TRANS FATS-VILLAIN OF THE PEACE?

When erstwhile Hindustan Lever introduced 'Dalda', the look-alike of desi ghee in India long ago, no one had any clue about the danger posed by trans fats formed in hydrogenated fats during the high temperature process. Plenty of efforts went into promoting Dalda as a low cost substitute to ghee which was popular in making hundreds of food items consumed by the population. Cost differential between Dalda and Ghee even spawned an adulteration industry that made money by blending the hydrogenated fat and pure ghee in different proportions and selling off as real ghee. This led to evolution of simple techniques to detect such adulterations easily and quickly. Even to day the mandatory inclusion of Sesame oil in blend of oils used for making hydrogenated fats derives its justification because of the presence of sesamol that can be detected by colorimetric tests. It is another matter that Bunge which bought out Lever's oil business a few years ago continued with the brand Dalda but this term is no more synonymous with hydrogenated fat. Besides availability of inter esterification technique and fractionation process to make semi solid fats from palm oil, provides alternative options enabling the industry to avoid hydrogenated fats in processed products.

Recent spurt of news implicating trans fats in a multitude of health problems that include elevated coronary heart diseases, higher abdominal fat accumulation, infertility, cancer etc, many of them scientifically established with documentary proof, food safety authorities started taking preventive actions to eliminate or lessen the effect of trans fats in processed foods and the most manifested reaction was to declare the levels of trans fats in packed foods which has been classified along with saturated fats. How ever scant attention is paid to tons of trans fats served in hotels, restaurants and other eating out places as there are no regulations in place as yet. The bold initiative in the California state of USA to ban use of hydrogenated fats/trans fat containing oils in such establishments is a welcome one with far reaching implications to the health of its citizens and if emulated by others can remove an avoidable danger from the horizon.

According to present guidelines, any food containing less than 0.5 g of trans fats per serving can be declared as zero trans fat foods enabling consumers to exercise discretion during purchase of foods. However what is not clear is why an allowance of 0.5 g is permitted knowing fully well that eliminating use of hydrogenated fats in foods can ensure absence of this dangerous artifact from the food man consumes. Besides an allowance of up to maximum of 2.5 g per day is also permitted. Though there are some claims that trans fats are also generated during cooking and frying of edible oils as a part of the process regime, very little supporting evidence has been forth coming to substantiate them. However, the reported formation of small amounts of trans fats during pressure frying of foods and in extruded products while some unsaturated oils are present in the recipe and presence of trans fats in high pressure de-odorised oils need scrutiny whether they are injurious to health.

It is no wonder that some frying experts advocate a blend of oils made of sesame oil, coconut oil and palm oil as the best cooking medium because of the presence of heat activated antioxidants in sesame and high saturated but short chain fatty acids in the latter two oils. Trans fats are also known to occur naturally as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in small concentrations in some natural foods but they have been found to be beneficial unlike trans fats found in hydrogenated oils. Probably the allowance of 0.5 g permitted for the industry may be to give adequate allowance for such contingencies. Introducing restrictions on use of hydrogenated oils in processed foods as well as freshly cooked food serving joints ought to be put in place in India without delay. A total ban on manufacture of hydrogenated fats in the country and their imports can ensure such a situation. No technological justification exists to day for the continued use of these fats in any process or product.

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

OVERFLOWING PLATES- BANE OF THE AFFLUENTS?

If God is to grant a boon to the lawyers and statisticians to he reborn in this earth, what could be their choice? Sure, the answer is United States of America!. One of the most prolific money makers in USA are the lawyers as the system there is tailor made to milk clients on many high profile cases, some time their cuts amounting to as high as 50% of the compensation received by the clients. As a second preference they may opt for India which presents them with a different opportunity in the form of long duration cases dragging for decades and such a situation gives the lawyers steady income, even if it is not astronomical in size.

As for statisticians, USA is a gold mine of data, systematically compiled and computerized for ready access on any and every topic on earth. To illustrate this point one should look at the latest statistics on food consumption released recently which speaks volumes about the discipline and systematic endeavor gone in compiling such data over long periods.

