eChapters

Nutraceuticals and Health Foods

    1.    According to the International Food Information Council (IFIC), functional foods are “foods or dietary components that may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition.”

    2.    Nutraceuticals : A product isolated and purified from foods that is generally- sold in medicinal forms are usually associated with food. A nutraceutical is demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease (Coined originally by Stephen DeFelice in 1989, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, USA).

    3.    The International Life Sciences Institute of North America (ILSI) has defined functional foods as “foods that by virtue of physiologically active food components provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition

    4.    Health Canada defines functional foods as “similar in appearance to a conventional food, consumed as part of the usual diet, with demonstrated physiological benefits, and/or to reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions.”

    1.    The heifer is bred (naturally or by insemination) before the age of two years.

    2.    The gestation period is nine months and one week.

    3.    After calving, the cow gives milk for 10 months.

    4.    1 – 2 months after calving the cow will again be bred.

    5.    The cow then continues to give milk for about 300 days. This period is known as lactation.

    6.    Milk should preferably be handled in a closed system, to minimise the risk of contamination. It must be cooled to 4 °C as soon as it is produced.

    7.    The content of protein, lactose and ash is somewhat higher in buffalo milk than in cow milk. Buffalo milk contains vitamin A, but lacks b-carotene, which is present in cow’s milk.

    8.    When milk and cream turn to butter, there is a phase inversion from an oil-in-water emulsion to a water-in-oil emulsion.

    9.    In milk, the whey proteins are in colloidal solution and the casein in colloidal suspension.

Meat and Meat Products

    1.    Meat can be defined as “the muscle tissue of slaughter animals”.
    2.    meat is composed of water, fat, protein, minerals and a small proportion of carbohydrate

Cereal Processing

    1.    The protein content of wheat grain varies widely, but for bread making a value of at least 11% is required.

    2.    Low grain sulphur will result in low concentrations of the sulphur-containing amino acids, cystine and methionine, and may result in poor loaf volume.

    3.    During seed germination endosperm starch is converted into soluble glucose and maltose to support the developing embryo. This is brought about by enzymatic activity, especially the enzyme a-amylase.

    4.    Excessive a-amylase levels result in the formation of a darkened loaf crust as a result of sugar caramelization and a sticky crumb structure which can cause problems during slicing.

    5.    Wheat with a protein level below 10% is preferred to reduce gluten elasticity.

    6.    There is a very good correlation between grain nitrogen and the amount of malt extract achieved, low grain nitrogen giving more fermentable extract

    7.    The term ‘coarse grains milling’ is a very broad one that refers to the comminution of the berries of the wheat, barley and other coarse grain crops.

Moisture Content
 
Two maximum moisture levels are provided to meet different climatic conditions and marketing practices. Lower values in the first column are suggested for countries with tropical climates or when long-term (more than one crop year) storage is a normal commercial practice. The values in the second column are suggested for more moderate climates or when other short term storage is the normal commercial practice.

Introduction

    1.    Food Science is the application of the physical, biological and behavioral science to the processing and marketing of foods (Margaret, 1968).

    2.    Technology can be defined as the science dealing with knowledge of doing things efficiently and effectively.

    3.    Food science helps us understand the theory example: what methods can best be used to store and preserve food to maintain quality and prevent spoilage.

    4.    Food technology demonstrates how the food is stored, preserved, processed and transported and has been responsible for development of new techniques for processing and preservation of food on a commercial scale and for packaging it in such a way that it can be sold conveniently.

    5.    Food science deals with the study of facts of the physical, chemical and biological sciences as they influence the processing and preservation of food.

    6.    Food technology deals with engineering and other scientific and technical problems involved in transforming edible raw materials and other ingredients into safe, nutritious and appetizing food products (Desrosier, 1977).

    7.    Food science is concerned with basic scientific facts about food, where as food technology concerned with the processing of raw materials into foods that meet human needs and wants.

    8.    Indian agriculture has undergone a sea change during the past half a century. Starting with the campaign for “grow more foods” in the forties, India reached self sufficiency during the eighties.

Instrumentation and Advanced Analytical Techniques

    1.    Chromatography is defined as an analytical technique where by a mixture of chemicals may be separated by virtue of their differential affinities for two immiscible phases. One of these, the stationary phase, consists of a fixed bed of small particles with a large surface area, while the other, the mobile phase or “eluant”, is a fluid that moves constantly through, or over the surface of, the fixed phase.

    2.    The chromatogram evaluated qualitatively by determining the Rf or retention factor, for each of the eluted substances.

    3.    The Rf is a measure of that fraction of its total elution time that any compound spends in the mobile phase.

    4.    If the liquid phase is a polar substance (e.g. polyethylene glycol) and the mobile phase is non polar, the process is termed normal-phase chromatography

    5.    When the stationary phase is non polar (e.g. octadecylsilane) and the mobile phase is polar, the process is reversed-phase chromatography

    6.    The chromatographic separation of mixtures of large molecules such as proteins may be accomplished by a mechanism called size exclusion chromatography or gel permeation chromatography.

    7.    Separation of certain molecules is accomplished by a mechanism called affinity Chromatography in which specific binding between an antibody (stationary phase) and antigen (analyte) occur.

