Looking beyond thermal processing-Emerging new technologies for the food industry

Who does not want to enjoy a safe and tasty meal? The food we eat is as precious to creatures as it is to us, who live along with us in this planet and therefore competing with man to have a share of the pie is quite natural, But man in his perpetual fight for ensuring continuous supply of food for himself and his fellow denizens innovate tirelessly to protect the food supply through "killing" technologies which are widely deployed through out the entire spectrum of food chain. By far his fight has been of epic proportions when it comes to eliminating vectors and pathogenic bugs. Many of them, besides eating the food which man considers as his, they also contribute a host of diseases with mass destruction potential. Once this is achievable the next focus is keeping the food as fresh as possible to utilize the nutrients present in them fully and enjoying the unique flavor and taste associated with fresh foods.

Historically food preservation was accomplished by using natural substances like salt and sugar both of them being injurious to pathogenic microorganisms at high concentrations raising the osmotic pressure of the medium to intolerable levels. Fermentation to lower the pH of the food system was also as old as human civilization. Use of heat to cook the foods achieved destruction of undesirable microbes besides imparting highly palatable qualities to the food. Pasteurization and sterilization became common place to prolong the life of many foods and thermally processed foods in bottles and cans supported human lives especially during stress times like wars, famine, drought, epidemics etc. Even to day heat is used in some modern processes like aseptic packing, HTST and UHT technologies and in-package sterilization. Advent of chemical preservatives like sulfur dioxide, benzoates, sorbates and many other chemical substances provided an easier option to thermal processing. But to day's consumer is not willing to accept any chemically tainted foods because of the unknown consequences, especially in the long run,  of ingesting them on his health.   

Under such an environment it is no wonder that food scientists and the processing industry are looking for new technologies that will be more efficient and less intrusive as far as flavor and texture of the food is concerned. Consumer is fully justified in demanding more and more fresh , improved quality and healthy foods for him as well as his family and this demand from the market place is the driving force for novel technologies that can provide chemically free, palatable and healthy foods. Here comes the challenge because severe processing conditions can irrevocably change the characteristics of the natural food giving the consumer some thing like a pale shadow of the original food. Also environment friendly processes with minimum power and water use and less and less pollution potential are inevitable. New emerging technologies such as high-pressure processing (HPP), pulsed electric field (PEF) and cold plasma are considered very promising and can be expected to be main stream processes in the coming years..

HPP does not use heat for achieving disinfection of products and is in the forefront as a choice for a non-thermal pasteurization technique. Here products are subjected to high pressures between 300 and 600 MPa for a duration of about 10 minutes. The advantages of HPP over the conventional thermal processing techniques can be manifold, most important ones being significantly reduced process times, very low heat damage to the product and retention of product flavor, texture, color and heat labile nutrients. But HPP cannot be effective in achieving destruction of dangerous spores of some bacteria if used alone, though it can be used in conjunction with low acidity of the medium or use of refrigeration. HPP is versatile in that it can inactivate pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, yeasts, molds and viruses but not effective when it comes to inactivation of undesirable enzymes. Its application is linked to factors such as the type of microorganism, food composition, pH and water activity of the food system. Its use world wide  by industrial establishments is reported to be wide spread during the last few years. HPP is excellently suited to liquid and semi-solid food products such as fruit juices, purees, smoothies, jellies etc. Major constraints for its growth are high capital expenditure, low productivity and batch type of operations. 

PEF is a unique process which can kill bacteria present in liquid food products at low temperatures within a short period of time. Here the food is exposed to a pulsed high voltage field for less than 1 second and this process ensures better retention and storage stability of phytochemicals like carotenoids, phenolic compounds and flavonols, in comparison to thermal processing. Combining the PEF treatment at moderate temperatures with the presence of an antimicrobial, effective against both Gram-positive and -negative pathogenic bacteria, would significantly enhance process efficiency, reduce the number of pulses and outlet temperature and lead to significant energy cost savings. A major limitation of PEF is that it is not suited to foods with high conductivity, high salt content and liquid foods with high particulate content. Research efforts are in progress to further refine the technology for as wide applications as possible and fool proof with 100% kill efficiency against most food borne pathogens.   .  