Food is essential for survival but often the issue of how much and what type of food one must consume is mired in controversy. There are guidelines national as well as international which vary widely depending on the sex, life style, physical parameters and environment. Quality and quantity of food consumed by each person also show enormous variations because of lack of nutrition awareness, reliable information, taste preferences, accessibility, convenience, availability,and affordability. The purchasing power is one of the most critical factors that influences the food consumption. While in India, a typical middle class family spends almost 50% of its income on food, both cooked at home as well as eaten out, expenses on food is not a very significant component of family budget in USA. Food cost as a percentage of per capita income is also negligible in the country and this, probably, could be one of the reasons why rampant over eating has become a national habit causing wide spread eating related disorders.

One cannot help wondering what use the statistics serve in the day to day life of the people. Looking at the figures coming out of the survey by US Department of Agriculture, any one is struck by the changing pattern of food consumption between 1970 and 2006 and a clear connection emerges between food and diseases.In 1970 itself an average American was eating 2.11 kg of dairy products(1.53 kg of fluid milk), 2.20 kg of fruits and vegetables, 1.27 kg of meat, 0.82 kg of grains, 0.73 kg of sugars and sweeteners and 0.36 kg of fats per week. This works out to about 7.45 kg of food per week or more than 1 kg of food per day. By 2006 even though the milk consumption went drown by 20%, cheese consumption jumped by 180% which probably has a role in increasing body weight noticed lately. Increase in consumption in 2006 of meat and eggs by 11%, grains by 42%, sugars by 17% and most significantly fats by 59% is note worthy from the point of view of nutrition and health.In all probability Americans may end up spending more on medicines to alleviate food related diseases than on food itself in the coming years if moderation is not practiced in the food front.

It is affluence brought about by all round development with unparalleled prosperity that has driven the Americans to eat almost 0.82 kg more food per week, that too foods made up of carbohydrate rich grains, sugars mostly High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and fats, a sure recipe for disaster. As these are average figures, there must be wide scale disparity between low and high income groups, the latter category taking much higher amount of foods than the median values. Added to this is the prolific eating out habits ingrained in the society where on an average a family eats out 20% of its meals in restaurants.

The foods served in eateries invariably are calorie-rich besides containing significant concentration of trans fats and saturated fats. It has recently been reported that generally American eating joints serve 'kid meals' for children with caloric densities between 430 and 1200 kC per meal as against a recommended daily allowance of 1000 kC. No wonder the obese population which was just 15% of the population in 1980 more than doubled by 2007.

While the remarkable achievements of capitalistic countries in almost all areas of human endeavor deserve admiration and applause, the food habits and health accomplishments in these countries are not worth consideration by any one with high expectations of good quality living and longevity.

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

'FOOD MILES'- ANOTHER JARGON?

Use of difficult to 'understand' jargon and acronyms are becoming fashionable these days and the modern IT society thrives on it. Neo-literates(computer savvy) always throw these jargon at old-literates of older generation routinely and the latter has invariably no clues regarding this modern vocabulary. While one can understand the prevalence of this practice amongst younger generation of the IT era, what is disturbing is the mindless, often irrelevant terminologies that creep into other areas of science. Recently the jargon that has gained traction, especially in Europe is FOOD MILES, in heated discussions on global warming and this has come out from the universal concerns on green house emissions as reflected by the Kyoto Protocol signed by many countries to reverse the continuous trend in global warming.

Food miles are supposed to be a tool being propounded by some of the advanced countries to brand those foods that are exported over long distances as big green house gas emitters. It measures the distance a food travels from its point of production to the ultimate consumption table. The assumption is that transportation by air, shipping and road, all consume fossil fuels, releasing enormous quantities of green house gases including carbon dioxide. Thus a food exported from India to USA travels over 15000 km consuming fossil fuels which add on to the carbon foot prints of the product and hence not very desirable. If this logic is accepted world trade in foods will have to stop at some time if the planet is to be saved, according to the protagonists of this system of emission auditing. In a recent critical analysis, it was brought out very clearly that transportation accounts for only 11% of the green house emissions of food products, while that for growing, harvesting and processing works out to 83%.