1. Guidelines on Analytical Terminology

    1.    Accuracy : The closeness of agreement between a test result or measurement result and a reference value.

    2.    Analyte : The chemical substance sought or determined in a sample. This definition does not apply to molecular biological analytical methods.

    3.    Applicability : The analytes, matrices, and concentrations for which a method of analysis may be used satisfactorily.

    4.    Bias : The difference between the expectation of the test result or measurement result and the true value. In practice conventional quantity value can be substituted for true value.

    5.    The bias of a measuring instrument is normally estimated by averaging the error of indication over the appropriate number of repeated measurements. The error of indication is the: “indication of a measuring instrument minus a true value of the corresponding input quantity”.

    6.    Calibration : Operation that, under specified conditions, in a first step, establishes a relation between the values with measurement uncertainties provided by measurement standards and corresponding indications with associated measurement uncertainties and in a second step uses this information to establish a relation for obtaining a measurement result from an indication.

    7.    Certified reference material (CRM) : Reference material accompanied by documentation issued by an authoritative body and providing one or more specified property values with associated uncertainties and traceability, using valid procedures.

Physical Chemistry of Foods

    1.    Thermodynamics is primarily concerned with energy and entropy. Energy, also called internal energy (U), comprises heat and work; it is measured in joules (J).

    2.    Energy may be recalled that work generally equals force times distance (in N_·m = J) and that force equals mass times acceleration (in kg ·m· s^-2 = N).

    3.    According to the first law of thermodynamics, the quantity of energy, i.e., heat (q) work (p) potential energy, is always preserved.

    4.    Entropy (S)  is a measure of disorder; it is given by   
        S = K_B ln Ω
        Where K_B is the Boltzmann constant (1.38 ×10^-23 J × K^-1) and W is the number of  ways in which the system can be arranged, also called the number of degrees of freedom.

    5.    Colligative solution properties : The lowering of the chemical potential of a solvent by the presence of a solute causes changes in a number of physical properties: vapor pressure, boiling point, freezing point, osmotic pressure, etc. (the magnitudes of these changes all are proportional to the mole fraction of solute).

Percent Solutions

There are three types of percent solutions. All are parts of solute per 100 total parts of solution. Based on the following definitions you may calculate the concentration of a solution or calculate how to make up a specific concentration

    1.    % W/W - Percent of weight of solute in the total weight of the solution. Percent here is the number of grams of solute in 100 grams of solution. 
        Example: 
        A 100% (W/W) NaCl solution is made by weighing 100 g NaCl and dissolving in 100 g of solution

    2.    % W/V - Percent of weight of solution in the total volume of solution. Percent here is the number of grams of solute in 100 ml of solution. This is probably the least significant way of naming a solution, but the most common way of doing it. In fact, any percent solution not stipulated as W/W, W/V, or V/V is assumed to be % W/V. 
        Example : A 4% (W/V) NaCl solution is 4 g of NaCl in 100 ml of solution.

    3.    % V/V - Percent of volume of solute in the total volume of solution %V/V. Percent here is the number of milliliters of solute in 100 ml of solution. 
        Example: A 10% (V/V) ethanol solution is 10 ml of ethanol in 100 ml of solution; unless otherwise stated, water is the solvent. 

    1.    Absorbance (A) - Defined as –log (1-a) = log (1/t), where ‘a’ is the absorbance and‘t’ the transmittance of a medium through which a light beam passes.

    2.    Absorption coefficient (a) - The relative decrease in the intensity of a collimated beam of electromagnetic radiation, as a result of absorption by a medium, during traversal of an infinitesimal layer of the medium, divided by the length traversed.

    3.    Acceleration due to gravity (g) - The standard value (9.80665 m/s2) of the acceleration experienced by a body in the earth’s gravitational field.

    4.    Acid - Historically, a substance that yields an H+ ion when it dissociates in solution, resulting in a pH< 7. In the Brönsted definition, an acid is a substance that donates a proton in any type of reaction. The most general definition, due to G.N. Lewis, classifies any chemical species capable of accepting an electron pair as an acid.

    5.    Acid dissociation constant (Ka) - The equilibrium constant for the dissociation of an acid HA through the reaction HA + H2O1 A- + H3O+. The quantity pKa = -log Ka is often used to express the acid dissociation constant

    6.    Acyl groups - Groups formed by removing the hydroxy groups from oxoacids that have the general structure RC (=O) (OH) and replacement analogues of such acyl groups.

