Quality and Safety Aspects of Infant Nutrition

Quality and safety aspects of infant nutrition are of key importance for child health, but oftentimes they do not get much attention by health care professionals whose interest tends to focus on functional benefits of early nutrition. Unbalanced diets and harmful food components induce particularly high risks for untoward effects in infants because of their rapid growth, high nutrient needs, and their typical dependence on only one or few foods during the first months of life. The concepts, standards and practices that relate to infant food quality and safety were discussed at a scientific workshop organized by the Child Health Foundation and the Early Nutrition Academy jointly with the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and a summary is provided here. The participants reviewed past and current issues on quality and safety, the role of different stakeholders, and recommendations to avert future issues. It was concluded that a high level of quality and safety is currently achieved, but this is no reason for complacency. The food industry carries the primary responsibility for the safety and suitability of their products, including the quality of composition, raw materials and production processes. Introduction of new or modified products should be preceded by a thorough science based review of suitability and safety by an independent authority. Food safety events should be managed on an international basis. Global collaboration of food producers, food-safety authorities, paediatricians and scientists is needed to efficiently exchange information and to best protect public health. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Biomass in the manufacture of industrial products—the use of proteins and amino acids

The depletion in fossil feedstocks, increasing oil prices, and the ecological problems associated with CO2 emissions are forcing the development of alternative resources for energy, transport fuels, and chemicals: the replacement of fossil resources with CO2 neutral biomass. Allied with this, the conversion of crude oil products utilizes primary products (ethylene, etc.) and their conversion to either materials or (functional) chemicals with the aid of co-reagents such as ammonia and various process steps to introduce functionalities such as -NH2 into the simple structures of the primary products. Conversely, many products found in biomass often contain functionalities. Therefore, it is attractive to exploit this to bypass the use, and preparation of, co-reagents as well as eliminating various process steps by utilizing suitable biomass-based precursors for the production of chemicals. It is the aim of this mini-review to describe the scope of the possibilities to generate current functionalized chemical materials using amino acids from biomass instead of fossil resources, thereby taking advantage of the biomass structure in a more efficient way than solely utilizing biomass for the production of fuels or electricity

Contamination Of Fried Foods By 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol Fatty Acid Esters During Frying

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)In the present work, different foods including banana, potato, cassava, onion, garlic, polenta, rice balls and beef patties were investigated in relation to the possible endogenous formation of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol fatty acid esters (bound 3-MCPD) and carry-over of these contaminants from the oil due to fat uptake during frying. For that, the samples were fried in two different types of oil and bound 3-MCPD was determined by using an indirect method based on acid transesterification and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry analysis. The compounds were not detected in the fried foods when corn oil containing non-significant levels of bound 3-MCPD (< 0.05 mg kg(-1)) was used, indicating no endogenous formation during frying. On the other hand, when the same foods were fried in palm oil containing 1.64 mg kg(-1) of bound 3-MCPD, the mean concentrations ranged from 0.12 to 0.25 mg kg(-1), indicating a clear carry-over of the contaminants. In this case, a good correlation was observed between the levels of the compounds in fried samples and water loss/fat uptake.943449455Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2011/08936-0, 2011/19043-6]Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP