HEALTH ALERT: FDA Moves To Ban Trans Fat

News Desk: FDA Moves To Ban Trans Fat

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tentatively determined that partially hydrogenated oils, which are the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in the American diet, are not generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use in food based on current scientific evidence establishing the health risks associated with the consumption of trans fat. If the determination is finalized, partially hydrogenated oils would be considered food additives and could not be used in food without prior FDA approval.

To hear more on this topic, view "The Future of Trans Fat," filmed during SupplySide West, Nov. 12-16

Trans fat is dangerous

Here is a great summary article By Amanda MacMillan

Trans fat can make food taste good, last longer on grocery-store shelves, and more hazardous for your heart.

"Trans fats raise your bad cholesterol just like saturated fats, but they also increase inflammation and lower the good cholesterol that protects us against heart disease," says Andrea Giancoli, RD, MPH, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

The good news? Many food manufacturers and fast-food chains have removed or reduced trans fat. But it still lurks in many foods—here are 22 to watch.

• Trans fat is dangerous
• French fries
• Anything fried or battered
• Pie and piecrust
• Margarine sticks
• Shortening
• Cake mixes and frostings
• Pancakes and waffles
• Fried chicken
• Ice cream
• Nondairy creamers
• Microwave popcorn
• Ground beef
• Cookies
• Biscuits and sweet rolls
• Breakfast sandwiches
• Frozen or creamy beverages
• Meat sticks
• Crackers
• Frozen dinners
• Asian crunchy noodles
• Canned chili
• Packaged pudding

 

Check out my new e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time

HEALTH ALERT: COFFEE, BEER MAY AFFECT AGING, CANCER

COFFEE, BEER MAY AFFECT AGING, CANCER

Published December 6, 2013 in Food Product Design






Posted in News, International, Science & Research, Coffee, Caffeine, Beer, Alcohol, Beverages, Cancer,Yeast

TEL AVIV, Israel—Coffee and beer, although polar opposites, may be connected to aging and cancer, according to latest research published in PLOS Genetics.

Martin Kupiec, professor at Tel Aviv University's department of molecular biology and biotechnology, and his team, worked with yeast discovering that caffeine shortens and alcohol lengthens telomeres—the end points of chromosomal DNA.

"For the first time we've identified a few environmental factors that alter telomere length, and we've shown how they do it," Kupiec said. "What we learned may one day contribute to the prevention and treatment of human diseases."

Telomeres, made of DNA and proteins, mark the ends of the strands of DNA in the human chromosomes. They are essential to ensuring that the DNA strands are repaired and copied correctly. Every time a cell duplicates, the chromosomes are copied into the new cell with slightly shorter telomeres. Eventually, the telomeres become too short, and the cell dies.

The study was an expansion from a previous 2004 study conducted by Elizabeth Blackburn, who suggested that emotional stress causes the shortening of the telomeres characteristic of aging, presumably by generating free radicals in the cells.

By exposing the yeast cells to 12 environmental stressors, the researchers realized that a low concentration of caffeine, similar to the amount found in a shot of espresso, shortened telomeres, and exposure to a 5% to 7% ethanol solution lengthened telomeres.

To understand these changes researchers scanned 6,000 strains of the yeast, each with a different gene deactivated. They conducted genetic tests on the strains with the longest and shortest telomeres, revealing that two genes, Rap1 and Rif1, are the main players mediating environmental stressors and telomere length. In total, some 400 genes interact to maintain telomere length underscoring the importance of this gene network in maintaining the stability of the genome.

"This is the first time anyone has analyzed a complex system in which all of the genes affecting it are known," Kupiec said. "It turns out that telomere length is something that's very exact, which suggests that precision is critical and should be protected from environmental effects."

More research is needed to prove a causal relationship, not a mere correlation, between telomere length and aging or cancer.

Sources:

• American Friends Tel Aviv University: Coffee or Beer? The Choice Could Affect Your Genome

Check out my new e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time

FOOD SAFETY: CDC INTRODUCES 2 CRITICAL TOOLS FOR FOOD SAFETY

CDC INTRODUCES 2 CRITICAL TOOLS FOR FOOD SAFETY

Published December 3, 2013 in Food Product Design

Posted in News, Food Safety, Regulatory, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Foodservice, Bacteria, Microbial,Salmonella, Listeria, Bacteria, E. Coli, Campylobacter, Retail, QSR, Fast Casual, Meat Products,Beverages, Fruits / Vegetables, Poultry, Dairy

ATLANTA—Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified gaps in the education of restaurant workers, as well as public health surveillance, as two critical areas that need to be improved to prevent and reduce the incidence of foodborne illnesses.