Cold plasma technology is another choice when it comes to processing foods without using high temperatures. Plasma is considered the fourth state of matter that is energetically distinguishable from solids, liquids and gases. Plasma is a source of different antimicrobial substances including UV photons, charged particles, and reactive species such as superoxide, hydroxyl radicals, nitric oxide and ozone. Non-thermal plasma which does not use high temperature and power can be generated by electric or magnetic discharges at lower pressures, Cold plasma can be effective in the sanitization of the surface of fresh produce like fruits and vegetables, liquid products like juices and still beverages besides decontamination of processing equipment  in food industry. It may take more efforts for the cold plasma processing to become a fool proof method for the food processing industry as there is no assurance that it can achieve a 100% kill rate in all food systems.  

Though the on-going public interest in non-thermal process technologies is very high, investments sufficient to fast track these developments are not forthcoming due to many reasons, the major one being the high capital cost involved in fabricating industrial capacity machinery with high productivity. One example of a non-thermal process that remains untapped fully is irradiation technology, in spite of high investments made over the last three decades in evolving industrial scale plants for treating a variety of food products with assured decontamination efficiency and minimum damage to the products processed. Probably this may be the non-motivating factor that is impeding development of many non-thermal food processing technologies at a pace commensurate with the growth of food industry world over.

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

SMART AND ACTIVE PACKAGING-FUTURE TREND

Here is a hypothetical question that may be relevant when the phenomenal growth of food processing industry is considered, whether this growth would have been possible but for the magnificent role played by the packaging industry in developing functional and aesthetic packaging materials during the last 2-3 decades. If at all one single factor which helped the industry to pull in more and more consumers to its products and consequently set off hectic development of thousands of products, is to be identified, it is the packaging material innovations over the years. With the advent of plastic materials developed from fossil fuels with many desirable functional characteristics, food industry got a platform to diversify their product basket, extend the supply chain and prolong the life of the products more and more giving retailers, domestic and international, comfortable elbow space for mounting concerted marketing blitzkrieg. It is another matter that food industry is now on the dock for turning out products considered by many as unhealthy, unsafe and addictive. 

The role of packaging changed from to time and as it is more or less an ancillary industry to food processing, its growth agenda determined by development of the food manufacturing sector, though non-food packaging flourished independently. Ever since the canning technology was established as a reliable tool to preserve foods which otherwise are perishable, the importance of packaging increased by leaps and bounds and to day it is inconceivable that the food industry can survive without the prop from the packaging industry. With increased volume of business, food industry started demanding more and more innovations from the packaging sector to which latter responded effectively and responsibly. Packaging industry got a bad name lately because of the critical safety questions raised by the consumers when they are used in food contact applications. So much has been said and written on plastics and their safety in packing foods that there is still no clarity on this important issue. Health experts, environmentalists and consumer activists, all continue to press for more sustainable and safer packaging systems. Whether these issues will fade away or become more strident in the coming years remains to be seen. 

While resistance to plastics will not abate for a long time to come, there is still a feeling that they are inevitable because of their versatility. Development endeavor in the field of plastic packaging has been so phenomenal that, if their safety record is improved, they can provide unlimited and unimaginable advantages to the consumers. Active and smart packaging systems are really overwhelming and it is simply not possible to turn a blind eye to these emerging innovations. The basic function of any packaging is to make food last longer but if it can alert the consumer about changes taking place inside the sealed pack or interact with the content to improve the consumer experience like change of color in sea food packs from yellow to blue when it becomes bad or including CO2 to keep the freshness longer or providing O2 absorbers to pre-empt oxidative deterioration or use lactase enzyme in carton lining for making milk acceptable to lactose intolerant people can become standard industry practices in the coming years. Packaging system that can heat up the contents without the use of external heating through exothermic chemical reaction is a development which some how did not take off when introduced some years ago.

