PROCESSED FOODS WITH LONG LIFE-KUDOS TO TECHNOLOGY!

Human beings, most of them, have a mindset regarding the freshness of foods they consume. This is especially true with many communities in India which consider preserved food as some thing not of desirable eating quality. Probably this is due to the fact that food is a material that can change its taste and other eating characteristics fast with progress of time at ambient conditions of temperature and humidity. Naturally those working in armed forces doing duty on far way and difficult terrains represent a microcosm of the Society and they also prefer to have "fresh" foods for their day to day dietary needs. Food technology as it exists to day had evolved over the last one century from simple traditional processes like sun drying and pickling and sugar steeping into a multitude of processes that can retain most of the sensory quality with minimum distortions. Still given a preference consumers will opt for fresh foods as obtained from nature directly without the intervention of process technologies!

Food technologists world over face stiff challenges in extending the life of foods but dramatic expansion of knowledge in food science and engineering have enabled them to meet these challenges successfully. But there is one area of technology where the challenge is much more formidable with very little success recorded. This is in developing a satisfactory technology that can keep the food in trim condition without affecting the typical eating characteristics of each one of them. Of course mechanically preservation of any food can be done assuring reasonable life of 12 months or less. Similarly technologies such as vacuum packing, ionizing radiation, freeze drying etc can even give shelf lives up to 2-3 years, However in all these cases the consumer will have to compromise on their expectations vis-a-vis optimum eating quality as some changes do take place either during processing or during storage. Pizza is such a product which is so non-homogeneous in nature that it is next to impossible to keep it for more than 3-4 days without affecting its aromas, texture and taste. Imagine the trials and tribulations of a group of scientists in developing an awesome technology for increasing the life of this much liked and typically American staple to more than three years. Extracts of a report from a US laboratory is recounted below for a better understanding and appreciation of this feat    

Pizza with a three-year shelf life will soon be joining the US Army's field rations menu. These infamous MREs (Meal, Ready to Eat) have a long and checkered history, acquiring such sobriquets over the years as "Meals Rejected by Everyone" and "Materials Resembling Edibles." Pizza has long topped the list of requested meals, but the task of providing a palatable slice of this complex food that will survive the required three-year shelf life has foiled all attempts. Now, the folks at Natick's Combat Feeding Directorate have achieved a minor miracle in food technology: stopping time for a slice of Pizza
 
MREs are the basis for feeding assault troops engaged in battlefield combat action. Each MRE provides 1300 calories of high-fat, high-sodium nutrition suited for active combat duty. Individual MREs come sealed in a four-layer plastic pouch measuring about 10 x 6 inches (25 x 15 cm) and weighing about a pound and a half (0.68 kg). The nominal shelf life of an MRE is three years at a storage temperature of 80 ºF (27 ºC), but they must also be able to survive short exposure to temperature extremes from -60 ºF (-51 ºC) to 120 ºF (49 ºC.) MRE packaging must be able to survive parachute deployment from an altitude of 1250 ft (380 m), and a free fall drop from 100 ft (30 m). Much more difficult than satisfying these physical and chemical requirements, however, is satisfying people's instinctive response to a food. The problem is well known in humanoid robotics, where it is called the uncanny valley. If the characteristics and behavior of a humanoid robot are very close to those of a natural human, people will accept the robot as an entity that might be a friend. If the approximation of human characteristics is poor, the robot will still be acceptable as a separate, non-humanoid entity. However, if the robot appears close to human norms, but not close enough, the robot will be rejected as strange and dangerous.

People also have an uncanny valley when it comes to food acceptance. It is often easier to come up with a new dish than to try to reproduce one that is enjoyed and valued. A new dish will be evaluated on its own merits, while a reproduction will be compared to an existing standard. For example, a slice of pizza which has a soggy crust and an oversweet taste will be evaluated differently than a sweet tomato bread pudding with cheese and meat topping. It all comes down to expectations, but our expectations can present extremely powerful barriers to surmount. So how do you make a slice of pizza that will survive three years unrefrigerated that still appears, smells, tastes, and has the mouth feel of a fresh slice of pizza? Natick senior food technnologist Michelle Richardson took on the task after non-soggy sandwiches entered the MRE choices in the 1990s.

