Analyse du risque posé en santé animale par la présence de l'hydroxyméthylfurfural dans les sirops de nourrissement des abeilles domestiques

This paper discusses an incident that occurred in Belgium during winter 2009-2010, after which many honey bee colonies have been lost. Later analyses showed that these colonies had been fed during the winter with a inverted sugar syrup from sugar beet which had a high concentration of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). HMF concentrations ranged from 18.8 ppm to 365.6 ppm. Data from the scientific literature are quite limited, but several authors confirm the harmful effect of HMF on honey bee health. Other elements, however, may have played a role in this apparent mortality such as crystallization of syrups, resulting in unavailability of sugar for the honey bees, and thus the death of them from starvation. Pending the acquisition of new scientific knowledge on the subject, it is recommended to follow good beekeeping practices detailed in this article to minimize the formation of HMF in syrups for honey bee feeding. In addition, a draft action limit corresponding to a maximal concentration of 40 ppm of HMF is proposed in order to control the risk at the producer and distributor of syrups for honey bee feeding level

Effect of storage temperature, time, dissolved oxygen and packaging materials on the quality of aseptically filled orange juice.

The interaction effects of beverage packaging materials (laminated cartons, high density polyethylene packs (HDPE), polyethylene-terephthalate (PET), and glass ) on the quality and shelf life of commercially prepared orange juice were evaluated at two temperatures (4 and 24ºC) during 60 days of storage. Browning, loss of ascorbic acid, dissolved oxygen and absorbed d-limonene into packs or retained in juice were used as indicators for juice quality. The extent of browning and loss of ascorbic acid were found to be higher in HDPE packs than in cartons and lowest in PET and glass. The ascorbic cid content and rate of browning were significantly affected by the level of dissolved oxygen in the juice. The content of d-limonene in juice stored in HDPE packs and cartons was reduced by 33.6% and 21%, respectively, compared with 11% and 9.1% for PET and glass after 15 days of storage at 24ºC. The reduction of d-limonene content in juice was related to the absorption rate of each type of package. Absorption of d-limonene was greater in HDPE packs (5.3 mg dm[-2] and cartons (4.2 mg dm[-2]) than in PET (0.26 mg dm[-2]. The conditions which lead to the change in the quality of juice are discussed

Top-spray fluidized bed coating: effect of process variables on coating efficiency

The effects of several process variables on the coating efficiency of top-spray fluidized bed coating were evaluated. Sodium chloride crystals were coated with protein concentrates as a model system in a laboratory top-spray fluidized bed unit. It was established that a higher coating mass of sodium caseinate is obtained at a lower average particle size and that the highest coating mass is obtained at a critical inlet air temperature of approximately 74 degrees C. The nozzle atomization pressure was demonstrated to act as more than a droplet size influencing factor: The highest coating efficiency of sodium caseinate was achieved at a high atomization pressure, the latter having the combined effect of producing smaller droplets with a higher velocity and decreasing the bed temperature. The functional and compositional properties of protein concentrates clearly influence the coating efficiency when these products are used as a coating material in a top-spray fluid-bed process as was observed in studies using sodium, caseinate, lysozyme and blood plasma concentrate. In conclusion, coating losses may be drastically reduced by choosing appropriate processing conditions