Search results

1 – 10 of 325
Article
Publication date: 26 November 2021

Agnieszka Dudkiewicz, William Hayes and Bukola Onarinde

The purpose of this pilot-scale study was to compare the quality of traditionally manufactured butters from local, small British producers with the quality of butters that are…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this pilot-scale study was to compare the quality of traditionally manufactured butters from local, small British producers with the quality of butters that are produced industrially.

Design/methodology/approach

Butter samples were obtained after supervised site inspections of three traditional-butter manufacturers and one large-scale butter producer. The samples were subject to initial microbiological, chemical and sensory testing, followed by a refrigerated shelf-life study over 24 weeks.

Findings

Traditional butters matched or exceeded the sensory quality of industrial butters, but spoilage microorganisms tended to grow faster on traditional butters. This seemed to be related to poorer water droplet dispersion in the manufacture of some of the traditionally made butters. Visible mould appeared on two of the traditional butters after eight weeks, but this occurred well after the nominal “best before” date.

Originality/value

Prolonged lockdowns due to the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic pose a threat to the food supply chain, and food produced by local manufacturers may become increasingly important. However, are foods produced by local small-scale manufacturers of a quality comparable to that produced using large-scale production facilities? To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no comparative study of the quality and shelf-life of traditionally-produced and industrially-produced butters. The current work presents such a comparison together with an outline of how the process of traditional butter-making differs from commercial production in Britain.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 124 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2023

Leila Nikravan, Setayesh Zamanpour and Seyyed Mohammad Ali Noori

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of postbiotics and the use of postbiotics to increase the shelf life and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of postbiotics and the use of postbiotics to increase the shelf life and quality of food.

Design/methodology/approach

In this review paper, all articles from five electronic databases containing Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct were considered and selected according to the purpose of the study.

Findings

In addition to improving food safety and increasing its shelf life, natural food preservation using biological preservatives also has a positive effect on improving consumer health. As a result, protection using natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents seems essential. Postbiotics, having favorable characteristics such as nontoxicity, long shelf life and ease of standardization and transportation, are known as suitable antioxidant and antimicrobial, and there is an interest in making antioxidant and antimicrobial active films containing postbiotics to delay spoilage, increase the shelf life of perishable foods without changing their sensory characteristics.

Originality/value

Postbiotic refers to all soluble factors that are either secreted from living probiotic cells or released after cell lysis. These compounds include enzymes, peptides, polysaccharides, organic acids, teichoic acids and cell surface proteins, and their effects have been proven to improve some human and animal diseases. Probiotic bacteria must survive unfavorable conditions such as processing, storage, distribution, preparation and the digestive system to exert their health-giving effects, whereas their metabolites (postbiotics) have overcome these adverse conditions well and may be a good substitute for probiotics.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science , vol. 54 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 June 2019

Daniela da Costa de Oliveira, Amanda Cristina Cristina Andrade, Jéssica Guimarães, Jéssica Ferreira Rodrigues, Mariana Mirelle Pereira Natividade and Sabrina Carvalho Bastos

Excessive sodium intake is associated with several diseases. Accordingly, several measures, including microparticulate salt, have been adopted to reduce the salt contents of food…

Abstract

Purpose

Excessive sodium intake is associated with several diseases. Accordingly, several measures, including microparticulate salt, have been adopted to reduce the salt contents of food products. However, no studies have reported the effectiveness of microparticulate salt in semisolid and liquid products. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the application of microparticulate salt to reduce sodium contents in semisolid products.

Design/methodology/approach

The optimal salt content to be added in butter was defined by the just-about-right-scale test. Butter samples were prepared using microparticulate salt to achieve 25, 50 and 75 per cent reductions in conventional salt concentrations. Multiple comparison tests were performed to evaluate sample taste.

Findings

The ideal concentration of conventional salt to be added to butter was 2.16 per cent. Discriminative tests showed that samples with 25 and 75 per cent salt reduction showed significant differences (p ⩽ 0.05) compared with butter prepared at the ideal salt content, whereas the sample with 50 per cent salt reduction had no significant difference (p > 0.05). Thus, microparticulate salt showed higher salting power than conventional salt. These results indicated the effectiveness of microparticulate salt in the preparation of semisolid products with sodium reduction.