A change in packaging can revive the fortunes of a product considered on the verge of extinction. The classical example is pop corn which was once a very popular product for the kids as well as the adults and Americans were even given the tag as a nation with pop corn culture because of the omnipotent presence of this snack item every where. With the advent of thousands of new snacks in the market, pop corn naturally faded away from the minds of the consumers. It was after the introduction of microwavable packs for making pop corn at home where microwave heating system is readily available that this product again became a roaring success. Similarly till the advent of packaging materials that could stand high temperature exposure, ready meal design for instant consumption had to be dependent on metal cans and to day several alternative laminates with different combinations are available that can be used for making retortable pouches capable of withstanding high temperatures to achieve sterility. If Tetrapack system using paper laminates to pack many liquid and semi liquid products under aseptic conditions after UHT heating regime has become a run away success, credit goes to the packaging industry for evolving such versatile packing materials. 

Most challenging task for food packaging industry is to deploy permissible anti microbial chemicals as an integral part of packaging without imparting any taint to the contents because food poisoning from pathogens is by far the most frequent danger faced by the consumers. Such packaging materials should have the ability to  destroy microorganisms , should not harm the food in any way, must be cost-effective, should have low health risks besides being legally permissible. Sorbic acid impregnated bread wrappers were used extensively in some countries but this does not seem to be practiced any more because of better technological developments in bread making. There are many such anti microbial chemicals with high effectiveness which should be considered for incorporation in packaging materials without them leaching into the contents but still keeping the pathogens away. Whether this is an achievable task remains to be seen. However availability of zero gas and water transmission film materials for food packing is already helping many products to keep safe for even up to five years shelf life under vacuum.  

Many consider Active packaging as the muscle of the industry while Smart packaging can be the brain. Active packaging does not remain as a passive physical protection system but interacts with the environment with in the pack contributing to improving the product quality or preventing the natural deterioration. In contrast Smart packaging system can enhance the consumer experience through intelligent interaction and help more appreciation of the features of the food product inside. Unlike most of the present packaging materials and the systems now in vogue, Active and Smart packaging provide an additional protective function without incorporation of any chemicals into the food for achieving longer life or better quality. Besides they will not have active contact with the food contents ruling out any product tainting. Computer inter phasing with packaging systems can be expected to make the food buying a much more pleasurable experience in the coming years.          

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

AUDITING THE AUDITORS-WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?

Many countries depend on private auditors with good reputation for ensuring sound food safety practices are followed by the industry. There are international protocols for enrolling and evaluating the competence and capability of these private players and their assessments are generally accepted as valid. But the million dollar question that is rattling the safety agencies is whether these technical auditors are really doing a good job or they make only superfluous  and perfunctory inspection not caring to be critical in bringing out deficiencies in the manufacturing environment. It is a pity that several cases of negligence and callousness on the part of the private auditors were brought out which were responsible for many food poisoning episodes in the last two-three years and no action seems to have been taken to book them for such mishaps. Added to this the processors are prosecuted and made to suffer though they ultimately have to bear the cross for their negligence knowingly or otherwise. 

The private auditing system serves admirably well in the US where the retailers blindly accept their certification with no questions asked. If frequent food mishaps do happen with origin in such "inspected" facilities, it is a moot question as to what has been the function of such inspectors who charge their clients heavily and accept their hospitality? Is it not a risk on the part of these auditors to pass bad facilities as satisfactory?  Do they have patrons at the higher echelons to protect them from the consequences arising out of any potential mishap? Consumers do expect the food safety agencies to regulate private auditors and exercise authority to take them to task for dereliction of duty. Unfortunately the much acclaimed FDA of the US does not have such a power to discipline the third party auditors at present. 

If the current system is flawed what ought to be done to rectify and remodel the system in favor of the industry and the consuming public?. It does not bode well for the country if only setting up of food standards comes under the purview of the FDA. Look at Indian situation where there is an Authority without any real power or wherewithal to protect the consumer because food processing comes under the purview of the states, most of which have practically no infrastructure and personnel to monitor the safety and quality of products in the market. Though recognition is being accorded to private auditors for issuing safety certification under some circumstances such a practice is far and few. But if it becomes predominant one day, one can be assured that a lethal combination of private auditors and unscrupulous industry players can take the country for a ride making the fate of the citizen worse than what is to day!. 