"Pizza is a complex food consisting of four major components: bread, sauce, cheese, and sausage (pepperoni in this case). Each of these components has different characteristic levels of moisture, acid, and texture, which must combine harmoniously to produce a slice that will generally be viewed as a "good pizza." In contrast, another combination of bread, sauce, cheese, and sausage made from a hardtack biscuit covered with ketchup, Roquefort cheese, and finely chopped hot dogs won't remind anyone of a good pizza. Richardson had to reach deep into her bag of tricks to pull off the new pizza. The pizza dough had to be enhanced with humectants, substances like propylene glycol or sorbitol, that bind moisture within the bread. This both reduces the possibility of bacterial growth and the tendency of the sauce to make the crust soggy.

Another problem encountered with bread products is that they go stale with time. Contrary to popular opinion, staling is not caused by the bread drying out (which would be counteracted by humectants). Instead, the moisture in the bread migrates within the bread, causing the starch granules to recrystallize. In the end, Richardson and her assistants used gums and enzymes to hold the water within the starch granules, making the pizza crust shelf-stable. The challenge with pizza sauce is to keep the moisture held within the sauce, thereby preventing separation of the components and maintaining the sauce's freshness and mouthfeel. A mix of glycerin, rice syrup, and other sugars were used to make the shelf-stable pizza sauce. For enhanced shelf life, a low-moisture cheese is usually called for. However, one usually expects a pizza to have a reasonably soft, stringy cheese, properties usually not found in low-moisture cheeses. While Natick had used a low-moisture (probably Mozzarella) cheese in other dishes, this cheese became too browned in cooking, making the pizza look burned. This problem was addressed by altering the cooking schedule (time and temperature) and through making blends of various cheeses.

Pepperoni is both fermented and dried, resulting in an acidic, low-moisture sausage that is resistant to most bacterial growth. However, the low pH of pepperoni can encourage mold growth. The result of natural bacterial processes, this is a component which is difficult to control within narrow limits. Beyond the process of making pepperoni, the most important factors in rendering the sausage shelf-stable are osmotic drying and surrounding the pepperoni (and the entire pizza) in a nitrogen atmosphere.A native of Rhode Island, which has a sizable Italian population, Richardson says she set the bar high: "When I first started developing this, me and my daughter would go and taste pizza because I wanted to use that as my benchmark." The Natick pizza MRE is being prepared for final testing. In particular, several types of pepperonis and pizzas are being tested, both for spoilage and for soldier acceptance, to decide what version will make the final cut. We trust it will not disappoint".

Of course proof of the pudding is in the eating and whether the Armed Force personnel will heartily welcome this Pizza version remains to be seen. Looking at the results so far there does not appear to be any strong reason to suspect that this new innovation may be damp squib! What is notable in the above effort is the use of knowledge in microbiology, food chemistry, food engineering, packaging science, physical chemistry, sensory science and analytical chemistry in an integrated way to evolve the technology. India needs such high caliber scientific endeavor to technologize hundreds of ethnic foods for which many people including army personnel are craving for! Most of them have very limited shelf lives and use mostly manual processes to make making them unavailable in many parts of the country. Indian food scientists must wake up now and do some thing in this area.

For further reading refer to: http://www.gizmag.com/three-year-pizza-army-mre-field-ration/30941/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=50a6aa78e1-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-50a6aa78e1-90820233

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

SWEET MAKING TECHNOLOGY-NEW TRAINING PROGRAM

Indian traditional foods, often called the Ethnic Foods number over 5000 and are prepared and consumed locally with very little national foot print. Why? The main reason is the difficulty in keeping these products for long with out quality deterioration and assured safety. Most of them have water activity much beyond the safe zone and are vulnerable to spoilage by microorganisms like bacteria and mold. True many of them contain high sugar which also provides extended storage. How ever for establishing a pan-India market, food products need to be stable for at least 3-4 months. Though with reliable cold chain transport and storage their shelf life can be extended for a few days or a couple of weeks, slow growth of organized retail sector with modern facilities, which controls less than 5% of the retailing business, does not ensure seamless distribution, reliable cold display facilities and strong sales promotional regime.