The input intensive agriculture of the west cannot avoid the blame that the crops they raise are much more energy intensive than that in most of the developing countries. It must shock the conscience of the world that a typical house-hold in the west is responsible for emissions of 8.1 metric tons of CO2 equivalent attributed directly to food consumption. In contrast the corresponding figure in the third world is less than 10% of this value! Another study shows how the mutton transported from Auckland, New Zealand to London, UK scores over the same product raised locally on the carbon scale. As against 1520 pounds of CO2 equivalents released by the New Zealand product during production as well as transportation over 11000 miles by ocean freighters to UK, local mutton was raised after expending 6280 pounds of CO2 equivalents. The reason is simple. While New Zealand lamb is raised on green pastures, UK farmers use animal feeds, nutrients, medicines, atmosphere control etc expending fossil based energy at every turn responsible for greater CO2 release.

A rough estimate of green house gas emission by different foods indicates that red meat is the biggest culprit accounting for 30% of all emissions linked to foods while dairy, cereals. fruits & vegetables and poultry accounted for 18%, 11%, 11%and 10% of emissions respectively. Of course adequate allowance needs to be given when such audits are undertaken in a country like India where energy intensive agricultural operations are still not very significant and CO2 emissions could be much below the figures reported in the west.

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

FOOD CONVENTION -NO PLACE FOR YOUNGSTERS?

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the biggest organized group in the area of food has its annual jamboree every year in one or other part of USA and this year the annual convention was in New Orleans in June 2008. Association of Food Scientists and Technologists(India), more popularly known as AFST(I) is the Indian counter part with a membership estimated at 2000. In earlier years, there was some sort of a relationship between IFT and AFST(I) with an accredited member responsible for liaising between the two organizations. But at present no organizational contact exists depriving the Indian food scientists the benefit of exposure to truly international developments in the field of food processing and packing. In a world where national barriers are fast coming down, it is a pity that bilateral ties are not established with scientists' associations in countries like USA, Europe including UK, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and other Asian countries
like Japan, China both (Beijing and Taipei), Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines Korea etc, where food industry is operating with a large technological base.

Some time back Dr HAB Parpia, who retired from the UN system in 1984 after serving with distinction in the FAO and UNU tried to organize the associations and institutions in Asia and Africa into a federation for exploring a greater level of technical cooperation amongst the developing countries in the field of food science and technology. Unfortunately there were very few who could share his vision and nothing came out of his single handed efforts. As far as IFT is concerned they might still be willing to forge such useful ties if done professionally. AFST(I) needs to initiate and carry forward a dialogue to establish a meaningful relationship. It is hard to ignore the innovations taking place in the USA to day and continuous interactions will be to the benefit of the food scientists as well as the industry in India.

One is provoked to touch on this subject when a recent report from New Orleans indicated that this year's convention was attended by a consultant from Hyderabad and a bureaucrat each from Delhi and Mysore, ostensibly projecting as 'Indian Delegation'. It is not clear whether they were sponsored officially and funded by the Government or it was a private trip. If it is an official delegation as the report says, what the nation has achieved will remain a mystery as sharing of information is a rare phenomenon in such cases. There appears to have been some presentation by the 'delegation' at a get together of a local Indian group apparently retelling the Indian situation which any how the audience was already aware of. It is a bane of Indian science in general that youngsters are never provided opportunities to rub shoulders with their peers in such gatherings as in IFT convention, most of the public funds cornered by the same tired old faces with which
everybody is familiar. Cant we think of sending young, fresh and capable food scientists, available in plenty in the country in Universities and Institutions who will have to shoulder future responsibilities in fostering food science and technology in the country? Presence of 25-30 scientists in such international gatherings is bound to project the strength of the country in the food front attracting investments automatically. How much cost the country has to bear for such a program? Less than a crore of rupees which is worth every rupee spent. Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI) is well known for squandering money on unproductive programs with practically no impact and surrender a significant portion of the allocation amounting to crores of rupees at the end of the year due to poverty of ideas for fruitful projects and heart-breaking bureaucratic procedural wrangles.

What India has done in IT should be repeated in food technology also and there is no dearth of talents in the country for achieving discernible results within a short time, provided there is a will to do. It is not surprising that IIT undergraduates in India, yet to finish their academic programs are accepted by IT giants in the USA as interns by meeting business class air fares and luxury living standards in that country, though for a limited period, They probably know that they are investing in future manpower requirements by undertaking such programs.This is happening because IT sector is highly visible and the strengths of our IT capability is well known to major International players. Indian Food Technology also needs exposures in a big way and this can happen only in such international forums as IFT conventions and other industrial-technological meetings.