Research conducted by the CDC identified food preparation and handling practices, worker health policies, and hand-washing practices among the underlying environmental factors that often are not reported during foodborne outbreaks, even though more than half of all the foodborne outbreaks that are reported each year are associated with restaurants or delis. According to the CDC, 48 million people become ill and 3,000 die in the United States. In response, the CDC introduced two initiatives to improve food safety in the foodservice sector.

"Inspectors have not had a formal system to capture and report the underlying factors that likely contribute to foodborne outbreaks or a way to inform prevention strategies and implement routine corrective measures in restaurants, delis and schools to prevent future outbreaks," said Carol Selman, head of CDC's Environmental Health Specialists Network team at the National Center for Environmental Health.

The National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System (NVEAIS) is a new surveillance system targeted to state, tribal and other localities that inspect and regulate restaurants and other food venues such as banquet facilities, schools, and other institutions. The system provides an avenue to capture underlying environmental assessment data that describes what happened and how events most likely lead to a foodborne outbreak. These data will help CDC and other public health professionals determine and understand more completely the primary and underlying causes of foodborne illness outbreaks.

CDC also introduced a free interactive e-learning course has been developed to help state and local health departments investigate foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants and other food service venues as a member of a larger outbreak response team, identify an outbreak's environmental causes, and recommend appropriate control measures. The e-learning course is also available to members of the food industry, academia and the public, anyone interested in understanding the causes of foodborne outbreaks.

The data surveillance system and e-Learning course will debut in early 2014. With these tools, state, and local public health food safety programs will be able to report data from environmental assessments as a part of outbreak investigations and prevent future foodborne outbreaks in restaurants and other food service establishments. CDC developed these products in collaboration with FDA, USDA and state and local health departments.

Sources:

• CDC: CDC releases new findings and prevention tools to improve food safety in restaurants

Check out my new e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time

GLOBAL FOOD HUNGER: The hungriest places on Earth

The hungriest places on Earth

The average American will eat 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. In other countries, most people will eat less than half that in a single day, and many will eat much, much less.

Between 2010 and 2012, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 870 million people weren't able to eat enough to satisfy their bodies’ daily requirement of energy.

This Thanksgiving, like every Thanksgiving, the average American will eat far more than he or she needs to. The average daily caloric intake of an American is now 3,700 calories. On Thanksgiving, that average jumps to 4,500.

Many of us will sit around large tables, eating too much, drinking too much, and avoiding conversations about religion or politics. Someone will fall into a tryptophan coma. Someone might joke that we should clear our plates because people are starving in Africa. We are thankful for the 4,500 calories in our bellies. It’s time to watch professional sports on TV.

Meanwhile, people really are starving all around the world. And it’s worth remembering it on a day of gluttonous food consumption followed by another day — Black Friday — of gluttonous material consumption. Even in the United States, where food assistance programs are beingcut, food pantries and charity Thanksgiving meals will be packed this Thursday.

Elsewhere around the globe, things are much, much worse. While the average American consumes 4,500 calories this Thanksgiving, people in these 15 countries will consume less than half of that amount, if they are lucky, and much, much less if they are not.

There are several metrics for assessing and describing hunger. This list is arranged by the number of calories available each day to the average person.

Additional categories include: the percentage of a country's population that is undernourished; the country's calorie deficit, or the daily number of calories that each undernourished person would need to eat to become nourished; and the Global Hunger Index ranking, which uses a combination of metrics to rank at-risk countries from 1 to 78, with 78 being the most at-risk country.

These are the hungriest countries in the world.