The mere diversity of sweetmeat and savory products makes it difficult for the food industry to pick and choose the right product mix that can ensure nation wide acceptance. It is most unfortunate that even after 64 years of independence, there are no reliable and comprehensive information base regarding these foods, their relative popularity, production details and authentic recipes and preparation methods. Most of these products are made at the micro-enterprises level managed by skilled artisans with some experience and practically no mechanized production equipment are available for increasing productivity if they are to be part of the main stream food industry. The most "reputed" food research institute with a history of more than 60 years has done very little to look at these products from a technological perspective. Catering training institutions with their emphasis on preparing their trainees for making prepared foods in eateries and hotels and presenting them attractively are constrained to go beyond recipes and preparation mode because of limited technical capability. Probably there is a need to set up "culinology" institutions in India which can combine recipes, preparations, process standardization and mechanization as the existing R & D players in the country have miserably failed to bring to surface the fantastic potential of Indian traditional foods to capture the imagination of the world, through their sheer negligence.

One may be tempted to ask the question as to how the industry is meeting the current needs of the market for some of the favorite foods in great demand, if large scale production facilities are not in existence and any one even faintly familiar with this industry knows that what is being offered through thousands of sweetmeat shops in the country have their origin in small homes and kitchens prepared by one or hundreds of artisans in hostile environment with sweat pouring from their bodies and presented attractively in small as well as big shops. Most "industrial" type kitchens employ these artisans who are mostly illiterate and who have very little knowledge about hygiene and sanitation though some units do deploy some mechanized unit operation equipment like grinders, mixers, fryers, stainless steel containers, pumps, extruder etc. There are also a few large scale players who do manufacture some traditional foods for pan-India markets using modern fryers, vacuum evaporators, continuous forming machine, canning facilities, inert gas filling units, modern packing materials, gas fired and electrical heating systems and others, rightly claiming to be technology savvy. Products like potato chips, canned gulab jamun and rasagolla, preserved shreekand, tetrapack lassi and chaas, inert gas filled snacks, roti and papads, chikki, spice mixes, traditional meal preparations in RTE format, many frozen products etc are coming from main stream food industry with well developed modern manufacturing facilities.

If there is a slow but perceptible trend of large manufacturing enterprises enjoying brand reputation entering the traditional food line, there must be money in this area of business. While technology, trained work force and financial resources are the foundation for a sound manufacturing entity, it is only in the area of good quality labor that organized industry feels the pinch and if they are not able to sustain themselves against SMEs it is only because their products do not compare well with that of SMEs with regard to authenticity and eating quality. This is where a trained working force will help them to bring up the credentials of their products. The million dollar question is from where they will get these personnel? The high tech courses run by Universities in food processing are not relevant as far as traditional food manufacture is concerned and any how a university trained food technologist will never agree to be a "Halwai" in the industry! The need for a short duration training course to benefit the traditional food industry is increasingly being felt and it is time for the AICTE to evolve a training course of the above type for universities and other technical institutions in different parts of the country on a priority basis.

While on the subject of training in ethnic food manufacture, the recent decision by a private institute in Orissa to start a one year course in sweet making for the benefit of local industry is a welcome development. Bikalananda Kar Industrial Training Centre at Salepur in Cuttack district has recently announced the launching of a one-year certificate course in sweet technology soon which if materializes may be the first such course in the country. According to the organizers the course is aimed at creating skilled manpower in sweet industry and stream lining local industry with use of modern technology and hygienic practices. As per the details provided the trainees, 64 in number every year with a Class X education, are expected to learn the art of preparing modern and traditional sweets popular locally. If learned food processing teaching faculty from the nearby Jadavpur University in West Bengal can pitch in to "train the trainers" through a well designed program, the course will become a technically sound one. Any such course must cover in a simple language preferably in local language various aspects of food processing operations relevant , machinery that can be used, importance of hygiene and sanitation, waste disposal, water quality, food safety and quality control, food microbiology, food contamination and food packaging. Tendency to over emphasize theory must be avoided as the trainees will have relatively low science awareness and practical aspects must receive priority.