It is true that AFST(I) also holds international conventions (IFCON) every four years since 1988 but it hardly attracts any genuine scientists from abroad as established peers need time and financial resources to come all the way to India. Bad planning, undue delays in program design, late invitations and under provided budgets can be cited as reasons for renowned food scientists not able to participate in IFCONs. More over, the penchant for organizing this event in Mysore, not ideally located for international travelers to reach and some what limited infrastructure for holding the event do not help to realize the full potential of IFCONs. Here again absence of or limited support, by the MFPI is a major factor for the under performance of IFCONs in the past. One can only hope that the forth coming IFCON in December 2008 at Mysore will fare better as the organizers are planning raising criers of rupees to truly internationalize this event. AFST(I) should
have the vision to make such events truly international by attracting at least 10% of the delegates from other countries around the world and this will give our young food scientists abundant opportunities to listen , interact and broaden their knowledge to unprecedented levels.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.Ikon'scom/

FOOD INDUSTRY- NEED FOR MORE SOLDIERS THAN COMMANDERS

Food technologists have a pivotal role to play in running the food processing industry, though their role is invariably usurped by generalist managers under the guise of better management and productivity. It is least realized that the products made by the industry make a mark in the market because of their creation, and development of quality and safety credentials by the food technologists through sustained inputs of technical efforts. Of course the role of marketing managers in promoting and establishing the brand values cannot be under estimated. A team effort with every one pulling the punches is what distinguishes a great brand from a mediocre one in the long run. Looking at the Indian Food Industry, there does exist a dichotomy where for most of the government positions bureaucrats are preferred, sidelining knowledge based technical personnel while the private sector leans more heavily on the latter for many of their technical activities. It is intriguing how a person having no knowledge about any aspects of food is put in charge of an 'Authority' vested with the responsibility of overseeing the quality and safety of foods as it is happening in India. What credibility consumers will place on a system that does not deploy responsible and knowledgeable persons to run the food quality and safety regime of the country?

Another worrisome aspect is about the make up of the current personnel pool, available to the industry for employment. The three main institutions that pioneered food technology training prior to fifties viz UICT, Mumbai, HBTI, Kanpur and Jadavpur University, Kolkatta had the mandate to offer manpower to help the then nascent food industry to develop into a viable entity in the landscape of the country. While their early efforts are to be lauded, subsequent efforts in planning a long term manpower policy at the national level were not serious with the result that there are umpteen number of universities offering food related courses without keeping in mind the relevance of their graduates to the needs of the industry with a few exceptions. Even the new fancy institute with the acronym of NIFTEM being created by the central government is intended to serve a small segment of the industry, the high flying super players like Pepsi co, Coca Cola, Kellogg, etc.

What about the small scale and micro enterprise sectors? Is there any one out there listening to their woes? Can they compete with the large industry in attracting good talents? Can they afford to pay the sky rocketing salaries being offered by the big fishes? Do they need personnel so highly qualified to manage their technical operations? Several years ago in one of the seminars on HRD at Jadavpur University, this issue was focused but very little seemed to have happened since then giving one the impression that small and micro industries do not have the ears of those at the helm of affairs in the country.Is this situation good for the country as a whole, especially with a notoriously slack system of safety monitoring as it exists to day?

Probably a serious introspection is necessary to avoid past negligence and lethargy on the part of the industry as well as the government to evolve a training regime that suits the requirements of this neglected sector. The situation has worsened after the opening of the economy in early nineties due to a paranoid focus on large industries and foreign investments in food sector. It is forgotten that more than 50% of production of many processed foods originate amongst small and micro enterprises spawning the country and we can ignore them only at our own peril. Quality and safety measures if to be implemented will call for investments and with the enforcement regime bound to become more and more demanding due to increasing pace of globalization, critical technical manpower induction at lower levels of the industry cannot be delayed further.