Research limitations/implications

More detailed studies about the reduced-sodium butter shelf life are necessary to verify the microparticulate salt application in the product preparation. Moreover, microparticulate salt application in semisolid and liquid products elaboration must be more investigated to better elucidate its practicability of reducing sodium content in these kinds of products. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

Practical implications

Microparticulate salt has been successfully applied to reduce sodium in solid products, being added to the finished product surface. However, there are no studies that report its effectiveness in semisolid and liquid products, such as the butter, in which the salt is added during the product preparation. Thus, this research provides new scientific information to the food industry and research fields, to expand the knowledge of reduced-sodium products development using microparticulate salt with sensory quality.

Originality/value

No studies have evaluated the application of microparticulate salt for semisolid product preparation. Therefore, the findings will support the development of healthy products.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 121 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1975

The findings of the Steering Group on Food Freshness in relation to the compulsory date marking of food contained in their Report, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, has brought…

Abstract

The findings of the Steering Group on Food Freshness in relation to the compulsory date marking of food contained in their Report, reviewed elsewhere in this issue, has brought within measurable distance the Regulations which were, in any case, promised for1975. The Group consider that the extension of voluntary open date marking systems will not be sufficiently rapid (or sufficiently comprehensive) to avoid the need or justify the delay in introducing legislation.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 77 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1974

Millions of the British people have for some years now been struggling valiantly to live with hard times, watching them day by day grow worse but always hopefully that the cloud…

Abstract

Millions of the British people have for some years now been struggling valiantly to live with hard times, watching them day by day grow worse but always hopefully that the cloud had a silver lining; that one day, reason and a sense of direction would prevail. Tyranny in many forms is a feature of history; the greatest epics have been risings of ordinary people to overthrow it. The modern form of tyranny is that of Money; the cruel and sinister ways in which it can be obtained and employed and the ineffectiveness of any measures taken to control the evils which result. Money savings over the years and the proverbial bank book, once the sure safeguard of ordinary people, are whittled away in value, never to recover. Causes always seemed to be contained within the country's own economy and industrial practices, and to this extent should have been possible of control. The complex and elaborate systems constructed by the last Government were at least intended for the purpose, but each attempt to curb excessive demands for more money, more and more for doing less and less— the nucleus of inflation—produced extreme reactions, termed collectively “industrial strife”. Every demand met without compensatory returns in increased work, inevitably led to rises in prices, felt most keenly in the field of food and consumer goods. What else would be expected from such a situation?

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 76 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1967

The analyses of trends in prosecutions under the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and the various regulations, which we have prepared every two years or so, covering a three‐month period…

Abstract

The analyses of trends in prosecutions under the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and the various regulations, which we have prepared every two years or so, covering a three‐month period, have been so much appreciated by readers, both in the administration and the industry itself, that we have prepared a more extended survey, covering the whole of 1966. The survey, as before, takes the form of a month‐by‐month analysis of reports of legal proceedings received by us from all parts of the country, and as formerly records the prosecutions under similar groupings; cases under Section 2, subdivided into those relating to compositional offences, the presence of foreign bodies and those relating to mouldy food: false description cases under Section 6 of the Merchandise Marks Acts; Section 8, the unfit food provision, also subdivided with special categories for foreign bodies and mouldy food; Section 32, milk cases; cases under the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1960, with smoking offences separated; the Milk and Dairies Regulations, consisting almost entirely of prosecutions under Reg. 27, Meat Regulations, Preservative Regulations, Colouring Matter in Food Regulations, etc.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 69 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1967

Before this great innovation assaults the long‐suffering British public in mind and matter, in the retailer's cash register and the spender's pocket, a brief comparison between…

Abstract

Before this great innovation assaults the long‐suffering British public in mind and matter, in the retailer's cash register and the spender's pocket, a brief comparison between the present coinage and the promised decimal one might not be amiss. The £sd system has its faults and understandably is difficult for the foreigner, but no more so than the language and the weather. Like many things British it is so haphazard: why should there be 240 pennies to the pound? Why 12 pennies to the shilling? One thing, however, about this awkward currency is that it is amazingly well‐adapted to price variations at the lower level, and most commodities are in this range. Whether prices have adapted themselves to the flexibility of the coinage or the other way round is immaterial but the centuries have well and truly married the two. As a lowly coin such as the farthing has ceased to have commercial use with the falling value of money, it has disappeared and its place has been taken by the next larger, the halfpenny and then by the penny, and this must surely be the one great advantage of the £sd system.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 69 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1975

Natural selection—survival of the fittest—is as old as life itself. Applied genetics which is purposeful in contrast to natural selection also has a long history, particularly in…

