A paper published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety explored the physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of sheep milk and development of sheep milk dairy products containing prebiotics and/or probiotics.
Edward Hirschberg, President of Innovative Foods and recipient of the Institute of Food Technologists’ 2016 Babcock-Hart Award for his many contributions to food processing, shared some potential solutions to many of the world’s food waste problems in the January issue of Food Technology magazine.
It is of interest, not only because it is a staple crop in Sub-Saharan Africa, but because grain sorghum yields have been flat or declining due to the lack of sufficient investment in the development of new improved varieties. Sorghum is very resilient to drought and heat stress. Natural genetic diversity in sorghum makes it a promising system for identifying stress-resistance mechanisms in grasses that may have been lost during the domestication of related cereal crops. It is among the most efficient crops in conversion of solar energy and use of water, making it an ideal crop to target for improvement to meet the predicted doubling of global food demand by 2050.
If water rates continue rising at projected amounts, the number of U.S. households unable to afford water could triple in five years, to nearly 36 percent, finds new research by a Michigan State University scholar.
Whether producing new types of power or cleaning old waste sites, the reaction between water and positively charged particles from acids is crucial. To gain insight, scientists isolated certain structures of a proton being surrounded by an increasing number of water molecules.
A new material, called "rewritable magnetic charge ice," has an unprecedented degree of control over local magnetic fields. This material has write-read-erase capabilities at room temperature, which may have implications for new computing technologies.
A common species of zooplankton—the smallest animals in the freshwater food web—can evolve genetic tolerance to moderate levels of road salt in as little as two and a half months, according to new research published online today in the journal Environmental Pollution.
Irvine, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 – Last year, as media coverage of Flint, Michigan’s lead-in-water crisis developed, a cautionary tale emerged about the repercussions of cost-saving infrastructure changes and lax governmental oversight, and their disproportionate effect on impoverished communities.It began in April 2014 when the city of Flint canceled its contract with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department and began buying water from the Flint River as an interim supply, with the ultimate goal of sourcing water from Lake Huron through the Karegnondi Water Authority.
New research conducted by the University of Adelaide shows there is no greater risk of Salmonella contamination in the production of free range eggs in Australia due to hot summer weather, compared with other seasons.
The wait is over for parents who’ve been wanting to know how and when to introduce peanut-containing foods to their infants to prevent peanut allergy. New, updated guidelines define high, moderate and low-risk infants for developing peanut allergy, and how to proceed with introduction based on risk.
The January 9, 2014 Freedom Industries’ storage facility leak in Charleston, WV released a little-known chemical into rivers, threatening human and the environmental health. How can we be better prepared?
Diners waste far less food when they’re schooled on the harm their leftovers can inflict on the environment. But if they know the food is going to be composted instead of dumped in a landfill, the educational benefit disappears.
Understanding how the nervous system of the roundworm C elegans works will give insights into how our vastly more complex brains function and is the subject of a paper in Nature Methods.
Researchers are uncovering the genome of cowpeas, also known as black-eyed peas, in response to challenging growing conditions and the need for food security.
Celebrity chefs are cooking up poor food safety habits, according to a Kansas State University study. Kansas State University food safety experts Edgar Chambers IV and Curtis Maughan, along with Tennessee State University's Sandria Godwin, recently published "Food safety behaviors observed in celebrity chefs across a variety of programs" in the Journal of Public Health.
An international team of scientists analyzed grain production in 10 sub-Saharan countries. Although farmers in the region could quadruple production by optimizing plant and soil management, yields still would fall short of demand.
Pressure, temperature and fluid composition play an important role in the amount of metals and other chemicals found in wastewaters from hydraulically fractured gas reservoirs, according to Penn State researchers.
A Michigan State University research team is the first to show how a common bacterium found in improperly cooked chicken causes Guillain-Barre Syndrome, or GBS. The federally funded research, now published in the Journal of Autoimmunity, not only demonstrates how this food-borne bacterium, known as Campylobacter jejuni, triggers GBS, but offers new information for a cure.
Dairy scientists are evaluating integrating sprouted barley grown indoors without soil, known are hydroponic feed, into the diets of dairy heifers and lactating cows.
Miranda Klugesherz, graduate student in communication studies, will research global solutions to food insecurity through the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, a national, competitive scholarship program of the US-Ireland Alliance.
Water conducts electricity, but the process by which this familiar fluid passes along positive charges has puzzled scientists for decades. But in a paper published in the Dec. 2 in issue of the journal Science, an international team of researchers has finally caught water in the act — showing how water molecules pass along excess charges and, in the process, conduct electricity.
