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Food technologies - processing food for safety, convenience and taste
Salting and drying are two of the earliest methods of treating foods to help preserve freshness and
improve flavor. Over the years, improved techniques for processing foods have
resulted in the expansion of our food supply by prolonging keeping times,
preventing spoilage and increasing the variety of food products available.
Extrusion - new shapes and textures
Snack foods, breakfast cereals, confectionery and even some pet
foods have been produced from a method of food processing known as extrusion. It
basically involves compressing food into a semi-solid mass, and then forcing it
through a small aperture to increase the variety of texture, shape, and color
obtainable from a basic food ingredient. The technique has given rise to
products with hitherto unknown shapes and textures. Extrusion can form and
sometimes even cook raw ingredients into finished products.
New and creative products
Snacks are one of the fastest-growing
segments of the food industry, and
extrusion is already established as a means of producing new
and creative products. Most cereals can
be extruded, and cereal-based products, such as
breads, breakfast cereals and cakes can be processed in this
way. Extrusion can also be used to make
pet foods. A particularly promising
application of extrusion is in the processing of Textured
Vegetable Protein (TVP). This is basically soya flour that
has been processed and dried to give a substance with a
sponge-like texture that may be flavored
to resemble meat. Soya beans are dehulled and their oil extracted before being ground into flour. This
flour is then mixed with water to remove soluble carbohydrate
and the residue is textured by extrusion. This involves
passing heated soya residue from a high-pressure area to a
reduced pressure area through the die,
resulting in expansion of the soya protein. It is then
dehydrated and may either be cut into small chunks or ground
into granules. With extrusion techniques
good quality meat analogues can be produced from TVP and
mycoprotein (protein obtained from fungi). TVP is also being
used in the development of some
functional foods where the potential health benefits of soya protein are sought.
Nutrigenomics
It's the meat and three veg of food
science research - three
crown research institutes and a major university have come together for a $19.2
million Government-funded research project.
Nutrigenomics is a new science which has the potential to optimize foods and food components to individuals or populations. It
recognizes that optimal dietary advice for one individual may be
inappropriate or wrong for another. Thus, it optimizes foods according
to the individual human genotype.
Ruakura riding a wave in
temperature technology
Microwave beams replace physical probes.
Celentis, the commercial arm of AgResearch, has raised
the World benchmark in
temperature monitoring of meat and boxed food products.
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