    7.    Adiabatic process - A thermodynamic process in which no heat enters or leaves the system.

    1.    Nutrients : Chemical substances obtained from food and used in the body to provide energy, structural materials, and regulating agents to support growth, maintenance, and repair of the body’s tissues. Nutrients may also reduce the risks of some diseases.
    2.    Carbohydrate, fat, and protein are sometimes called macronutrients because the body requires them in relatively large amounts (many grams daily). In contrast, vitamins and minerals are micronutrients, required only in small amounts (milligrams or micrograms daily).
    3.    The international unit for measuring food energy is the joule, a measure of work energy. To convert kcalories to kilojoules, multiply by 4.2; to convert kilojoules to kcalories, multiply by 0.24.
    4.    Essential nutrients : Nutrients a person must obtain from food because the body cannot make them for itself in sufficient quantity to meet physiological needs; also called indispensable nutrients. About 40 nutrients are currently known to be essential for human beings. Energy-yielding nutrients: the nutrients that break down to yield energy the body can use:

In most countries there is no legislative definition of the term drawing a border line between conventional and functional foods is challenging even for nutrition and food experts. Functional foods do not have a specific place in food law; consequently there is a great deal of confusion about what they are, could or should be. A common perception is that functional foods are foodstuffs either with one or more specific added ingredients (components), or certain substances of common ingredients (components) removed and which are claimed to have a positive influence on human health or well being. The term ‘functional foods’ for this group of products is considered to be an unfortunate one since all foodstuffs are or should be functional and a more appropriate term might be helpful.

Introduction
 
The future of functional foods is bright and there are several reasons for the growing interest in “functional” foods, such as awareness of personal health deterioration, led by busy lifestyles with poor choices of convenience foods and insufficient exercise; increased incidence of self-medication; increased level of information from health authorities and media on nutrition and the link between diet and health; scientific developments in nutrition research; and a crowded and competitive food market, characterized by pressurized margins. Now, the consumer is well aware of the relationship between diet and health. Consumers understand that the risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, and type II diabetes is possibly preventable by modification in their diet pattern. This scientific progress in understanding the relationship of diet to disease, along with increasing health care costs and the consumer’s desire to initiate healthy eating and lifestyle habits, makes this a potentially fertile ground for the development of food products that meet these demands.

Introduction

The search for weight controlling foods began in the mid 19^th century when industrialization led to widespread obesity. Over the years, people have tried to lose weight by avoiding particular food groups like carbohydrates, eating specific foods such as cabbage soup, or adding a certain ingredient, like vinegar or grapefruit to each meal. Recently scientists have demonstrated that green tea, dairy products, and cinnamon have the potential to improve weight control by altering fat and/or carbohydrate metabolism at the sub-cellular level. Considerable research is needed, however, before these food items can be used to develop effective weight management products.

Introduction
 
Diabetes shows a wide range of variation in prevalence around the world and it is expected to affect 300 million by the year 2025. In a prevention framework where banning policies and educational strategies lead the interventions, functional foods (FFs) with their specific health effects could, in the future, indicate a new mode of thinking about the relationships between food and health in everyday life. Functional ingredients, such as stevioside, cinnamon, bitter melon, garlic and onion, ginseng, Gymnema sylvestre and fenugreek, have been addressed for their specific actions towards different reactions involved in diabetes development. New strategies involving the use of FF should be validated through large scale population trials, considering validated surrogate end points to evaluate the effect of FF in prevention of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Introduction
 
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still a major cause of death in Western populations and is becoming an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Thanks to advanced medical knowledge and treatments, many patients survive an initial event. Because of that, prevention of secondary CVD is a growing task for nutritionists and other health professionals. Cardiovascular risk can be reduced by lifestyle changes, one of which is diet. There is now substantial evidence from epidemiological and clinical studies that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains, fish and low-fat dairy products, and low in saturated fats and sodium, can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and hypertension.

Introduction
 
Developments in innovative food packaging technologies have evolved in response to the need for protection of the food product containing bioactive component from both external and internal environments and in response to consumer expectations for health claims, convenience and product safety. Consumers around the world are willing to pay extra for guaranteed product freshness delivered by the type of packaging. Many new packaging developments have focused on extending the shelf life of the product and on delivering a higher quality product to the consumer. These developments would not be possible without significant advances in the materials used in packaging and the incorporation of various types of sensors into food packaging. This chapter outlines the innovative packaing solutions in the production of functional food.

Introduction
 
The emerging functional foods market presents a considerable challenge to all manufacturers to keep abreast of the use of adequate packaging materials for their products. The interest in functional foods is intrinsically linked to the potential health benefits of their bioactive components. Preserving these bioactive components is, therefore, a crucial factor to providing the anticipated health benefits of functional foods. However, recurring failure in maintaining the quality of functional foods has been reported. Functional foods include a wide variety of products such as prebiotics and probiotics, dried foods (fibers, probiotics, tea, herbs, etc.), fermented products (yogurts, kefirs, vegetables), and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Introduction

The emerging functional foods market presents a considerable challenge to all manufacturers to keep abreast of the use of adequate packaging materials for their products. The interest in functional foods is intrinsically linked to the potential health benefits of their bioactive components. Preserving these bioactive components is, therefore, a crucial factor to providing the anticipated health benefits of functional foods. However, recurring failure in maintaining the quality of functional foods has been reported. Functional foods include a wide variety of products such as prebiotics and probiotics, dried foods (fibers, tea, herbs, etc.), fermented products (yogurts, kefirs, vegetables), and fresh fruits and vegetables. Their bioactive components (minerals, vitamins, fibers, peptides, proteins, w–3 polyunsaturated fats, antioxidants, enzymes, and symbiotics) range from very simple molecules to complex living organisms such as bacteria.