15) North Korea: 2,240 calories per day

Residents drying crops outside their homes at a collective farm in North Korea. (Ian Timberlake/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 31 percent

Calorie deficit: 238

GHI ranking: 51 (tied with Kenya)

14) Rwanda: 2,240 calories per day

A Rwandan tea picker at the Mulindi tea plantation, in Byumba, Rwanda. (Gianluigi Guercia/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 29.7 percent

Calorie deficit: 201

GHI ranking: 41

13) Tanzania: 2,210 calories per day

(Jacqui Deelstra)

Undernourished: 33 percent

Calorie deficit: 221

GHI ranking: 62

12) Kenya: 2,180 calories per day

Napolos Esho sun-dries the remainder of her maize after her crop was destroyed by elephants near Narok, Kenya. (Getty Images)

Undernourished: 25.8 percent

Calorie deficit: 166

GHI ranking: 51 (tied with North Korea)

11) Mozambique: 2,180 calories per day

A health worker protests in Maputo, Mozambique in 2013. (Jinty Jackson/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 36.8 percent

Calorie deficit: 269

GHI ranking: 64

10) Democratic Republic of Congo: 2,170 calories per day

Displaced People at a food distribution center near Goma on May 25, 2013. (Junior D. Kannah/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 33 percent

Calorie deficit: 234

GHI ranking: 61

9) Madagascar: 2,160 calories per day

A child sells peanuts on Oct. 22, 2013 in a street of Antananarivo, Madagascar. (Stephane de Sakutin/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 27.2 percent

Calorie deficit: 176

GHI ranking: 70

8) Comoros: 2,110 calories per day

Comoran women sell homemade bread at the Volovolo market. (Simon Maina/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 65.3 percent

Calorie deficit: 655

GHI ranking: 76

7) Swaziland: 2,100 calories per day

A boy holds a plate as pupils line up for school lunch in Bulembu, Swaziland. (Stephane de Sakutin/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 35.8 percent

Calorie deficit: 262

GHI ranking: 35

6) Palestinian Territories: 2,090 calories per day

A young Palestinian boy takes bags of food aid from the United Nations in the Gaza Strip. (Mahmud Hams/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 31.8 percent

Calorie deficit: 211

GHI ranking: unranked

5) Haiti: 1,980 calories per day

Haitian women get sacks containing rice in Port-au-Prince on March 6, 2010. (Eitan Abramovich/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 49.8 percent

Calorie deficit: 431

GHI ranking: 67

4) Timor Este: 1,920 calories per day

A woman selects vegetables at the market in Dili, Timor Este. (Valentino de Sousa/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 38.3 percent

Calorie deficit: 254

GHI ranking: 75

3) Zambia: 1,910 calories per day

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe samples meat products in Zambia. (Joseph Mwenda/GettyImages)

Undernourished: 43.1 percent

Calorie deficit: 306

GHI ranking: 69

2) Eritrea: 1,730 calories per day

Eritrean farmers herd a team of donkeys into the capital Asmara. (Peter Martell/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 61.3 percent

Calorie deficit: 488

GHI ranking: 77

1) Burundi: 1,670 calories per day

A cyclist im Burundi transports goods to the capital, Bujumbura. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

Undernourished: 67.3 percent

Calorie deficit: 581

GHI ranking: 78

Countries not included in this list but that rank below 50 in the Global Hunger Index include: Sudan, Chad, Yemen, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, India, Niger, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uganda, Angola, Laos, Namibia, Liberia.

Add those countries to the 15 listed here, and you've got the 28 hungriest countries on Earth.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/131127/thanksgiving-the-hungriest-places-earth

Check out my new e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time

AGRI-FOOD TRENDS: FAO sees global food markets stabilizing on growing harvests

FAO sees global food markets stabilizing on growing harvests

Global food prices have overcome a long period of extreme volatility, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported. Bumper cereal harvests in the United States and Russia have stabilized food markets.

FAO's Food Price Index came in at 205.5 points in October, which was 5.3 percent lower than the value it posted in October 2012, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported Thursday.

The decline in global food prices was due to improved supplies and a recovery in global inventories of cereals, the Rome-based organization said.

"This relates to production increases and the expectation that, in the current season, we will have more abundant supplies, more export availabilities and higher stocks," FAO Director of Trade and Markets said in a statement.

Global food prices peaked last year after main cereals exporters such as the United States and several countries in the former Soviet Union had reported bad harvests. In addition, rising demand for so-called fuel crops caused prizes for commodities such as maize, for example, to skyrocket.

FAO also said that falling food prices this year were caused by stronger maize production in the US and record wheat harvests in post-Soviet Union countries. Bumper harvests in the two regions would lead to a 13-percent increase in world cereals stocks by the end of 2014, reaching a total of 564 million metric tons.

Declining prices in 2013 were also expected for sugar, vegetable oils and tropical beverages, while meat, fish and dairy prices remained stable, the FAO reported.

As a result, global costs for food imports this year were projected to decline by 3 percent.

uhe/rc (dpa, AFP)

Check out my new e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time