Abstract

Natural selection—survival of the fittest—is as old as life itself. Applied genetics which is purposeful in contrast to natural selection also has a long history, particularly in agriculture; it has received impetus from the more exacting demands of the food industry for animal breeds with higher lean : fat and meat : bone ratios, for crops resistant to the teeming world of parasites. Capturing the exquisite scent, the colours and form beautiful of a rose is in effect applied genetics and it has even been applied to man. For example, Frederick the Great, Emperor of Prussia, to maintain a supply of very tall men for his guards—his Prussian Guards averaged seven feet in height—ordered them to marry very tall women to produce offspring carrying the genes of great height. In recent times, however, research and experiment in genetic control, more in the nature of active interference with genetic composition, has developed sufficiently to begin yielding results. It is self‐evident that in the field of micro‐organisms, active interference or manipulations will produce greater knowledge and understanding of the gene actions than in any other field or by any other techniques. The phenomenon of “transferred drug resistance”, the multi‐factorial resistance, of a chemical nature, transferred from one species of micro‐organisms to another, from animal to human pathogens, its role in mainly intestinal pathology and the serious hazards which have arisen from it; all this has led to an intensive study of plasmids and their mode of transmission. The work of the Agricultural Research Council's biologists (reported elsewhere in this issue) in relation to nitrogen‐fixing genes and transfer from one organism able to fix nitrogen to another not previously having this ability, illustrates the extreme importance of this new field. Disease susceptibility, the inhibition of invasiveness which can be acquired by relatively “silent” micro‐organisms, a better understanding of virulence and the possible “disarming” of organisms, particularly those of particular virulence to vulnerable groups. Perhaps this is looking for too much too soon, but Escherichia coli would seem to offer more scope for genetic experiments than most; it has serotypes of much variability and viability; and its life and labours in the human intestine have assumed considerable importance in recent years. The virulence of a few of its serotypes constitute an important field in food epidemiology. Their capacity to transfer plasmids—anent transfer of drug resistance— to strains of other organisms resident in the intestines, emphasizes the need for close study, with safeguards.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 77 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1976

In the period before Britain entered the European Community and again at the Labour Government's referendum, one factor which caused most concern in both those in favour and those…

Abstract

In the period before Britain entered the European Community and again at the Labour Government's referendum, one factor which caused most concern in both those in favour and those against entry, was the possible loss of sovereignty by the Houses of Parliament to a supra‐national body. That there would be some loss was accepted but fears that it would be anything more than minimal were discounted, and not enough to affect the lives of ordinary people. Far‐reaching changes required by some of the EEC food directives and regulations, which even if held in abeyance for the usual transitional period will have to be implemented eventually, must be causing many to have second thoughts on this. If more were needed, the embarassing situation at the recent energy conference, at which Britain, as a major oil producer, demanded a separate seat, but had to submit to the overall authority of the Community, the other members of which, figuratively, do not produce a gallon of oil between them. A shift of power from Whitehall to Brussels may not be so evident at higher levels of government, however, as in secondary legislation; the language of the departments of government.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 78 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2010

Preeti Singh and Gyanendra Kumar Goyal

Consumer's demand for fresh, naturally preserved, food products has grown dramatically in recent years. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has proved to be most innovative growth…

Abstract

Purpose

Consumer's demand for fresh, naturally preserved, food products has grown dramatically in recent years. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has proved to be most innovative growth area in food packaging. Studies have been conducted to increase the shelf life of ready‐to‐bake pizza by using MAP technique. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of different modified atmospheres and refrigerated storage on the sensory characteristics of the ready‐to‐bake (unbaked) pizza.

Design/methodology/approach

The most up‐to‐date and pertinent studies within the literature have been included and summated in this paper.

Findings

To determine the shelf life of MAP ready‐to‐bake pizza, the samples were subjected to four types of atmospheres (air, 100 per cent CO2, 100 per cent N2 and 50 per cent CO2/50 per cent N2) and stored for various time intervals at 7 ± 1 C. The shelf life of ready‐to‐bake pizza significantly increased up to 15 days (a 300 per cent increase) for the samples packaged under 100 per cent CO2 (atm 2), 50 per cent CO2/50 per cent N2 (atm 4) and 100 per cent N2 (atm 3), compared to conventional air pack (five days).

Originality/value

This paper gives a concise, up‐to‐date overview on how different gases affect the various sensory parameters of ready‐to‐bake‐pizza.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 40 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

1 – 10 of 325