One of the constructive suggestions was to expand the technical education to focus on matriculates who can be trained in 2-3 years into useful technicians capable of handling many operations which to day are being managed by over-qualified food technologists. Of course such a revolutionary plan will need considerable planning and investment which government or industry associations can think of. The model of flour milling school at Mysore, set up specifically to meet their needs of that industry, serves to illustrate the point. The technically qualified people coming out of such institutions will be satisfied with a fraction of the compensation package being commanded by graduate and post-graduate food technologists coming from recognized institutions and universities. Lower rungs of food industry will ever be grateful to the country if such an initiative is taken up in earnest and eventually bears fruit.

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

"EATING OUT" CULTURE-A BRITISH LEGACY?

Eating out practices are becoming more and more ingrained in the Indian culture, especially in urban and semi-urban regions. In a state like Karnataka, even during festival periods, families frequent restaurants instead of cooking special menus as has been the practice a few years ago. This is probably due to the increasing fragmentation of large families of yesteryears into nuclear ones consequent to industrialization and expanded opportunities to good education and employment to female population. Though precise statistics are not available regarding the frequency of eating out amongst the population in general, even a conservative 'guesstimate' indicates it could be twice a month and many indulging in 'eating out' once a week. Urban families may thus depend on outside food to meet 7% to 14% of their annual food requirement. However if rural population is taken into consideration it is doubtful whether even 1% of the families have the opportunities to eat out due to low density of restaurants in these undeveloped areas. In contrast Americans are reported to be taking more than 20% of their meals, on an average outside of their homes. Such massive exposure to 'eating out' could be a veritable reason for the US Food Industry to be in a vanguard position as it is to day.

It was Britishers who conceived the idea of mass or collective feeding in early years of 20th century, based on their experience in feeding prisoners and destitute populations during various wars fought by them as the supreme colonial power till middle of the last century and the first Public Restaurant was opened at West Minister Bridge Road in London by the Queen in May 1917 under the National Restaurant Division of Food Ministry. Establishment of a modern cafeteria at Peckam under the name Pioneer Health Center in 1926 and opening of Oakley House in 1935, probably signaled the beginning of modern cafeterias and restaurants with many customer services and facilities, almost similar to what we see to day. It was also the beginning of man's quest for knowledge about food and nutrition culminating in the establishment of Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations around 1945. The Nutrition Institute at Coonoor , Tamil Nadu, headed by late Dr Patwardhan played a significant role in evolving the science of nutrition as we know to day.

One of the factors for the slower growth of the restaurant sector could be the rigid caste bias that existed in India prior to the exit of Britishers and reluctance of upper caste population to consume foods cooked by others. Besides, upper caste members, even with some entrepreneurial streak were reluctant to start food business as selling of food was often considered as a sin and food has to be given free as 'dhana' as per the ancient scriptures. It was only after 1950 organized restaurants came up in many major towns and cities with a cosmopolitan clientele as the caste barriers were crumbling due to modernization, education and urbanization. Restaurants also played a critical role as a national integrator by popularizing foods from different regions all over the country.

In India one can see the true flowering of the concept of mass feeding of different categories like midday school program, large industrial canteens, anganwadis, large scale commercial catering at weddings and other functions attended by thousands, temples, mosques and langars for devotees, cafeterias and restaurants serving hundreds of varieties of traditional foods as well as foods characteristic of other cultures like Chinese, Mexican, Italian, etc. In many ways development of food processing industry is linked to the growth of the catering sector and with less than 30% of the country's population exposed to modern day foods being offered by the restaurants, it is no wonder that in India the processing sector does not achieve the type of development one expects with such a high resource base for which it is renowned. .

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

FOOD LABEL-THE WINDOW TO THE CONTENTS

Right to information is vital for any users to decide about whether to buy or not, what he should buy and at what cost and how much he should buy, at the point of sales. This is especially true when it comes to food product labeling. Any equitable labeling regulations must ensure fairness to the consumer as well as the manufacturer, though safety of a food product is paramount to protect the health of the nation. From the consumer side the demand will be to make the manufacturer more transparent while the latter invariably will strive to give out as less information as possible, lest his competitors get to know of his secrets. It must be remembered that the technology of food processing has progressed so much the industry can meet the aspirations of the consumer in so many different ways in terms of color, aroma, texture and taste.

