how the gastrointestinal tract (GI) processes a meal of Top Ramen, Gummy Bears and Blue Gatorade versus a meal of hand made noodles, pomegranate/cherry juice gummy bears, and hibiscus gatorade. Bardin worked in collaboration with gastroenterologist Dr. Braden Kuo of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital to launch the first ever clinical study using the M2A™ Capsule (mouth-to-anus) to record video of the digestion process. They also used a SmartPill wireless gastroenterology device to capture rich time, pressure, and pH data of how the GI tract reacts as each kind of food is digested.
Bardin worked with Mike Lee of Studiofeast to design the whole foods menu. The goal of this project?
Making multicultural Australia | Teacher and student resources on multiculturalism, cultural diversity and tolerance. Live cattle | All exports to Indonesia suspended. Live cattle export ban imposed A ship waiting to be loaded with cattle leaves Port Hedland following news of a ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia. P 8, 2011 THE federal government has decided to suspend the export of all live cattle to Indonesia, following a public outcry and a threatened backbench revolt. The Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, signed the order last night and said the ban would stay in place until safeguards had been adopted that would ensure the proper treatment of the beasts along the whole supply chain. The decision to suspend the $318 million-a-year-industry was taken by cabinet on Monday night and has the potential to upset the Indonesians, the cattle industry and the federal opposition, all of which have argued against a blanket ban.
"Major change" ... Advertisement Ms Gillard met industry representatives in Darwin last night. MILKING THE MARKET. *UPDATE, July 18, 2012… The National Farmers Federation of Australia is calling for legislation to protect primary producers as proposed in Britain, where the Government is to introduce an independent adjudicator to regulate supermarket-supplier relations. Suppliers say our two big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths are increasingly abusing their market power, hurting hundreds of suppliers and sending many to the wall. The supermarkets have hit back, saying they are acting for consumers to bring down prices and that their dealings with suppliers are reasonable.
“Since the supermarket giants provoked concern from regional Australia by drastically cutting milk prices (see story below), the relationship with suppliers has become increasingly sour,” reports ABC News. “Consumer watchdog Choice has long argued the major players have a unique and unprecedented level of control and concentration.” That cheap milk you are buying is cheap for a reason. And I’ve never tasted anything quite so good.