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The application of the EPCIS standard for food traceability purposes was tested in this project. The approach used is based on identification of states and events in food production and mapping these events to the EPCIS standard. During this pilot, one day catch of redfish was followed throughout the HB Grandi premises, from catch to packaged items
ready to depart. The catch was tracked by use of RFID and EPCIS software developed in this project. The EPCIS-based traceability system performed well in this pilot and opens up new possibilities for improved internal traceability presentation to other stakeholders in the value chain.
Recent activity has been in the development of quality index method (QIM) schemes suited to individual fish species. Earlier schemes did not take into account the differences among species. To do that, it is necessary to develop one scheme for each species, and the aim when developing QIM for various species is, also, to have the QI increase linearly with storage period of the fish expressed in equivalent days in ice. To develop any new scheme, QIM takes into account the inherent differences among fish species. It is necessary to have some specific knowledge about the fish species, to have on hand two tested and trained sensory panels, a facility to conduct storage experiments under standardized conditions, and to be able to make a statistical validation of the developed QIM scheme.
Food engineering refers to the engineering aspects of food production and processing. Food engineering includes, but is not limited to, the application of agricultural engineering and chemical engineering principles to food materials. Genetic engineering of plants and animals is not normally the work of a food engineer.
Food engineering is a very wide field of activities. Among its domain of knowledge and action are:
Design of machinery and processes to produce foods
Design and implementation of food safety and preservation measures in the production of foods
Biotechnological processes of food production
Choice and design of food packaging materials
Quality control of food production
This new book deals with food engineering research from around the globe.
The existence of endogenous acid proteinases in Alaska pollack surimi and their effect on mechanical properties of surimi films were investigated. The optimum pH of acid proteinases involved in the degradation of myosin heavy chain (MHC) was 3.0, and the optimum temperature was 45 ° C. The degradation of MHC was completely inhibited by pepstatin A together with any one of cysteine proteinase inhibitors, suggesting that acid proteinases present in surimi are mainly cathepsin D and cysteine proteinases. The concomitant decrease of surimi film strength with the extent of MHC degradation was observed, but surimi films were formed even when most of MHC was degraded. The main associative forces responsible for the surimi films prepared at pH 3.0 were ionic bonds and hydrophobic interactions.
The effect of heat treatment of film-forming solutions on the properties of edible surimi films was investigated. The film-forming solutions prepared at pH 3 from frozen Alaska pollack surimi were heated to 45, 70 or 100 ° C to promote unfolding of surimi protein molecules. As a result, solubility, surface hydrophobicity, and reactive SH group of surimi proteins increased. After 45 ° C -treatment, the mechanical properties, film solubility, and protein solubility of surimi films were not affected and myosin heavy chain (MHC) of surimi proteins was degraded by endogenous acid proteinases. Conversely, at higher heating temperatures (70 ° C, 100 ° C), degradation of MHC was effectively inhibited and mechanical properties were improved, while the film solubility and protein solubility of surimi films decreased. It is revealed that the prevention of MHC degradation by heat treatment could improve mechanical properties of surimi films. The optimum condition was found to be heating the film-forming solutions (pH 3) at 70 ° C for 20min.
The light microclimate of phototrophic endoliths growing within the scleractinian corals Cylindrical pores and Montipora monasteriata was described by scalar irradiance microprobe measurements within different layers of the coral skeleton. Characterization of the pigments in individual layers was done by reflectance spectroscopy with fiber-optic radiance microprobes. The spectral measurements showed the presence of an endolithic community largely comprised of the green alga Ostreobium sp. within a 1 to 2 mm thick green band 2 to 6 mm below the coral surface. Additionally, spectral signatures of cyanobacteria and anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria were detected both in the coral tissue-containing top layer and within the skeleton matrix. The light microclimate within the coral skeleton was extremely poor in visible light but enriched in far-red wavelengths. Only a fraction of the incident photosynthetically available radiation (PAR, 400 to 700 nm) penetrated the coral tissue-containing layer, where 90 to 99% of the incident irradiance was attenuated due to intense scattering and absorption. Near-infrared radiation (NIR,> 700 to 1000 nm) was mainly scattered in the tissue-skeleton matrix and penetrated much deeper into the skeleton. Multiple scattering and light-trapping effects caused high NIR scalar irradiance levels in the topmost layers of the coral. Our data show that the endolithic community in healthy corals is strongly light-limited with respect to PAR, but not with respect to NIR in shallow waters where water absorption of NIR is not limiting. Light limitation of PAR is mainly imposed by the tissue-containing part of the coral, and could thus be alleviated during coral bleaching, resulting in blooming of the phototrophic endoliths.
To examine whether there is a relationship between the degree of Campylobacter contamination observed in product lots of retail Icelandic broiler chicken carcasses and the incidence of human disease, 1,617 isolates from 327 individual product lots were genetically matched (using the flaA short variable region [SVR [) to 289 isolates from cases of human campylobacteriosis whose onset was within approximately 2 weeks from the date of processing. When there was genetic identity between broiler isolates and human isolates within the appropriate time frame, a retail product lot was classified as implicated in human disease. According to the results of this analysis, there were multiple clusters of human disease linked to the same process lot or lots. Implicated and nonimplicated retail product lots were compared for four lot descriptors: lot size, prevalence, mean contamination, and maximum contamination (as characterized by direct rinse plating). For retail product distributed fresh, Mann-Whitney U tests showed that implicated product lots had significantly (P = 0.0055) higher mean contamination than nonimplicated lots. The corresponding median values were 3.56 log CFU / carcass for implicated lots and 2.72 log CFU / carcass for nonimplicated lots. For frozen retail product, implicated lots were significantly (P = 0.0281) larger than nonimplicated lots. When the time frame was removed, retail product lots containing Campylobacter flaA SVR genotypes also seen in human disease had significantly higher mean and maximum contamination numbers than lots containing no genotypes seen in human disease for both fresh and frozen product. Our results suggest that cases of broiler-borne campylobacteriosis may occur in clusters and that the differences in mean contamination levels may provide a basis for regulatory action that is more specific than a presence-absence standard.