Industry is caught between the deep sea and the devil when it comes to food safety assurance. Most industrial units do not have adequate resources to set up their own testing facilities and government controlled laboratories are conspicuous by their inertia and lack of dynamism resulting in inordinate delays in getting the test results. A few private laboratories are having flourishing business but they suffer from serious lack of credibility making their reports some what suspect especially in the eyes of government agencies. Under these circumstances the industry has to face incredible risks to be above water when it comes to safety of their products. A random check on the integrity of auditors by government appointed auditors from time to time may make the private auditors more effective as those found guilty can lose their auditor license.        

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

TRAVAILS OF INDIAN TRAVELLERS-"FORCED" FEEDING!

Though domestic tourism is supposed to be growing at a frenetic pace due to higher disposable incomes in the hands of middle class population, the necessary infrastructure to provide comforts and pleasure to those traveling across India is woefully short of even the minimum standards expected by the traveling public. Indians are considered as one of the most resilient amongst Asians, taking all shortcomings, discomforts, misery and insecurity in their strides. Whether it is the road transport or train travel or air travel, the hassles in reaching the destination are too many with many uncertainties. The big question is how long such short comings in the system will be tolerated by the citizens without reacting in a more forceful way.

Taking road travel first, most of the bus stations all over the country are is a chaotic state with no systematic consumer friendly operating environment. Wrong locations, faulty designs, disorderly schedules, unfriendly transport operators, garbled and unclear announcements in public address systems, lack of passenger convenient facilities, shortage of seating facilities, unsafe water and foods available, unruly 3 and 4-wheeler taxis all combine to make the life miserable for the travelers. Depending on the food vendors can be risky because of non-standard and unheard of brands only being offered by the 'licensed' shops in these bus terminals. Most foods, including packed foods are non-standard and it is doubtful whether they are safe. No food inspector of the locality ever visits or checks the quality and safety of foods available in the bust stations. No nationally or regionally popular packed foods are 'allowed' to be sold in the premises due to unholy nexus between the transport officials, the vendors and the food safety monitoring personnel. No product is available for less than Rs 10 a pack. There are hundreds of mini packs of foods manufactured by the food industry but these low cost packs varying in price from Re1 to Rs 5 per pack are rarely available in shops located within the premise of bus stations. Packed water is sub-standard, bottled drinks are non-standard, fried foods are of indifferent quality, sugar candy products are invariably spurious and bakery snacks are of dubious quality.

Same is true in many Railway stations across the country. Without the minimum consumer friendly features such as people movers, escalators, comfortable seats, easy entry into the trains in the limited time of halting, clean toilets, safe water, good foods at reasonable rates and baggage handling facilities, train travel can be an exhausting exercise, especially for senior citizens and mothers with young children. The licensed shops that sell water and food invariably stock non-standard and unreliable foods of doubtful safety. It is a tribute to the rugged health of the Indian traveler that no log term consequences of traveling in trains are ever reported. Probably Indian Railways must be feeling smug about its much touted food plaza program which has not made much of a difference to the traveling public though it has generated huge income to them.

As for the air ports, eating joints are mostly of 3 star or above categories, hardly affordable to the air travelers. The assumption is that those travel by air paying sizable amounts can afford to pay stiff prices for the food at the air-conditioned ambiance provided by the airport. But such an attitude should not blind the authorities to the needs of thousands of travelers who want to just eat clean foods without creating a big hole in their pocket! Why not provide some space at low cost to small shops who sell packed dry products and beverages at the MRP, without marring the environment, to those in need of consuming some thing while waiting for their flights?

If this trend continues, time is not too far away, when travelers will start carrying their own water, food and beverages, as was being done during olden days when they start on a long journey. Bus stations and Railway stations must raise the bar as far as licensing is concerned so that only standard brands are sold by these licensees. GOI and State governments must break the unholy nexus between the officials and the dishonest business mafia that seems to be controlling the food outlets in hundreds of stations across the country that makes the public suffer silently and tolerate the ignominy perpetrated on them.

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

THE 'RUPEES 4.36 LAKH' QUESTION!