It is good to see a new awareness being created regarding the heritage foods and their importance for the country. If their rich culinary qualities and nutritional advantages are rightly emphasized, there is no reason why Indian foods cannot capture the imagination of the whole world. What is needed is to accord high priority to them by the public funded R & D agencies and Universities in the country for making them more science based than artisan dependent and provide the industry with minimally trained work force. Institutions like the one in Cuttack must be replicated all over the country for which GOI and State governments should extend liberal financial support.

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

CULINOLOGY-WHAT IS IT?

Food is a multidimensional subject involving the interplay of chemistry, physics, biochemistry, microbiology, nutrition, sensory science, engineering sciences and agricultural sciences. All foods originate from living sources, be it animal, plant or microorganisms and in nature these sources exist in diverse forms and quality. The food technologists have the onus of safeguarding the quality and safety of foods, besides creating consumer friendly products with extended life through application of science and engineering. If one examines the development of food industry during the last hundred years, it can easily been seen that aspects concerning human health have been ignored with the result that modern society is afflicted with several life threatening disorders like CVD, Diabetes, Hyper tension, Cancer and many others and the temptation is always there to blame the industry for these ills because of wrong products being made and promoted.

What is the upper most consideration for any consumer when given a choice to choose a food? Obviously the consumer is carried away by the color, shape, aroma and eating pleasure provided by the product. It is said that a consumer eats a food first with his "eyes" followed by smell, touch sense and finally through the oral cavity. Ultimate acceptability is determined by the taste sensation caused by chewing, macerating and swallowing of the food. Tastes like sweetness, saltiness, sourness, pungency and bitterness, either singly or in combination provide the final taste perception which "persuades" the consumer to like or to reject. It is this "weakness" on the part of the consumer to go for organoleptically superior foods that is driving the processing industry to pamper to this factor through marketing such products. Does the industry care about the adverse consequences of such an approach? Rarely! In a fiercely competitive market probably the manufacturers of processed foods will have to be one step ahead for survival and they have no option but to cater to the demands from the consumers.

While developing a product food technologists invariably focus more on consumer acceptability rather than the healthiness of the product. Such a distortion of the development perspectives has taken place because of the consumer attitude under which nutrition of a product is relegated to the background. Can this situation continue like this for long without the adverse consequences manifesting in different ways in the coming years? If no restraint is exercised, future of mankind will be in jeopardy and in less than 5 decades the world will be full of giant looking obese people with high morbidity and diverse diseases. There are many initiatives at the national and international level to counteract such a change but with little impact. Foods containing high sugars, high fat and high salt continue to be developed and promoted and it is time food technologists world over change their stance to devote more time for evolving "healthy" foods with greater emphasis on nutrition in preference to sensory quality. A new paradigm will have to emerge to guide these efforts.

According to a recent report a new discipline appears to be emerging in the West to combine nutrition with culinary aspects of foods that will have more emphasis on health but giving equal importance to inter linked subjects like science, technology and preparation skills. Culinology as it is being called is still a new concept and no university is imparting training in this area so far. Probably the health foods, specialty foods, functional foods all may be based Culinology as such foods can emerge only by fusing the culinary skills with food science and technology that will ensure shelf stability and manufacturing wherewithal. Who will be the candidates for training in culinology? Chefs, food technologists or nutritionists? Obviously it has to be the Chefs because they have the necessary skill to create mouth watering recipes and of the basics of nutrition are imbibed they are likely to be in the fore front in developing exciting new foods with excellent health credentials.

Presently in India there are different types of training courses leading to a multitude of degree certificates and about 1000 graduates coming out of these institutions are misfits when it comes to developing healthy foods with high culinary quality. On the other hand there are many catering training centers turning out personnel for the hotel industry with major emphasis on the organoleptically sound products. These trainees are not imparted adequate knowledge about human nutrition and health. If the training course is modified to develop adequate skills for making nutritionally sound products with high culinary quality, trained personnel from such courses will bring out revolutionary changes in the health of the population over the years.

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