In India the Federal Health Ministry primarily is vested with the responsibility for all matters concerning the quality and safety of food products through the Food Standards and Safety Authority. It is a daunting task because of the need to have norms for evolving, rationalizing and implementing thousands of standards for quality and safety for many products which are indigenous to the country and for which there are no parallels else where in the world. One of the major constraints is the relatively small scientific data on most of the products that exist to day and marked reluctance for the food scientists to undertake R & D on native foods. Unless basic research programs are initiated immediately the country is bound to suffer for want of such data and consequent continuation of the hoch-poch days of PFA. With increasing globalization, a time will come for the country to align its standards with international benchmarks at least for the sake of
protecting the national exports.

What does one expect from the labels that have become an integral part of modern manufacturing and marketing. The the government has the responsibility to ensure consumer safety and economic frauds like bloated claims, unsustainable health declarations and false depiction of the contents in side. The industry, obviously will strive for maximum exposure of its strengths and advantages and manage to include whatever information necessary to create confidence in the buyer within the space available on the label. The consumer expects vital and reliable information regarding the nutrition/health aspects, safety from chemical, microbiological and other contaminants,besides knowing about the shelf-life of the product both before and after opening the pack.

In a country like India where new nutritional labeling norms are being made mandatory it is worth considering what purpose it is going to serve. One wonders what percentage of the population is English-literate even to read the label, let alone understand the significance of the figures and explanations which are part of the label. Probably they will have to be satisfied with the visuals, if they truly reflect the nature of the contents. Those who are well versed in English may be able to discern only the name of the product, ingredients used, quantity in the pack, manufacturer's name, production batch number, maximum retail price and date of expiry, unless they are knowledgeable about food and nutrition. In many developed countries new information pertaining to presence of allergic ingredients such as gluten, peanuts, etc is also mandatory. Coming to the Indian situation what is intriguing is the nutritional label required to be printed on the pack
and its format. Declaration regarding total energy, energy from fat and energy from saturated fat, extent of unsaturated fat, levels of trans fat, total protein, sugar and carbohydrate, dietary fiber, and selected vitamins and minerals has become the universal practice to day all over the world..

It is beyond one's comprehension as to how a consumer is being benefited if caloric load is not related to the serving unit, quality of the proteins is not indicated, glycemic index(GI) of the carbohydrate and glycemic load (GL) per serving are not declared. Majority of the consumers do not have much idea about the minimum nutritional requirement of a healthy person but they are aware that protein is good, fat is bad, dietary fiber is good, and too much carbohydrates are not good. Often consumers mistake the values of % of daily requirement as the absolute concentration of those constituents in the food and such misunderstanding may have some negative implications. Is it not more appropriate if the nutrition content is declared for the whole pack and leave to the consumer as to how much he eats per serving?

Where is the need to declare MRP and why not leave it to the market to sell at an appropriate price keeping in view the competition? One has yet to hear any monopolistic hold of any single player in the fiercely competitive Indian market. Because of MRP declaration it becomes difficult to lower the prices drastically, as such price reduction raises doubts about the quality of food, fatal to the reputation of any brand of food. The phenomenon of wide price range for the same product can be healthy and prices are bound to come down once market has oversupplies. In many developed countries the price range can vary for the same product and it is not unusual for the price to tumble as much as 50% during many occasions which after all benefits the consumer. Also MRP hinders the initiatives of organized retailers who provide added services in their stores for more consumer comfort, cost of which will have to be borne by the products.

The consumer's top most priority is how long he can keep the product without causing spoilage. The terms such as 'sell before', 'best before' , date of expiry mean different things to different consumers. While finding a solution to this vexed problem, the practical difficulties of the manufacturer must also be kept in mind. Why not give a definite time period before the product gets unsafe both at 30C as well as at 4C? before opening as well afterwards. Of course these issues need to be sorted out between the government, consumers, the industry and the food scientists. Data regarding safety of products at different temperatures in different packing modes will have to be generated and validated, if the accountability for default is to be factored into the system. Product return, replacement, damages for dereliction etc must be a part of the food chain and any marginal cost rise for these steps will be readily accepted by the consumer.

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