Railway catering system, once completely under the in-house catering department of the Indian Railways, started taking a U-turn as a result of economic liberalization and greater appreciation of the role of private enterprises in delivering better service to the consumer. The volume of food catered also is increasing by leaps and bounds with new express trains and deluxe trains being introduced in greater numbers. Food is included as a standard feature in many trains, offered as a part of the tickets when passengers buy them. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), set up as a dedicated service provider under the Railway Board is supposed to have good facilities for supplying part of the food requirements from their base kitchens located at some strategic stations. Private caterers are involved for augmenting the food services based on competitive bidding. Is the present system working efficiently? Is the traveling public entirely satisfied with the quality and cost of the foods served and the in-train service provided during the travel?

Here is an excerpt from a news report in some reputed papers on the subject."Inferior quality and overcharging of food and beverages served in trains and stations falling under the South Western Railway Division is an experience most of the train passengers have endured at least during some train journey". The response from IRCTC to such complaints is that they have so far 'slapped a fine of Rs 4.36 lakh on its franchisees and terminated the services of one contractor' for unsatisfactory performance during April 2008 to February 2009. It further claimed that only 73 complaints were received from passengers in trains like Sampark Kranti Express, Vasco-Nizammudin Express, Sangamitra Express and Karnataka Express during the last 3 months conveniently ignoring the reality that, being a Gandhian country, people stoically put up with such inconveniences without bothering to register any complaint, besides having no confidence on the rectification system that has to deal with complaints! Some of the complaints are of serious nature like serving stale foods unfit for consumption, lack of characteristic taste attributes, missing food items in the meals like roti, curd, sweet etc, cold foods, lack of hygiene and over charging.

According to IRCTC, the organization has deployed some quality control 'professionals' to monitor the quality of foods served in various trains, franchisees are being warned repeatedly for violations, surprise checks are carried out often and a minimum of Rs 20000 fine is imposed on guilty franchisees as a deterrent. The recent order insisting on only branded foods being sold inside the stations, does not serve any purpose at all because it is known that for every one reputed brand of a product there are at least half a dozen imitations from non-decrepit companies with no definite address! For example hardly 1% of the railway stations carry established brands of bottled water while others sell unknown and unheard brands and the thirsty travelers have no option but to buy these questionable quality products to quench their thirst!

Railway catering was a subject matter of one of the earlier blogs where a forceful plea was made to the Railway Board to auction the catering rights in each train to a reputed food company like ITC, Britania, MTR, Dabur Foods etc and the successful bidder can be provided with an exclusive pantry where pre-prepared foods can be stored and heated before serving. Unfortunately Railway Board is more concerned with revenue generation and profit making, sacrificing the comfort and health of its patrons, viz, the Indian Public. R & D Wing of the Railway Board is more interested in designing coaches that can accommodate higher number of passengers who feel more like chickens in a coop with literally no moving space! If passenger care is upper most in the minds of the authorities concerned, more meaningful efforts need to be made to innovate on the foods, their containers and delivery service.

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

FOOD SAFETY SENTINELS-THE UNSUNG HEROES

Ever since the advent of 'Talkies' which evolved from the old silent movies, the dialogs and songs picturised in the cinemas have made them one of the most popular entertainment media without which life can be very boring. The movies to day are either highly actor oriented or music-driven. In India popular songs can carry the picture all the way as a commercial success. In what way cinema and food are inter-connected? Though cinema has nothing to do with food, the analogy of picturization that goes with its production has some commonalities. The play back singers who lend their voice to heroes and heroines have their counter parts in the food sector. The group of technical people who lend their expertise and efforts from behind the scene, unknown and unnoticed, form the backbone of food industry and the food quality enforcement agencies, instilling the much needed confidence amongst the consumers regarding the safety of foods they consume. Of course consumer is well informed about brands, the manufacturers, retailers and data printed on the labels which enable them to make choices based on their past experiences.