One year ago ProMedica opened a full-service grocery market in an area of Toledo that was labeled a food desert due to the lack of grocery stores and healthy food providers. Today leaders from ProMedica announced plans to expand its services beyond the grocery market to offer a variety of community programs including cooking and nutrition classes, health screenings, financial counseling and job training.
According to philanthropist and business community leader Russell Ebeid, ProMedica is "writing a new chapter in the way healthcare systems collaborate with neighborhoods and communities to improve health."
Kansas State University researchers have discovered the secret ingredient to improving kitchen food safety: include hand-washing reminders and meat thermometer instructions in published recipes.
Respondents to a UF/IFAS online survey of 3,000 homeowners in Florida, Texas and California said reducing the price of water-efficient equipment would be the most effective strategy. That was followed by more practical information on household water conservation, easier identification of water-efficient appliances and better landscape irrigation ordinances.
A new testing methodology based on metagenomics could accelerate the diagnosis of foodborne bacterial outbreaks, allowing public health officials to identify the microbial culprits in less than a day.
Motivated by public hazards associated with contaminated sources of drinking water, a team of scientists has successfully developed and tested tiny, glowing crystals that can detect and trap heavy-metal toxins like mercury and lead.
With our planet’s population estimated to reach more than 9 billion by 2050, the world faces many pressing food demands. In order to help food scientists and technologists meet these challenges, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) are excited to announce a new joint-membership program.
When you were a kid, you might have heard a parent or sibling cite the “five-second rule” before swooping down on a piece of fugitive salami or a wayward grape. The basic premise is that once food is dropped on the floor you have a time limit of five seconds before it becomes unsafe to eat. The problem with the theory, according to microbial ecologist Jack Gilbert, is that it simply isn’t true.
“You may not notice the ways someone conserves, but they may already be taking action to not waste water by using good irrigation practices, and they may be open to some new ideas if you strike up a conversation about how you save water in the home landscape,” said Laura Warner, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of agricultural education and communications.
Beans are a versatile, inexpensive staple that can boost essential nutrients in a diet, especially for people in low-resource areas where food options are limited. To get the most out of these legumes, new research suggests choosing fast-cooking dry beans could be the way to go. A study in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that fast-cooking beans retained more protein, iron and other minerals than “slower” dry beans.
For the first time, researchers have created light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on lightweight flexible metal foil. Engineers at The Ohio State University are developing the foil based LEDs for portable ultraviolet (UV) lights that soldiers and others can use to purify drinking water and sterilize medical equipment.
As the new Daniel M. Soref Senior Water Policy Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, bestselling author Seth M. Siegel will focus on freshwater resources in the United States. His book “Let There Be Water” established him as an expert on Israel’s response to water scarcity.
The Freshwater Lab, a University of Illinois at Chicago-based environmental research and policy center, will host a Great Lakes mayoral summit in 2017 to address the region's basin issues, water, energy and natural resources.
Television cooking shows are an important resource for home cooks, but if these shows fail to model recommended food safety measures, it may lead to poor practices among consumers. Therefore, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst devised a study to assess food safety on television food shows and determine whether they present positive or negative models for viewers.
A University of Washington study is the first to broadly examine the ecological and financial impacts of seafood mislabeling. The paper, published online Nov. 2 in Conservation Letters, finds that in most cases, mislabeling actually leads people to eat more sustainably, because the substituted fish is often more plentiful and of a better conservation status than the fish on the label.
Emulsifiers, which are added to most processed foods to aid texture and extend shelf life, can alter intestinal bacteria in a manner that promotes intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer, according to a new study.
The real issue, as assistant professor Joy Rumble found in her newly published study, is that few Floridians bother to find out the safest ways to prevent food-borne illnesses. And it’s not that they don’t care, said Rumble, an assistant professor in agricultural education and communication. “They’ve just never had a reason to care. They don’t know they are doing something wrong, or they’ve never knowingly gotten sick from something they made.”
A University of Delaware study suggests people prefer conservation as a way to protect drinking water. The study found that when given the choice, people prefer to invest their money in conservation, such as protecting key areas of a watershed—also referred to as green infrastructure—than traditional water treatment plants—also referred to as gray infrastructure.
When researchers try to uncover the cause of disease, they commonly start with two questions: Did a quirk in the patient’s genes open the door to illness, or did exposure to environmental factors play havoc with the patient’s health?