Who are these people behind the industry who provide such a vital service? They are collectively called Chemists which is misnomer since food quality is much more than mere chemistry but involves microbiology, physics, biology, toxicology, nutrition and other disciplines of science. Quality is not measured in terms of its chemical composition alone but other parameters that can influence the health of the consumer. A mere degree in chemistry was adequate earlier to determine the proximate composition of foods but specialized knowledge about other branches of science has become crucial for assessing the overall quality and safety of any food. Personnel involved in quality assurance function are called upon to day to shoulder many responsibilities which include raw material suitability for processing, deciding about process control adequacy, finished product assessment, sanitation and hygiene of the processing facilities, food spoilage diagnosis and complaints analysis. With ISO and HACCP certifications becoming standard norms in the food industry, the functions and responsibilities quality control (QC) personnel have become multi dimensional which a conventional chemist is not equipped to handle. Under the new FSSA regime, hundreds of "qualified" food testing personnel will be required to man the food safety monitoring responsibilities while industry will also need same personnel for functions like quality control, process control and quality auditing. Is this country really equipped to meet such a demand, current as well as future?

There are many institutions in India offering courses in food science, food technology, home science, food and nutrition etc and most of these courses have a small program concerning food analysis. But the coverage is so small that the graduates coming out cannot take up the role of a QC professional and the food technology graduates rarely go for a laboratory job unless it is R & D oriented with sufficient challenges. That leaves the field open to graduates in chemistry or microbiology who are ill-equipped to look at food quality in a holistic way. The mechanical approach by these graduates does not solve many problems faced in the production floor because they do not have adequate and fundamental knowledge about food chemistry and the process dynamics.

The only program that is tailor made for food analysis tasks is offered by the Defense Food Research Laboratory at Mysore which is a 10 month post graduate diploma course for chemistry or biology graduates. Even this program suffers from inadequate exposure of the trainees to modern techniques and instruments as well as the contextual relationship between food composition in general and the various process technologies employed by the industry. Besides they are also not familiar with production floor operations and hands-on training at industrial level. Probably with a little reorientation and expansion of the course, this could be the best bet for the industry. Instead of 10 months the course could be extended to 18 months with a 6 months compulsory factory training in collaboration with the industry. There must be at least two dozen such courses spread across the country to meet the needs of Public Health Laboratories and the QC Laboratories in the industry.

Most important pre-requisite for the success of such a course is the need to put in place a career track for these personnel to climb up the ladder to reach respectable positions in the organizations they serve in the span of 30 years, instead of being branded as chemists for ever. Recognition of the critical role played by these 'sentinels' of food quality will give them satisfaction and motivation to do a job beyond the expectations of the consumers. Long live this tribe!

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

FOOD QUALITY ASSESSMENT-A NEW REFERENCE SOURCE

" FRUITS & VEGETABLES TECHNOLOGY-Process & Product Development", a masterly compilation, published recently by Dr A M Nanjundaswamy, a reputed Food Technologist of CFTRI lineage is an attempt to bring out latest information on all aspects concerning processing of horticultural produce with emphasis on Indian conditions. Any reference source of information must meet two requirements if to be useful, the extent of coverage and the authenticity. Of course the lucidity of expression and clarity in illustration will make such publications user friendly. The new publication, painstakingly compiled by one of the pioneering scientists of modern days on fruit and vegetables is timely and meets with the above criteria.

The 620 page compendium covers every conceivable aspect relating to preservation, processing and development of various products based on these highly perishable commodities. The coverage includes principles involved in food preservation by conventional as well as modern technologies besides the practical aspects of thermal processing, canning, juices and beverages, juice concentrates, dehydration, freezing, membrane processing, intermediate moisture foods, thermal processing, pickles, preserves, candies and crystallized fruits, osmotic concentration, fruit powders, aseptic packing, by-product beneficiation, food additives, strained baby foods and importance of untapped indigenous fruits.

The publication will serve as a ready reckoner to students aspiring to become professionals in the area of fruit and vegetable processing for a number of years to come. With training infrastructure in India fast expanding the student community will be immensely benefited by the availability of a relatively low cost but authentic text book on the subject. For industry also, especially micro and small enterprise sectors, this compendium can be a standard reference source of information. The author can be contacted at 11 B Gokulam Park Road, 3rd Cross, V V Mohalla, Mysore 570002, Tel-0821 2513 334 for further details.

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